NW Montana filmmaker: Wildlife hunting pays for its own future

Wildlife filmmaker Tom Opre of Whitefish believes humans must see real value in wildlife before they will work to conserve and shepherd it into the future.

“The world’s wildlife populations are facing a huge threat to their very survival — the human population tsunami,” Opre said.

Opre’s first feature-length documentary, “Killing the Shepherd,” is an effort to demonstrate the value of wildlife conservation, and hunting, for communities throughout the world. The film was part of the lineup at FLIC 2021, the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest, held in late January at Showboat Stadium 6 in Polson.

Opre has produced, directed and filmed commercials and award-winning nature shows for 30 years. After seeing firsthand the rapid worldwide decline of wildlife populations and habitats as the human population explodes, he has made it his mission to help reconnect modern society with the natural world.

“Society's disconnect with nature has resulted in a limited understanding of how human encroachment is destroying wild places and the creatures who live in them,” he said.

“Killing the Shepherd” documents how recent efforts by the Soli people of Zambia to lift themselves out of desperate poverty directly depend on restoring their once abundant wildlife.

Zambia leases vast areas, known as Game Management Areas (GMAs), to safari companies, typically for seven to 10 years. The safari operators are a source of income for local people, and work to safeguard against poaching. But country-wide safari hunting closures in 1987, 2001 and 2002 caused abandonment of anti-poaching enforcement. Illegal wildlife poaching surged.

By the mid-2000s, the Zambian government had declared the Lower Luano, homeland of the Soli for over 500 years, “depleted” of wildlife. Without the abundant wildlife of the past, there was little incentive for new safari operators to come in, precipitating a downward spiral of poverty, disease, alcoholism and starvation, to the desperate point where young girls were sold as child brides just to feed a family for a year.

Shikabeta, the highly respected Soli Chieftainess, turned to a man she trusted to help. Roland Norton had been raised with an appreciation for Africa’s wildlife and the Luano area. After retiring from another business, he was interested in becoming a safari operator, but the devastated wildlife populations made that impossible in the short term. The two parties recognized that a long-term effort to combat illegal poaching and restore huntable populations of game could revitalize the economy and environment for the mutual benefit of all.

The film documents how Norton, his son, Alister, and their families have been working with the Soli people since 2015. Though acknowledging that their safari business, Makasa Safaris Zambia, would not generate income for several years, the Nortons made the community’s restorative efforts their life’s work.

Makasa hired, armed and trained a cadre of game scouts, some of them former poachers themselves, to tackle the poaching problem. This included dangerous patrols, raids and arrests, confiscation of illegal rifles, handmade muzzleloaders and shotguns, and wire snares that were ubiquitous throughout the GMA.

For three years, sometimes at great physical risk while embedded with anti-poaching units, Opre and his camera witnessed the beginnings of a remarkable turnaround of fortunes and potentials in the Lower Luano. While poaching decreased an estimated 80%, populations of animals from antelope and cape buffalo to lions and leopards are rebounding more quickly than expected. There are even signs of elephants, gone from the area for years, beginning to return.

Anti-poaching enforcement eliminated bushmeat as a food source for an already hungry population. Makasa brought in urgently needed food and corn seed, and developed a solar-powered fish farm, as a food source and to restock the depleted fish stocks in the river. Other donors built schools and contributed medical supplies. Transportation networks grew, and as a sign of growing stability, even soccer teams were formed.

Women began twisting wire, from snares confiscated by game scouts, into bracelets. These are sold by Opre’s nonprofit Shepherds of Wildlife Society to fund no-interest “soft loans'' that enable women to start their own businesses.

Because of the Nortons’ financial and personal commitment to the effort to assist the community, Zambia National Parks agreed to an unprecedented 20-year tenure for Makasa Safaris, with an automatic five-year extension if they want it. The chief and royal council were so happy, they agreed to a 99-year lease for about 40 acres under the fish farm, and another 40 acres for a permanent safari camp.

Perhaps counterintuitive for some, Opre said the Luano restoration project demonstrates that legal hunting for trophies and meat is a key to helping recover healthy wildlife populations and sustain the human communities that depend on them. International efforts to ban the import of trophy wildlife are extremely counterproductive, he said.

“It’s the wise use of a renewable natural resource,” Opre said. “In geographically remote areas of the world, consumptive tourism is fundamental in providing financial value for indigenous communities through their wildlife.”

In the Luano case, he said, “wildlife creates financial value, which in turn pays for the protection and conservation of entire ecosystems.” It also serves as a safeguard against disease, child exploitation, poverty, starvation and even terrorism, he said.

“We are not conserving for nothing,” Shikabeta says in the film. “We are conserving to see a better change for our future.”

One game scout featured in the film agreed.

“If the animal population grows and we don’t see the benefit, what’s the point?” he said.

“This is a variant of the model that has worked so well in North America,” Opre said. Since the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club in 1887, hunters have become a major force for conserving wildlife. Taxes and fees collected from legal hunting and fishing, as well as from sales of guns, ammunition and tackle, have helped establish, fund and advocate for all 50 states’ fish and game departments, with science-based wildlife conservation practices, habitat restoration, anti-poaching law enforcement and public lands access. Those who hunt wildlife or earn from it appreciate it enough to work to protect it.

“No wildlife species that is legally hunted has ever gone extinct,” Opre said. “It’s the greatest story that’s never been told.”

Opre is executive director of the Shepherds of Wildlife Society, which brings together scientists, naturalists, wildlife biologists, government officials, filmmakers, artists and wildlife photographers to educate the public across the globe about the importance of wildlife conservation. The team has created several multimedia projects, including “Rocky Mountain Goat,” “Grizzly Bear,” “Marco Polo Sheep,” “Rocky Mountain Mule Deer,” and a Merriam’s Wild Turkey project with the National Wild Turkey Federation.

One of Opre’s next planned films will document attempts in India to resolve the conflict between humans and wild leopards and tigers, as thousands of people are eaten by the endangered cats that are losing other prey sources.

“Killing the Shepherd'' was a finalist for the FLIC 2021 Audience Award. Even early in the 2021 film festival season, it has received several awards, including Best Feature Documentary, Best Director, Cinematography, and a “Culture Perspective Award.” The film will show at film festivals worldwide throughout the year.

Learn more by visiting Killing the Shepherd and Shepherds of Wildlife Society on Facebook and shepherdsofwildlife.org.