IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| MacDonald, D.W. | |
| Report on lion conservation with particular respect to the issue of trophy hunting | |
| 2016 Full Book | |
This is a scientific report about one aspect of the conservation of wildlife and, specifically, of lions in Africa. That aspect is the trophy hunting of wild lions, and the remit is to evaluate evidence that trophy hunting has, or could, impact on the distribution and abundance of lions for better or worse in terms of their conservation. Other considerations beyond this, most obviously ethics, are relevant to society's decisions on whether hunting lions for trophies is an acceptable activity. These other considerations are very important, and potentially decisive, but they are not the remit of this report. Indeed, those who have contributed to this report have done so strictly from a position of professional neutrality that is neither pro- nor anti-hunting, although they are united in being pro good evidence and anti bad management of lion populations. The question of whether trophy hunting of lions harms or benefits lion conservation has become important and topical because lion numbers are declining fast and because the allegedly illegal hunting in Zimbabwe in 2015 of a lion nicknamed Cecil has focused unprecedented international attention on the issue. It has also revealed that, at least in many of the countries into which lion trophies are currently imported, large sections of society regard hunting lions for sport as an ethically inappropriate activity for the twenty-first century. Others take the opposite view, most notably often amongst people who actually have to live with lions in their range countries. Crucially relevant to the consequences of this disagreement is the proposition that rather than being a threat, hunting lions contributes significantly to their conservation, primarily through the maintenance of wild habitat, and that its cessation would worsen the species' already deteriorating status. These ethical and pragmatic views may be irreconcilable, but before deciding what to do about it, individuals and nations need to know the facts, and indeed the gaps in knowledge. Providing these facts, and identifying important gaps, is one function of this report, and it is particularly important insofar as policies applied impulsively could have perverse consequences if the intention to improve lion conservation resulted in worsening it. In that case, even those implacably opposed to lion hunting on ethical grounds might favour a journey rather than a jump. For example, if society judged trophy hunting lions unacceptable, but also concluded that it benefited lion conservation, then this dilemma might be approached via a journey to find ways of replacing the benefits of hunting before jumping to end them. It was against this background that the then Minister for the Environment, Rory Stewart, invited this review of existing lion trophy hunting practice with the aim of: 1. providing recommendations for criteria for best practice in the industry to inform assessments of whether trophy hunting is well managed and sustainable; 2. providing recommendations for what the UK, working with the our partners in the EU and also internationally, could do to assist implementation of best practice; and 3. framing these recommendations within the wider context, and overall goal, of supporting lion conservation. |
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(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |