24 research outputs found

    Life after Cecil : channelling global outrage into funding for conservation in Africa

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    Trophy hunting is widely used in Africa to generate funding for wildlife areas. In 2015, a global media frenzy resulted from the illegal killing of a radiocollared lion, “Cecil,” by a trophy hunter in Zimbabwe. Trophy hunting is contentious and much of the media discourse is emotional and polarized, focusing on animal welfare and debating the value of hunting as a conservation tool. We use the Cecil incident to urge a change in the focus of discussion and make a call for global action.We highlight the dual challenge to African governments posed by the need to fund vast wildlife estates and provide incentives for conservation by communities in the context of growing human populations and competing priorities. With or without trophy hunting, Africa’s wildlife areas require much more funding to prevent serious biodiversity loss. In light of this, we urge a shift away from perpetual debates over trophy hunting to the more pressing question of “How do we fund Africa’s wildlife areas adequately?” We urge the international community to greatly increase funding and technical support for Africa’s wildlife estate. Concurrently, we encourage African governments and hunters to take decisive steps to reform hunting industries and address challenges associated with that revenue generating option.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1755-263Xam2017Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog

    More than $1 billion needed annually to secure Africa’s protected areas with lions

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    Protected areas (PAs) play an important role in conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services, yet their effectiveness is undermined by funding shortfalls. Using lions (Panthera leo) as a proxy for PA health, we assessed available funding relative to budget requirements for PAs in Africa’s savannahs. We compiled a dataset of 2015 funding for 282 state-owned PAs with lions. We applied three methods to estimate the minimum funding required for effective conservation of lions, and calculated deficits. We estimated minimum required funding as 978/km2peryearbasedonthecostofeffectivelymanaginglionsinninereservesbytheAfricanParksNetwork;978/km2 per year based on the cost of effectively managing lions in nine reserves by the African Parks Network; 1,271/km2 based on modeled costs of managing lions at ≥50% carrying capacity across diverse conditions in 115 PAs; and 2,030/km2basedonPackeretal.s[Packeretal.(2013)EcolLett16:635641]costofmanaginglionsin22unfencedPAs.PAswithlionsrequireatotalof2,030/km2 based on Packer et al.’s [Packer et al. (2013) Ecol Lett 16:635–641] cost of managing lions in 22 unfenced PAs. PAs with lions require a total of 1.2 to 2.4billionannually,or2.4 billion annually, or ∼1,000 to 2,000/km2, yet received only 381millionannually,oramedianof381 million annually, or a median of 200/km2. Ninety-six percent of range countries had funding deficits in at least one PA, with 88 to 94% of PAs with lions funded insufficiently. In funding-deficit PAs, available funding satisfied just 10 to 20% of PA requirements on average, and deficits total 0.9to0.9 to 2.1 billion. African governments and the international community need to increase the funding available for management by three to six times if PAs are to effectively conserve lions and other species and provide vital ecological and economic benefits to neighboring communities.Panthera provided funding to support the study. J.R.B.M. was supported in part by National Science Foundation Coupled Human and Natural Systems Grant 115057. L.C. was funded by the US Agency for International Development.http://www.pnas.org2019-05-06hj2019Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog
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