European nations urged to protect African lions

In a joint venture initiative, a coalition of lion protection charities are calling on the United Kingdom and the European Union to vote for an end to commercial trade in African lions at the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, September 24-October 5.

According to NewEurope, the joint statement was issued by the Born Free Foundation which has joined forces with IFAW, Lion Aid, Four Paws and Save Me.

Will Travers OBE, President and CEO of Born Free Foundation, said: “Whilst the UK government has championed the need to deal with wildlife trafficking and species decline, Africa’s lions remain in crisis. We are calling on the new Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the new Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom MP, to support the highest level of protection for lions to save the future of the species and rubber-stamp Britain’s premier position on the conservation of endangered animals.”

 African lions are currently listed on Appendix II of CITES, which allows regulated international commercial trade. A group of nine Western and Central African countries, led by Niger, has tabled a proposal for all African lion populations to be transferred to Appendix I, which would effectively ban commercial cross-border trade in lions and their body parts and radically reduce the negative and destructive impact of trophy hunting which, bizarrely, is regarded as a non-commercial activity.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), lions have declined by 43% across the African continent over the past 21 years, and now occupy as little as 8% of their historic range.

“There is no doubt that African lion population numbers have significantly declined in a very short amount of time, and that a diversity of factors contributed to this decline,” said Dr Pieter Kat, director of Lion Aid. “There is no reason to allow trade in a species experiencing massive population declines and for which we have so little hard scientific evidence of current population numbers and impacts of offtake. The correct listing should be on CITES Appendix I and the EU Member States should be leading efforts to enable this change in listing.”

On July 30, the coalition will hold a vigil outside the European Parliament to mark the first anniversary of the death of Cecil the Lion.