BUSH GUNS FOR BOTSWANA LION HUNT

© Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg, April 26 to May 3 2001. Reproduced with permission

by Fiona Macleod

American pro-hunting lobbies are calling in the big guns to put pressure on the Botswana government to lift a ban on hunting lions in the Southern African country. George Bush, former United States president and father of current President George W Bush, heads up a lobby group convened by Safari Club International (SCI), the largest hunting organisation in the world. Based in Arizona, SCI claims a membership of 33 000 people in 85 countries.The group includes former US vice-president Dan Quayle and General "Stormin." Norman Schwarzkopf, head of the Nato forces during the invasion of Kuwait and Iraq in the early 1990s.

A letter bearing the names of the three big guns urges the Botswana government to scrap the ban, imposed in early February in an attempt to restore the country.s dwindling lion populations. An initial one-year moratorium was decreed, and this may be renewed next February. The ban will cost the hunting industry an estimated $5-million this year alone; before the ban, the government had set a quota of 53 lions to be hunted for trophies this year. One of the reasons behind the ban was that, in contrast to the profits made by the hunting operators, the government would have earned less than $100 000 from licence fees for this years lion-hunting season. It is not just the profits that are at stake, as the hunting lobbies are worried the lion ban may be extended to other trophy species. Zambia and Niger have already slapped bans on trophy hunting this year, while Tanzania has tightened up regulations governing hunting concessions.

"This is a defining moment not only for the lions, but also for our government. If the hunting fraternity manages to overthrow this law, then there's no turning them back in the future," says Dereck Joubert, renowned National Geographic filmmaker who is based in Botswana's big-game reserves. The ban was imposed because of concerns that trophy hunters, who favour heavy-maned male lions, were wiping out Botswana.s lion population. Ten years ago there were about 50 000 lions in Africa; today there are at most 15 000. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to find mature males with heavy manes. As a result, hunters are making use of the mane-extension services you find in the US to make up their trophies," says Jonathan Gibson, member of the Chobe Wildlife Trust who runs a tourism operation in the north of the country. Unlike South Africa, Botswana does not have private hunting farms. Hunting takes place in government-owned reserves, and the wildlife belongs to the state. Complaints from rural cattle farmers were the direct cause of the lion-hunting ban. The farmers were outraged when the government prohibited them from shooting "problem" lions, or offering them to hunters. An estimated 100 "problem" lions were killed in rural areas last year. The farmers protested it was unfair to allow hunting outfits to earn a fortune in protected areas, while on the other side of the fence they were losing their livelihoods to a supposedly protected species.Joubert, who has done extensive studies on various lion populations, points out the shooting of a prime male can create a vacuum in a pride that effectively results in the loss of at least 10 lions. Trophy hunting has also been shown to cause inbreeding within lion populations.

The Botswana Wildlife Management Association, which represents the local hunting industry, has come out strongly against the ban. It says it is doing intensive lion research and the results are due later this year.But Joubert counters that the hunters are merely trying to buy time: "It is clear trophy hunting of male lions in Botswana is a thing of the past. It is not sustainable in a wild system that has been in decline for a while."Among the numerous letters of support for the ban received by the Wildlife Department is one from actor Kevin Costner, whose film Dances with Wolves showed how hunting was responsible for the decimation of America.s bison populations.

The department is tight-lipped about how it plans to respond to the pressures and congratulations. Questions sent by the Mail & Guardian to a number of government officials remained unanswered at the time of going to press. Electronic Mail & Guardian