OK, I'm probably going to get killed on this forum, but I have to ask this question.

For a good part of 2009, I heard about the lion crisis and the all-but-guaranteed uplisting of the lion at the CITES 15th Conference of the Parties in March 2010. There were calls for donations to Conervation Force. There was talk of the impending doom of lion hunting. I recall that CF needed $200,000 very quickly. One time, CF needed $60,000 "this week".

Well, it turns out that there will be no talk of lion at the 15th COP, not because the "lion fight" was won, but because it was not placed on the agenda by any of the participating countries. This, to me, does not ring of a sound defeat of the lion uplisting. This, to me, rings of a temporary victory by default.

So, what happened? Did CF save the day? Did CF head off the lion uplisting? Did CF have anything to do with securing this "stay of execution"? Did CF spend those donations on lion studies? Did CF spend those monies? How much was donated?

Or, did we just get lucky this time?

If I am out of line, feel free to tell me. I am open to critism. I'd love to hear that CF saved the day and that the uplisting was 100% avoided because the donations made studies and research possible that would have prevented any uplisting efforts at the COP. However, if this is the case, surely someone would have taken credit by now.

I will say that I don't personally know JJ or Chrissy. I'm generally 100% for anybody that's for hunting and conservation, but the campaign to raise 250k for a fight that is not going to occur has not sat well with me.

Again, tell me if I am out of line.

HI Will,
I am not here to say whether you are "out of line" or not as i believe you raise fair questions.

I am not a spokesperson for CF so i am not writing on their defence but just sharing what I know of the situation.

On the CITES website, it does not mention any proposal for the uplisting of lion to appendix I but it also states that the website is "being updated" (or along those lines) so it is still not 110% certain that the proposal WILL NOT surface at CoP15.

The way i see it, even if there isn't such a proposal put forward, you are right in saying that this is NOT a victory but simply a window of opportunity for eveyone to get their ducks in a row for CoP16 or whenever the challenge arises. Because it will.

As for the surveys, I can tell you this, Benin, CAR, Burkina Faso and Mozambique have already done Lion Surveys. Tanzania is next on the cards and the researchers (Chardonnet et alia) are in situ as i type this. I met with Pascal Mesochina of IGF yesterday on this very issue. From what I know, the lion survey for Tz will cost in the region of $106K. I also know that CF has contributed towards this (and the other surveys mentioned) but i don't have any amounts to state! This lion survey will be used to hopefully develop a countrywide Action Plan to conserve lion in Tz. The same with the other countries. These 2 steps are critical to oppose any threat of uplisting lion to appendix I so eventually, all countries with free range lion populations should go through this process. Of course, the results could show that lions are seriously threatened in some range states and therefore do need to be uplisted. The important thing though is that those countries with healthy populations will be able to argue against such a move and for Tz - which arguably holds the largest population in Africa by far - is one country that could benefit from this process.

So I suppose that CF will still utilize those funds wisely to complete these 2 processes wherever necessary