wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  PlanetArk 17 Jan 06
Conservationists Agree Steps to Save African Lion
Story by Ed Stoddard

IUCN 13 Jan 06
Saving the Pride of Africa: African Governments Pull Together to Conserve their Lions

Johannesburg, South Africa (IUCN) – A new strategy to save the King of Beasts, the African Lion in eastern and southern Africa, was agreed at the conclusion of a workshop convened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Johannesburg, South Africa. Stakeholders from range state governments, local community representatives, lion biologists and safari hunters attended the meeting.

The meeting concluded that the reduction in the lion’s wild prey base, human-lion conflicts and habitat degradation are the major reasons for declining lion populations and need to be addressed.

Regulated trophy hunting was not considered a threat, but rather viewed as a way to help alleviate human-lion conflict and generate economic benefits for poor people to build their support for lion conservation.

‘Africans know how to live together with lions; they have been doing so for a very long time,’ said Dr. James Murombedzi, the Director of the World Conservation Union’s regional office based in Zimbabwe.

The new lion conservation strategy aims to strengthen the chances for future peaceful co-existence between lions and people.

Over the past 20 years, lion numbers are suspected to have dropped dramatically from an estimated 76,000 to a population estimated to be between 23,000 and 39,000 today.

Across Africa, the lion has disappeared from over 80 percent of its former range.

“We don’t want this century to be a repeat of the last,” said Kristin Nowell, a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Cat Specialist Group, who helped organize the workshop.

The African lion is classified as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a continuing decline in the species’ population. In west Africa, lions number fewer than 1,500 and meet the criteria for “Regionally Endangered”.

So what will Southern and Eastern Africa do to save the lion? Governments, biologists, and other professionals agreed to focus on: enabling policy, legal and institutional frameworks for wildlife-integrated land use; reducing human-lion conflict; preventing illegal trade in lions and lion products; improving scientifically sound management of the lion; developing management capacity; and creating incentives to build stronger community support for lion conservation.

Emerging from the workshop is a better understanding of the current status and range of the African lion, including "Lion Conservation Units," or areas identified as being of top importance for lion conservation.

In addition, there is increased consensus on and political commitment to the management actions necessary to conserve lion populations over the next 10 years.

The Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Mr. Julius Kipng’etich concluded that the workshop had helped build consensus around the issues and solutions. “It helped us to understand where other people are coming from - different backgrounds, different philosophies. But at the end of the day, we boiled it down to one main problem: unsustainable lion populations.”

The Director concluded that the workshop provides a solid basis for bringing Africa together to conserve the lion. “The result is that lion management has a high chance of success in the future.”

The workshop is linked to an earlier meeting on lions in West and Central Africa which took place in Douala, Cameroon in October last year. Results from the west and central Africa workshop and this week’s southern and eastern Africa workshop will be combined into a continental lion conservation strategy. This will help guide both national governments and the international conservation community by ensuring that investment in lion conservation is targeted most effectively.

The workshops were organized by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) at the invitation of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The initiative was generously sponsored by the UK government’s Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Safari Club International Foundation, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

PlanetArk 17 Jan 06
Conservationists Agree Steps to Save African Lion
Story by Ed Stoddard

JOHANNESBURG - Regional governments and conservationists have agreed on initial steps that need to be taken to save the African lion, which has been pushed to the brink of extinction throughout much of its range.

The strategies were worked out at a workshop on lions in east and southern Africa which wrapped up at the weekend. "...the reduction in the lion's wild prey base, human-lion conflicts and habitat degradation are the major reasons for declining lion populations and need to be addressed," the World Conservation Union, one of the workshop's organisers, said in a statement on Monday.

Government officials, local community representatives, lion biologists and safari hunters attended the meeting.

"Regulated trophy hunting was not considered a threat, but rather viewed as a way to help alleviate human-lion conflict and generate economic benefits for poor people to build their support for lion conservation," the statement said.

Trophy hunting of lions already takes place in several African states including South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. But expanding these lucrative operations to other states is bound to be opposed by animal welfare groups which view hunting as cruel.

With its iconic status as "King of the Beasts," the hunting of the lion is an emotive issue sure to stir controversy, even if it does generate revenue for poor rural communities from licensing fees and jobs created.

Other strategies agreed on at the meeting include: action to prevent the illegal trade in lions and lion products; developing management capacity; and creating economic incentives for poor rural folk to live close to lions.

The lion's overall situation is dire in the face of swelling human populations on the world's poorest continent. "Over the past 20 years, lion numbers are suspected to have dropped dramatically from an estimated 76,000 to a population estimated to be between 23,000 and 39,000 today. Across Africa, the lion has disappeared from over 80 percent of its former range," the World Conservation Union said.

In West Africa lions number fewer than 1,500. Conflict between humans and lions is a huge problem with attacks on people by man-eaters on the rise in Tanzania and Mozambique.
links
Related articles on Big cats
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com