Abstract
The African lion is in decline across its range, and consumptive utilisation and trade of their body parts and skins has been postulated as a cause for concern. We undertook a pan-African questionnaire and literature survey to document informed opinion and evidence for the occurrence of domestic and international trade and consumption in African lion body parts across current and former range states. Sixty-five people from 18 countries participated in the online questionnaire survey (run from July 2014 to May 2015), with information provided for 28 countries (including 20 out of 24 countries believed to have extant populations). Respondents were experts within their professional spheres, and 77% had ≥6 years relevant experience within lion conservation or allied wildlife matters. Their opinions revealed wide sub-regional differences in consumptive use, drivers of trade, and access to lions that impact wild lion populations in different ways. Traditional medicine practices (African and Asian) were perceived to be the main uses to which lion body parts and bones are put domestically and traded internationally, and there is reason for concern about persistent imports from former lion range states (mainly in West Africa) for parts for this purpose. The domestic, rather than international, trade in lion body parts was perceived to be a bigger threat to wild lion populations. Parts such as skin, claws, teeth and bones are thought to be in most demand across the continent. The impact of international trade on wild populations was acknowledged to be largely unknown, but occasionally was judged to be ‘high’, and therefore vigilance is needed to monitor emerging detrimental impacts. Seventeen countries were nominated as priorities for immediate monitoring, including: South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Reasons for their selection include: prevalence of trophy hunting, ‘hot spots’ for poaching, active domestic trade in lion body parts, trade in curios for the tourist market, and histories of legal-illegal wildlife trade. This survey, and increased incident reports since mid-2015 of lion poisoning and poaching in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and sporadic poaching events in Uganda and Tanzania, are signalling an escalating trend in the trade of lion products that is an increasing threat to some national populations. The evidence is sufficient to make more detailed investigation of this trade a conservation priority.
Highlights
The African lion once occurred in 47 African countries, but is extinct in 18 (38% of former range states) and possibly extinct in five others [1]
Of the 24 countries believed to have extant populations, three are estimated to have wild populations with 30 individuals and nine have wild populations of >1000 individuals [1], the latter concentrated in East/Southern Africa (S1 Table)
An online survey was conducted between July 2014 and May 2015 using a structured semiquantitative questionnaire with 25 questions designed and pre-tested to solicit information on knowledge, awareness and/or understanding of the use and trade in wild African lion body parts across Africa (S2 Table)
Summary
The African lion once occurred in 47 African countries, but is extinct in 18 (38% of former range states) and possibly extinct in five others [1]. Lion populations are presently declining in all but four range states [2] Their decline across the continent is due to factors such as habitat loss, prey base depletions, human-lion conflict, poorly regulated sport hunting, poaching, consumptive utilisation and, to a poorly documented extent, trade of body parts and skins [2,3,4] (Fig 1). Consumptive use is a cause of rising concern, the threat of commercial and non-commercial use and trade in lion bones and body parts for ‘zootherapeutic’ purposes (both Asian and African). This factor drew much attention at the October 2016 CITES Conference of the Parties 17 (CoP17) held in Johannesburg [2,4,5,6,8]. With the exception of the lion bone trade, published information on these practices to evaluate their importance to lion conservation are fragmented, frequently anecdotal and/or in ‘grey’ literature sources
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
