IS TROPHY hunting the way to save dwindling populations of African lions? That鈥檚 the question on the table for delegates to the World Conservation Union鈥檚 (IUCN) meeting in Johannesburg on 8 January when they will try to agree on the first ever pan-African lion conservation strategy. But countries that oppose hunting, notably Kenya, are sure to raise bitter objections to the proposal.
Until a few years ago lion populations were assumed to be doing well. But two studies in 2002 and 2004 revealed an unexpected population crash in the last two decades, with numbers dropping by as much as 50 per cent in some regions (快猫短视频, 20 September 2003, p 36). The problem stems from huge increases in the human population in many African 鈥渞ange states鈥� where lions are naturally found, such as Cameroon and Senegal.
Laurence Frank, a wildlife biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, says local people need an incentive not to poison or shoot lions, which they view as a nuisance. Sustainable hunting would be that incentive, he says, bringing money into a country. In Tanzania, for example, tourists may spend up to $75,000 to shoot a lion.
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鈥淧ersonally I鈥檓 totally opposed to trophy hunting,鈥� says Will Travers, director of UK conservation charity, the Born Free foundation. He says Kenya banned it in the 1970s because it seemed to be having a significant impact on wildlife populations. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 accept that it might be the only way forwards.鈥�
But some scientists insist that controlled hunting, carried out only where populations are sustainable, is a necessary step. 鈥淏y no stretch of the imagination is trophy hunting responsible for the situation that lions are in,鈥� says Frank. 鈥淧articularly in Kenya we have seen a total collapse in lion populations in the absence of hunting or trade.鈥� He says the real culprit is industrial-scale poaching both of lions and their prey, caused by the human population explosion.
The controversial strategy would also incorporate a radical shift in wildlife management by establishing lion conservation 鈥渦nits鈥� as parks for sustainable hunting. These units would be sited according to where lions actually are rather than where people think they ought to be.
Within these units conservationists would try to curb land encroachment and encourage livestock husbandry practices that have been shown to reduce conflict between lions and humans.
Negotiations covering range states in western and central Africa took place in Cameroon in October. Participating countries agreed that hunting should only occur in sustainable conservation units. Government representatives and other delegates are meeting in Johannesburg to thrash out similar regional strategies for eastern and southern Africa. The aim is to end up with a consensus, says Kristin Nowell of the IUCN鈥檚 cat specialist group, to make sure that only sustainable hunting is carried out.
But a consensus may be a tall order given Kenya鈥檚 historical objections to hunting. As recently as 2004 Kenya proposed including lions on a list of species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Things are likely to get ugly, says Nowell.
