'Cecil effect’ leaves park’s lion at risk of cull

Bubye Valley Conservancy says it may have to cull 200 lions due to overpopulation and "the Cecil effect"

By Peta Thornycroft in Bubye Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe

20 Feb 2016

It is the country where Cecil the lion was killed, sparking international anger against the American dentist who shot him.

The outcry over Walter Palmer’s killing of Cecil drove other big-game hunters away from Zimbabwe, fearful they too would attract the opprobrium of the public. But in what is being described as a side-effect of the affair, Zimbabwe’s largest wildlife area says it now finds itself suffering from an overpopulation of lions.

Bubye Valley Conservancy has more than 500 lions, the largest number in Zimbabwe’s diminishing wildlife areas.

It has warned that its lion population has become unsustainable and that it may even have to cull around 200 as a result of what is being called “the Cecil effect”.

Now Bubye is appealing for other institutions or wildlife sanctuaries to take some of its lions.

Conservationists estimate about half of Zimbabwe’s wildlife has disappeared since Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned land began in 2000, but Bubye has held on by attracting wealthy hunters whose fees support its wildlife work.

But last year’s shooting of Cecil, in a conservancy bordering Hwange National Park, sparked a huge backlash against big-game hunting.

Plummeting oil prices have further led to a drop in the number of visitors from US states such as Texas, from where traditionally large numbers of hunters go to Zimbabwe.

Bubye’s lions are decimating populations of antelope, along with other animals such as giraffe, cheetah, leopards and wild dogs, after the driest summer on record kept grasses low and made the small game easy targets.

Blondie Leathem, general manager of Bubye Valley Conservancy, said: “I wish we could give about 200 of our lions away to ease the overpopulation. If anyone knows of a suitable habitat for them where they will not land up in human conflict, or in wildlife areas where they will not be beaten up because of existing prides, please let us know and help us raise the money to move them.”

In the Forties, there were thought to be as many as 450,000 lions on Earth, but today they are classed as “vulnerable”, with numbers feared as low as 20,000.

Conservationists fear that without a concerted push, particularly in high-risk areas of central and west Africa, their numbers could halve again in the next two decades because of human-animal conflict and reduced habit and food supplies.

Bubye, along with some game parks in neighbouring countries, has been bucking the trend, according to a recent study, with healthy lion populations in “small, fenced, intensively managed, funded reserves”.

The conservation area was founded 22 years ago by Charles Davy, the rancher father ofChelsy Davy, Prince Harry’s former girlfriend. It is now majority-owned by Dubai World, the investment fund of the wealthy emirate’s government.

Millions of pounds were spent fencing 2,000 square miles of land previously cleared of wildlife by decades of cattle farming. The fence was then electrified and hundreds of people were hired to protect wildlife imported to the park.

Bubye also supports schools and clinics in several districts and provides meat every month for people nearby.

When the Telegraph visited Bubye in early February a matriarch lioness called Matilda, her sisters and her latest litter of cubs were lazing in the shade under mopane trees.

Matilda – which was fitted with a radio collar by the Oxford University researchers that also collared Cecil – eats at least 10lb of meat every day.

Pieter Kat, director of Lion Aid, a UK-based charity, said contraception should have been introduced at the conservancy years ago. “It’s too late now,” he said. “There is nowhere in Africa which could take so many lions.”

Paul Bartels, a wildlife scientist from South Africa’s Tshwane University of Technology, said female contraceptive implants used in smaller reserves would be impractical for Matilda’s clan.

“There are a lot of lions on that [Bubye] conservancy. It would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for contraception to make any real difference,” he said.

Oxford’s lion research project in Zimbabwe, which monitored Cecil, said that the Bubye conservancy was “a huge success story” in a region blighted by a lack of governmental help for its struggling wildlife sector.

Mr Leathem insisted he was not a hunter but a conservationist, and had no option but to maintain “sustainable” hunting to safeguard Bubye’s future.

Source: 'Cecil effect’ leaves park’s lion at risk of cull (21/02/16)

Zimbabwe hunting quotas set

ZIMBABWE has the capacity to remove an average of 500 elephants worth more than $30 million per year through export or trophy hunting quotas allocated through the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks), it has emerged. Wildlife is a lucrative industry across the globe and Zimbabwe is one of the countries with the finest animal species for the enterprise.

Wildlife hunting came under spotlight recently after the killing of the iconic Cecil the lion by an American dentist, Walter Palmer, at Antoinette farm in the Gwayi area, sparked global outcry over conservation concerns.

The dentist-cum-hunter “illegally” killed the Oxford University’s research-monitored lion after paying about $50,000. The matter is pending before the courts.

Every year the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority conducts workshops with wildlife farmers, hunters, local authorities, tour operators and photographers from across the country to decide on the number of wild game to be put on hunting quotas.

Players in the sector met parks officials at Hwange Main Camp on Thursday where they made their presentations and applications for hunting quotas for 2016.

“Different countries have different hunting quotas for different species. In Zimbabwe we’ve a hunting quota for elephants, leopards, cheetahs and crocodiles,” a senior parks official said after the closed door meeting.

“This means we can remove or export certain numbers of species but not exceed a given level. The cap for elephants is 500, leopards 500, crocodiles 200 and cheetahs 50. We’ll conduct a separate meeting to decide quotas for lions.”

Zimbabwe has an elephant population of more than 20,000, according to the 2013 census. Regional estimates indicate elephant hunting can fetch between $50,000 to $100,000 with an average of $25,000 and above for a lion and $17,000 for a leopard.

The parks official said the consultation process with interested parties in the hunting industry was the first stage of acquiring a hunting quota. “The meeting is meant to set sport hunting quotas for the following year to registered properties upon request. As parks we need to know how many animals can be hunted or removed on an annual basis.

“Each farmer brings his/her proposal and reports on what happened in the prior year. We check if the farmer used the given quota fully,” said the official.

“Data captured from the consultative meetings is critically assessed at national level when we look at hunting trends and the animal population.”

The official said the scientific review looks into factors such as poaching, trophy quality and size and aspects of natural mortality and problem animal control in surrounding communities.
Consideration of international regulations governing sport hunting in relation to national laws is also part of the process.

“We use these meetings to share developments in the global hunting industry. After submissions a report is sent to the minister for approval. After that the farmer can start marketing his products,” said the official.

“Any hunting outside this process is illegal, it’s poaching. We’ve conducted meetings in Bulawayo, Chinhoyi, Kwekwe and we will also be going to the Lowveld on Saturday.”

Source: Zimbabwe hunting quotas set (22/08/15)

A lens into Zim's land elite

Cecil the lion’s death should make Zimbabweans look harder at who really benefits from wildlife, writes Ian Scoones.

The huge uproar generated by the shooting of Cecil the lion provides a fascinating lens into Zimbabwe’s new elite land politics and the relationship between humans and “wild” nature.

The country’s extensive game ranches and conservancies were mostly subject to land reform in the early 2000s. Many of the former owners were evicted, along with their safari operations. But this land, unlike most of the agricultural areas elsewhere in the country, was not handed over to land-hungry peasants or unemployed urbanites, but to elites.

For a time there was an argument that conservation areas were not to be part of the land reform, and that a separate wildlife-based land reform would be instituted. This was to be under the control of the Ministry of Environment, and not the Ministry of Lands, and so would guarantee the sanctity of the wildlife estate as a good source of revenue – from hunting, but more especially tourism.

But this soon got overridden by politics and many of the conservancy lands and other game farms were allocated as part of A2 (medium-to large-scale) land reform. And, as with a lot of A2 allocations – and particularly in the conservancies that many assumed to be very lucrative businesses – to well-connected elites.

Elite beneficiaries of land reform in Zimbabwe such as Honest Ndlovu have hooked up with white safari owners as they search for sources of income from their land.

The list of these beneficiaries reads like a who’s who of the Zanu-PF political-military elite. Honest Trymore Ndlovu, the owner of the land where Cecil was shot, was one such beneficiary. The new landowners in search of income from their land have hooked up with white safari operators, some of whom formerly operated in the same areas.

Conservation, and hunting, have been long associated with white privilege and colonial expansion, and a European construction of landscape as wilderness. Cecil (and the name – same as Cecil Rhodes – becomes more appropriate with this lens) is also about issues of race, colonialism and the control over land.

Wildlife is once again perpetuating a new elite land politics, excluding wider populations from the benefits. This time it’s with new (black) faces. But many of the same unsavoury connections of the past remain, with links between politicians, poachers and hunting business entrepreneurs never far from the surface.

The Cecil story also exposes some of the racial dimensions of the relationships between wildlife, land and hunting in Zimbabwe. The hunting business has a pedigree going back to the establishment of hunting blocks in various parts of the country in colonial times. Hunting was always seen as central to the colonial conquest involving taming wild Africa.

Many white farmers turned their properties over to private game hunting reserves in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes as part of large blocks of land where the fences were removed. These were called “conservancies” – such as Gwaai in the west, as well as many others, notably the well-known Save Valley conservancy in the south-east.

Conservancies

These blocks and conservancies became the playgrounds of a rich, white elite, some local but many international, with Americans and Europeans being regular customers. Unlike the Campfire (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources ) arrangements, the benefits from conservancies to surrounding populations were minimal, beyond a few concessionary “outreach” efforts.

The Cecil case raises pertinent questions about how hunting revenues can contribute to development.

From the 1980s, Zimbabwe was at the forefront of an international movement away from a preservationist position on conservation to one that emphasised conservation for development through “sustainable utilisation”. Hunting, it was argued, could be seen as a form of management, as long as careful cull quotas were adhered to.

Alongside Cecil, many lions (presumably without names) have been killed in the past years as part of regulated quotas. According to Peter Lindsay and colleagues in a 2013 PLOS One article, the annual lion quota for Zimbabwe is 101 across 38 000sq/km of hunting area on a mix of land-use types.

On average, 42.5 lions – less than half the quota – were killed each year between 2008 and 2011, presumably because of the drop in hunting visits to Zimbabwe in recent years.

Along with other southern African countries, Zimbabwe pioneered an approach linking game hunting with development, and the famous Campfire programme from the late 1980s became a flagship, with hunting concessions offered on communal lands near parks and safari areas.

The revenues raised were considerable, especially for the big five. About 90% of Campfire revenues were from sport hunting, not other forms of tourism. Funds were ploughed back into development projects with dividends going to both the local community and Rural District Councils.

Campfire did not always work as planned, and there have been many critiques. But the principle of making use of local resources for local development has been widely acknowledged in the region – if not in East Africa where a more preservationist strand of conservation persists.

What, then, should we make of the sad demise of Cecil? Knee-jerk reactions resulting in bans on hunting or trophy imports will not solve anything. Past bans elsewhere have made things worse, with a rise in poaching, and decline in conservation protection.

While the posturing rhetoric about extraditing an American dentist dominates now, Zimbabweans should look harder at who benefits from wildlife. If revenues are to be generated from hunting quotas (and I am a great supporter of this route to conservation), they should not just benefit a narrow elite, involving a new pact between white hunters and their safari companies and the new politically connected black elite.

Benefit

If Cecil and his other 100 odd fellow lions are to be part of a regulated hunting quota, so creating a resource for development, then the conservancies and game ranches need to be opened up for wider use to generate broader benefit.

Only then will the wildlife assets of the nation be properly shared and the habitats preserved for Cecil and his relatives. Perhaps the outcry over Cecil can result in a proper wildlife-based land reform, so such wildlife can benefit everyone, not just elites – black or white.

* Scoones is Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex. This article first appeared on theconversation.com

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

Source: A lens into Zim's land elite (06/08/15)
Update: How We Can Ensure That Cecil Becomes an Agent of Change for all Animals (20/08/15)
Further Update: Killing of Cecil was a blessing - prominent conservationist says (20/08/15)

ZimParks suspend hunting outside Hwange National Park

PRESS STATEMENT BY THE ZIMBABWE PARKS AND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY ON MEASURES TO IMPROVE THE ADMINISTRATION OF HUNTING IN THE COUNTRY

Following the illegal killing of an iconic lion, Cecil, outside the Hwange National Park on Antoinette farm in Gwayi River Conservancy on the 1st of July 2015, it has become necessary that the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority further tightens hunting regulations in all areas outside the Parks Estate.

The Authority working with other law enforcement agencies has launched a crackdown to weed out any undesirable elements. To date our law enforcement agencies are following up on all found or reported cases and they have since arrested another culprit, Headman Sibanda, on allegations of breaching hunting regulations. He is currently assisting Police with investigations.

Further to that crackdown the following measures are going to be implemented immediately;

1. Hunting of lions, leopards and elephant in areas outside of Hwange National Park has been suspended with immediate effect. All such hunts will only be conducted if confirmed and authorized in writing by the Director-General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and only if accompanied by parks staff whose costs will be met by the landowner.

2. Bow hunting has been suspended with immediate effect and no such hunting will be conducted unless it has been confirmed and authorized in writing by the Director-General of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

3. Members of the hunting fraternity are being reminded that it is illegal for quotas to be transferred from one hunting area to another. Any case of quota transfer is regarded as poaching. The Authority will not hesitate to arrest, prosecute, and ban for life any persons including professional hunters, clients and land ownerswho are caught on the wrong side of the law.

All players in the hunting industry are being reminded to familiarize themselves with the relevant statutes governing the wildlife industry. Further, the Authority would like to appeal to all members of the public that they should report any suspected illegal wildlife activities to the nearest offices of Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Zimbabwe Republic Police and other Government law enforcement agencies. 

E. Chidziya
Director-General
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority

Source: Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (undated) 

UPDATE: Hunting ban lifted after just a week (09/08/15) More: Excellent quotes and updates on Cecil the lion (Africa Geographic, 03/08/15 )
  Cecil and the conservation of lions (WildCRU)
  Lion Conservation & Wildlife Fund

Hunters investigate killing of Zim's best-known lion

A hunters' association in Zimbabwe says it is investigating the circumstances surrounding the unexpected killing of one of the country's best-known lions on a hunt last week.

There has been outrage following the news that black-maned Cecil, a much-photographed lion from the Hwange area in western Zimbabwe, was killed on a hunting safari.

Wildlife fans say Cecil was extremely relaxed around visitors and apparently a favourite with those on photographic safaris, who sometimes travelled long distances to watch him.

He had been seen in the area for the last 13 years and was often in the company of another male lion known locally as Jericho.

Circumstances surrounding Cecil's death are not yet entirely clear. There are claims he was wounded with a bow and arrow and then shot. He was reportedly wearing a collar when he was killed.

Zimbabwean hunters posting in online forums have insisted the hunt was legal.

The Zimbabwe Professional Hunters and Guides Association (ZPHGA) said in its statement late Monday that the lion was killed "outside [Hwange National] park on private land on a safari".

"An investigation is ongoing at this time. We are awaiting all relevant documentation for verification," the association said, confirming that the professional hunter involved was one of its members.

A lion hunt in Zimbabwe can cost a foreign client up to $45 000, insiders say. Unconfirmed reports say that the client on this hunt was from Spain.

News of Cecil's death has reignited the testy war of words between trophy hunters and those who are strongly opposed to hunting.

One reader posted to Safari Guide Africa's Facebook page: "Heartbroken. Cecil was beautiful and majestic a true King. He will be sorely missed."

The ZPHGA said: "We do not know all the facts yet."

Source: Hunters investigate killing of Zim's best-known lion (14/07/15)

Elephant crushes big-game hunter

A young bull elephant killed professional hunter Ian Gibson early on Wednesday as he tracked a lion for an American client in a rugged part of northeastern Zimbabwe.

Gibson, 55, one of Zimbabwe’s best-known big-game hunters, died scouting

for prey in the Zambezi Valley after a young bull elephant charged, then knelt on him and crushed him.

“We don’t yet know the full details of how ‘Gibbo’, as we called him, died, as the American client and the trackers are still too traumatised to give us full details,” said Paul Smith, MD of Chifuti Safaris, which employed Gibson for the hunt.

The American hunter was on his first trip to Zimbabwe . Gibson was scouting for lions when he encountered the elephant.

Gibson’s trackers said the young bull had been in musth , which means it was producing more testosterone than usual.

“We know Gibbo shot it once, from about 10 yards away, with a .458 [rifle]. He would never have fired unless he had no alternative.

He was a hunter, yes, but he was also a magnificent wildlife photographer and conservationist .

“He was so experienced and this is a most unexpected tragedy.”

Gibson was accompanying his client in an area known as Chiwore North in the southern part of the Zambezi Valley, which Smith said was overpopulated with elephants.

Gibson began his wildlife career in Zimbabwe’s department of national parks, but left to become a hunter about 25 years ago.

He was well known in the US; the Dallas Safari Club is paying his funeral expenses. Gibson lived in Marondera, a small town about 70km southeast of Harare. A son who works in Tanzania and two grown daughters in Harare survive him.

Source: Elephant crushes big-game hunter (19/04/15)

Robert Mugabe's birthday party cooks up elephantine storm before it starts

Wild animals including elephants are to be slaughtered and served at Robert Mugabe’s birthday party later this month, according to media reports, angering conservationists who branded the plans unethical.

The lavish celebration for the Zimbabwean president’s 91st will be held on 28 February on a championship golf course at the Elephant Hills Resort, a luxury hotel with spa, swimming pool and tennis courts at Victoria Falls. An estimated 20,000 people are expected to attend.

Local farmer Tendai Musasa has pledged to donate two elephants, two buffalo, two sables, five impalas and a lion worth a combined £78,000 towards the jamboree, Zimbabwe’s Chronicle newspaper reported.

“This is our way of supporting the function and to ensure a celebratory mood in our community as well,” Musasa was quoted as saying. “The total value is $120,000. This reflects the money we get annually and we thought this would be a perfect gesture.”

He added: “At the moment we are making arrangements with the Parks andWildlife Management Authority to slaughter these animals a few days before the day. We are also liaising with the hotel that will keep the meat.”

Mugabe’s government is already under fire for a plan to export 27 live elephants to China, and activists condemned the donation.

Johnny Rodrigues, chair of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said: “I am not in favour of anyone donating wild animals for a celebration or for any other reason

“They have been doing this for years now. Every time there is a celebration or on independence day, several elephants and buffalo are killed for the celebrations. This is totally unethical and should not be allowed.”

The gift has also dismayed the community near Musasa’s farm outside Victoria Falls following a wrangle over land ownership, according to the Chronicle. They allege that the animals are being handed over without consultation.

“Villagers said the animals involved were part of their annual hunting quota and donating them meant no income for the whole year. They said they were powerless because challenging the donation could be misinterpreted as unwillingness to participate towards the celebrations,” reported the paper.

Mugabe turns 91 on Saturday. Not for the first time, the extravagance of his birthday party has drawn criticism against the backdrop of a moribund economy and decaying public services.

Source: Robert Mugabe's birthday party cooks up elephantine storm before it starts (The Guardian 16/02/15)

Botswana minister in canned lion controversy

Source: Africa Geographic Blog
Date: 12 Dec 2013

Botswana’s Minister of Agriculture, Christian de Graaff, is under fire after he exported a large shipment of lions to a canned hunting outfit in South Africa last month.

De Graaff sent 22 lions to the Makhulu Game Farm near Boshof in the Free State (South Africa). Employees at the facility, owned by Henk Vorster, openly discuss how the lions are hunted and their skeletons sold to Asian buyers. Some are bred for sale to international zoos.

At the game farm, a popular local tourist venue about 80km from Kimberley, 18 young lions were crammed together in a small quarantine enclosure of about 30m by 30m this week. With no shade and only a tiny corrugated iron-roofed hut to protect them, they were panting furiously in the blazing heat.

According to Werner Böing, the Environmental Management Inspector at the Free State Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Vorster is an “approved predator breeder in our province and his facility is up to standard”. Permits have been issued to move the 22 lions from Botswana to the Free State, he said.

De Graaff’s involvement in the breeding and hunting of lions was exposed by Botswana’s Mmegi newspaper in September. An investigation revealed that in 2005, the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks captured and donated two “problem” Kalahari lions, a male and a female, to De Graaff’s company, Phologolo Botswana Safaris.

The lions were kept at his Tautona Lodge in Ghanzi and had multiplied to 32 by the time he sent his shipment to the Free State in November. According to Mmegi, a dispute has arisen between De Graaff and Botswana’s Minister of Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, over whether the lions belong to him or the Botswana government, which has banned trophy hunting.

This is not the first deal De Graaff has done with commercial game farmers in the Free State. In 2011, he was given permits to export 26 lions to a farm called Smal Deel Unissen.

Evidence against trophy hunting mounts

AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC
By Ian Michler on June 24, 2013

Over the past decade I, along with other people, have consistently argued that the economic benefits of trophy hunting have been crudely overstated. And when viewed against the alternative land-use option, that of well-managed photographic ecotourism, the merit of trophy hunting in nationally protected areas holds even less weight, if any at all.

Image source: Africa Geographic

In this regard, it is worth highlighting two recent scientific reports that clearly conclude that trophy hunting makes an insubstantial contribution to GDP, job creation and local economies. The first, Big Game Hunting in Africa is Economically Useless appeared about two years ago as an IUCN report and was initially only published in French. Since translated into English, it concludes that ‘hunting does not however play a significant economic or social role and does not contribute at all to good governance’. One of many notable economic indicators is that while 16.5% of Africa’s land is in some way connected to trophy hunting, this activity is creating jobs for only 0.0001% of the workforce.

The more recent report, How much does trophy hunting really contribute to African communities? compiled by Economists at Large, draws a similar conclusion. ‘The suggestion that trophy hunting plays a significant role in African economic development is misguided,’ said economist Rod Campbell, lead author of the study. And in a complete dismissal of a typical overstatement made by the trophy hunting lobby, the report has the following to say about revenues in particular: ‘Trophy hunting advocates present the industry as large, citing figures such as US$200-milllion in annual revenue. But in the context of national economies, the industry is tiny, contributing at best a fraction of a per cent of GDP. Nature-based tourism does play a significant role in national development, but trophy hunting is insignificant. Across the investigated countries, trophy hunting revenue was only 1.8% of tourism revenues.’

I again call on the IUCN and the global conservation agencies to undertake a thorough review of the role that trophy hunting plays in the way we manage our dwindling wildlife resources in protected areas. Contrary to the prevailing claims, this sector has in many ways become a central part of the problem rather than being part of the solution.

Orginal article.

Seeing the light – Benefits to banning hunting in Botswana and Zambia

wildlifeextra.com
By Ian Michler

The recent decision by the governments of Botswana and Zambia to halt trophy hunting has been praised in some conservation circles in southern Africa. Ian Michler explains why.

Towards the end of last year the Botswana Government announced that trophy hunting will no longer be allowed on any state or community land from the end of 2013. The ban extends to what is known as ‘citizen hunting' for the pot and covers all species, including elephants. And then in early January this year the government of Zambia annulled the tender process for hunting concessions in 19 Game Management Areas (GMAs) and cancelled all hunting licences and quotas for at least one year. It also introduced an immediate and indefinite ban on the hunting of lions and leopards and committed to a thorough review of the hunting industry.

These are extremely sensible stands and both governments should be congratulated for their vision. Although taken independently, the decisions are based on similar factors that clearly indicate a further loss of support for trophy hunting as an effective wildlife management option.

Read the Full article here.

Zambian Tourism Minister clarifies hunting ban and confirms suspension of lion and leopard hunting

The Zambian Minister of Tourism and Arts, Sylvia Masebo, has confirmed in an interview with local media in Livingstone that the general ban on hunting which was annouced earlier this year covers 19 hunting blocks and does not affect privately owned game ranches. It is understood that these 19 hunting concession permits have already lapsed and will not be renewed.

"That ban was specifically for the 19 hunting blocks. As you may be aware, there are many other hunting areas in Zambia beyond the 19. There are some hunting areas where the licences are still valid. If you have a licence that has not expired, we have said we will wait until that licence expires.

"But for those licences that have expired, in particular affecting those 19 hunting blocks, yes that is where we did the hunting ban. What this means in effect is that those who are still having licences in those areas and those licences have not expired, we will respect that," Ms Masebo said.

Ms Masebo said Zambia has 19 official hunting blocks and 36 game management areas where hunting takes place at different scales. "We also have in Zambia game ranches which are privately owned where somebody even has a title deed. These private parks are fenced." Ms Masebo said the hunting continues in those game ranches because they are private. "That is the clarification I wanted to make that hunting in private parks that people own and have even got title deeds and are fenced, they can do hunting,".

The ban on hunting of lions and leopards is, however, countrywide to allow for a detailed population survey. "If we continue hunting, we will end up with a situation where there will be no lions in Zambia, and we said let us stop and carry out a census first. We said let us do a survey for us as Government to understand so that we make an informed policy directive," Ms Masebo said.

The Minister had previously stated that there was more value in game-viewing tourism than trophy hunting, which brought in just $3m (£1.9m) last year, and that the country did not have enough cats for hunting purposes. "Tourists come to Zambia to see the lion and if we lose the lion we will be killing our tourism industry."

Recently Ms Masebo suspended the entire top management at ZAWA and ordered an investigation into the awarding of hunting concessions in the 19 blocks amid allegations of corruption.

Neighbouring Botswana is banning all sport hunting from 2014, while Kenya halted hunting for sport decades ago. [Sources: Zambian Daily Mail, BBC News. Image Credit: AFP]

Botswana to end sport hunting

From the Zambezi Travller, Issue 11, December 2012.

The President of Botswana, Lt. Gen. Ian Khama, announced in November that from 2014 Botswana will stop commercial hunting of wildlife in public areas.

Read more: Zambezi Traveller - Botswana to end sport hunting