There is a lot of political manouvering going on in Zambia at the moment, hopefully this is a temporary move that will be corrected shortly after the politics has settled. This will be the end of Zambia if this is enforced in the long term

Zambian Hunting Ban

Just spoke again to Greg Butler who has a farm and a hunting concession in Zambia. no hunting this year, hunting to open back up in 14 but NOT FOR CATS. It's Africa so it may change 10 times, but he spoke by phone to someone who was in the meeting when the decision was made.

quote:

Originally posted by jeff h:
Just spoke again to Greg Butler who has a farm and a hunting concession in Zambia. no hunting this year, hunting to open back up in 14 but NOT FOR CATS. It's Africa so it may change 10 times, but he spoke by phone to someone who was in the meeting when the decision was made.

I heard the same from Greg.

http://www.ibtimes.com/zambia-...ts-disappear-1007212

Zambia Bans Lion And Leopard Hunting, As Big Cats Disappear

BY Palash R. Ghosh | January 10 2013 1:31 PM


The government of Zambia has placed a ban on the hunting of lions and leopards, citing that their numbers have declined precipitously in recent years.


Zambia Bans Lion And Leopard Hunting, As Big Cats Disappear



Sylvia Masebo, the country’s tourism minister, said the rapid decline in the big cat population would hurt tourist revenues, and that there are simply not enough of the wild felines left to allow hunting them.

"Tourists come to Zambia to see the lion, and if we lose the lion, we will be killing our tourism industry," she told Reuters, adding that it makes more sense to encourage visitors to view game in the wild, rather than engage in blood sport to kill them.





Safari hunting, she asserted, did not generate enough revenue to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

"Why should we lose our animals for $3 million a year? The benefits we get from tourist visits are much higher," she added.

Speaking to Agence France Presse, Masebo declared: "We do not have enough cats for hunting purposes, especially if we have to save our national resource. The cats are gone, and no amount of convincing from any sector or group will convince me otherwise.”

The BBC reported that there are an estimated 4,500 lions in the southern African country, while the leopard population is unknown.

On the whole continent of Africa, the International Union for Conservation of Nature stated, no more than 30,000 lions remain, largely due to conflicts with encroaching human settlements, and the gradual loss of prey and habitat.

LionAid, a British conservation society, said lions are now extinct in 25 African countries and nearly extinct in another 10. Fifty years ago, the continent had more than 200,000 of the big cats roaming around.

Zambia’s neighbor Botswana has already enacted legislation to prohibit all sport hunting starting next year. Kenya banned sport hunting as long ago as 1977.

However, while conservationists are surely pleased by Zambia’s ban on lion hunting, not everyone in the country is happy about it.

According to the Zambian Watchdog newspaper, an unnamed close associate of Masebo said she acted “emotionally” in imposing the ban.

“Masebo is a puppet of individuals like Yousuf Zumla, who is her chief advisor and has [a] personal agenda to settle old [scores] with competitors and has been using his relationship with Masebo, not knowing that he is harming the entire sector,” the person close to Masebo said.

The Watchdog quoted this person as saying that scientific data showing that the big cat population is an endangered species is lacking. He also warned that a ban on hunting would hurt the country economically.

“Income levels of [the Zambia Wildlife Authority] ZAWA will go down since most of its income originates from [activities related to the] lion and leopards,” the source told the Watchdog.

“This will certainly have an effect on community income … and employment levels will [be reduced]. As a result, poaching levels will rise.”

A safari tour operator also complained about the ban.

“We have clients with booked safaris for [the] 2013 hunting season and many other inquiries as well. The move will make Zambia an unpopular hunting destination,” he said.

Similarly, Gavin Robinson of the Professional Hunters Association of Zambia, criticized the hunting halt.

“People in Europe and America wish to hunt, and with [this ban happening], Zambia will lose income,” Robinson said.

According to the Zambia Tourism Board (ZTB), a little more than 900,000 tourists visited the country in 2011, up from 815,000 arrivals in 2010. The board had planned to spend 9.8 billion Zambian Kwacha (about $19 million) in marketing to raise the tourist figure to 1-million for 2012.

http://www.zambianwatchdog.com/?p=48989



Masebo bans hunting of lions but stakeholders say its another emotional move

January 10, 2013 | Filed under: Breaking News | Posted by: Mwansa









Torurim minister Sylvia Masebo on Wednesdsay stunned delegates to the illegal consultative meeting on the wildlife sector when she announced the cancellation of lion and leopard hunting and made a u-turn that she had not cancelled the tenders for hunting licenses but merely stopped the process of tendering.
“Some of the clarifications on the process are that no tender that
was awarded has been cancelled, instead, what was stopped was the
process of tendering itself. I did not cancel the tender for safari hunting but merely stopped the process,” Masebo said much to the astonishment of the delegates.
From the meeting, it was clear that Masebo acted emotionally to announce the ban on leopard and lion hunting mainly on account of wrong advice from her friends, a close associate to Masebo said.
“Masebo is a puppet of individuals like Yousuf Zumla who is her chief advisor and has personal agenda to settle old score with competitors and has been using his relationship with Masebo not knowing that he is harming the entire sector,” said one of the delegates close to Masebo.
Regrettably, there was no scientific data to show that Lions and Leopards are endangered species in the country and therefore the delegates did not understand why she decided to ban the hunting of the two species.
“Income levels of ZAWA will go down since most of its income originates from selling lion and leopards. This will certainly have an effect on community income, pledges for the community and employment levels will reduce. As a result poaching levels will raise,” the delegate said
Another safari operator who spoke on condition of anonymity said that they were not consulted by Masebo when she made the decision to ban the hunting of leopards and lions.
“We have clients with booked safaris for 2013 hunting season and many other inquiries as well. The move will make Zambia an unpopular hunting destination,” he said.
Another delegate from the Professional Hunters Association of Zambia Gavin Robinson, who spoke before Masebo said that uncertainties in the tourism sector would certainly affect Zambia. He said that the earlier announcement by Masebo that she had cancelled the tenders would greatly affect the country’s tourism prospects.
“People in Europe and America wish to hunt and with the happenings, Zambia will lose income,” Robinson said.
He said that there were not merely killing the animals but were conservationists and therefore work closely with ZAWA to conserve wildlife.
And most of the delegates to the meeting complained to Masebo and Vice president Guy Scott that the notice for the consultations was short as they had to travel long distances. As a result of the short notice, only few delegates managed to attend.
As such some felt that the meeting was not consultative but merely a talking show for Masebo to push her agenda.
Only three chiefs attended out of the majority that were in Game management Areas (GMA).

Maebo banned the hunting of lions and other endangered wild cats such as leopards because it sees more value in game viewing tourism than blood sport, the country’s tourism minister said on Thursday.
Sylvia Masebo told Reuters big cat numbers were also too low to have a sustainable hunting industry.
“Tourists come to Zambia to see the lion and if we lose the lion we will be killing our tourism industry,” Masebo said.
The estimated $3 million that Zambia earned from safari hunting of all its wild animals annually was too little to merit the continued depletion of Zambia’s wildlife, she said.
“Why should we lose our animals for $3 million a year? The benefits we get from tourist visits are much higher,” she said.
The leopard population for the sprawling southern African country is not known while lion numbers are not believed to exceed around 4,500. Estimates for Africa’s lion population vary from around 20,000 to 30,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and is falling in the face of numerous threats including conflict with livestock farmers and loss of prey and habitat. Zambia’s moves follow neighboring Botswana’s decision to ban all sport hunting from 2014 as it also works to promote itself as a game viewing destination. Wildlife-rich Kenya set this trend when it halted trophy and sport hunting decades ago.

This is so sad.

This link on a press release from another stakeholder meeting held in Lusaka today may be useful.

http://www.safaribwana.com/HUNT/lion08.htm

All cat hunting has been banned for 2013 as well as hunting in the 19 GMA's that were up for allocation in the recent tender that was cancelled.

Hunting on game ranches will proceed

possibly hunting in the 'pool' areas of Bangweulu and Kafue flats may be allowed

So it seems Zambia is a non starter for 2013 - lets hope they stick to their intentions as per this press release

So Masebo is more concerned with the $ 3million than the lions and leopards which means that if it was maybe $ 10 million she could allow hunting to go on ?
She really is a conservationist !!! She really cares about these magnificient animals !!!
Idiots, ignorants,stupids and SoB.

Is there a list of the GMAs up for tender? I assume that there will still be hunting in the few places like Tondwa that had longer terms when last tendered.

Dean

Wow, is anyone really surprised at this?

I have said that a repeat of 2002 was in the works. Why? Because its the same guys in control (theoretically speaking) as before. Here is how they work:

Delay plans on how to reallocate - check ('02 &'12)
Corruption - check ('02 &'12)
Reallocation process 'initiated - check ('02 &'12)
Screw it, let's close it down for a year and think about it - check ('02 &'12)

Only difference this year is that Lion Politics entered the mix. They found someone to say that they aren't seeing as many Lions and Leopards.

Oh Jeez. If you can't find a Leopard in Zambia, just go home and shoot yourself.

Zambian Weekly story on front page.

http://www.zambia-weekly.com/

This will unfortunately bolster the greenies plot to ban importation of lion into the USA as they will undoubtedly use this misinformation to their advantage.

Africa what else can we say.

Another uninformed African making decisions on no facks at all! Besides the safari operators all of their staff is out of work. Not too many clients can afford to hunt Zambia and not be able to atleast hunt one of the cats. What a sad day for hunting. And yes Marten I think you are 100% in your post