ZAMBIA: Step Up Animal Conservation Before Loosing Entire Wildlife

Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa says there is need to change the mindsets of Zambia from thinking that every animal should end up in a pot.

Mr Mwansa said Zambia needs to step up animal conservation efforts before it loses its entire wildlife resources.

He warned that posterity will judge the current generation harshly if it fails to converse its wildlife.
Mr Mwansa expressed worry that Zambia is losing its wildlife resources at an alarming rate.

His comments are in total contrast to Tourism Minister Jean Kapata’s recent decision to allow the hunting of Lions and Leopards in Zambia.

‘We need a total change management of our people to make them understand that it is not every animal they see which should end up in a pot. Let our people know that once they kill that Elephant and they eat and go and give business to the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, that’s it,’ Mr Mwansa remarked.

Mr Mwansa was speaking Tuesday evening in Lusaka at the residence of German Ambassador to Zambia Bernd Finke when he officiated at the handover of funds to 10 animal conversation organisations.

But Mrs Kapata clarified that Zambia has lifted the ban on the hunting of leopards and will allow lion hunting next year after it established that the population of the big cats was higher than previously thought.

In 2013, then Tourism Minister Sylvia Masebo banned the hunting of lions and other endangered wild cats such as leopards, saying the big cat numbers in Zambia were too low to have a sustainable hunting industry.

Mrs Kapata however stated that trophy hunting would not be done indiscriminately as the government was mindful of the fact that many tourists visited Zambia to see the big cats.

“We have lifted the hunting ban for leopards starting this 2015/2016 season, which begins in July and we are going to allow lion hunting starting next year,” Kapata told Reuters.

“We did an aerial survey and established that we have more than 4,000 lions and leopards are in excess of 8,000.”

The hunters would only be allowed to target old male big cats and those cast away by their families, she said.

“We have always hunted lions and leopards but what we are doing now is to hunt in a more controlled manner. We have reduced the number of big cats to be hunted per block,” Kapata said, referring to 23 hunting zones set aside for hunting.

Lions and leopards are the feline pair of the so-called “Big Five” group of African wild animals coveted by trophy hunters. The others are elephant, rhino and buffalo.

There are concerns about Africa’s big animals in the face of a surge in poaching where well-armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for their ivory tusks and rhinos for horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.