|
No more of this in 2016
After the USA placed very strict controls on all future African lion trophy imports earlier this week, the EU Scientific Review Group announced that a decision was made to place a “negative opinion” on all future lion trophy imports from Mozambique.
The dominoes are falling, and this can only be seen as an early Christmas present for all of us involved in lion conservation. LionAid has worked hard to achieve this decision from the EU and the USA, and will continue to put pressure to have bans placed on the remaining African nations that continue to allow sport hunting of this rapidly declining species.
Meanwhile, these USA and EU decisions have an importance beyond just banning imports. The African nations now have to show verifiable proof that lion trophy hunting is “beneficial” to the conservation of the species, that they have effective lion conservation measures in place, and that the decline of lions across Africa will now be seriously addressed by the lion range states rather than comprehensively ignored.
The USA decision will now likely make funds available to better conserve lions, and we are hopeful that the EU will follow suit. UK Minister Rory Stewart, in a private meeting following the Adjournment Debate in UK Parliament achieved by LionAid to mention the plight of African lions, rightly mentioned that lion conservation had been ignored for too long and that much more attention should be given to their future survival.
We will have more meetings with the Minister in the New Year to hopefully convince him that the UK can become a leader in African lion conservation initiatives.
|
