Review: Tool or Threat: Is trophy hunting of Lions of Conservation Value?
ARTICLE INFO Keywords:
Panthera Leo Trophy hunting Sub-Saharan Africa Sustainability Trade offs Conservation values
ABSTRACT Trophy hunting has long been associated with conservation, with many western conservation policies stemming from colonial hunting especially in sub-Saharan Africa. As a highly emotive topic, it has drawn great debate in recent times, with polarized arguments either heralding it as an important and necessary conservation tool, or attacking it as a grotesque, unsustainable and deleterious practice. This paper discusses the conservation role of trophy hunting through an evaluation of ecological evidence and human values. This paper focuses predominantly on its significance as both a tool and threat to African lion conservation, but its principles will apply for other felids. Trophy hunting of lions stimulates protection of habitat and maintenance of sustainable populations in areas where there is no conservation alternative. However, there is little evidence of human and ecological conservation benefits, and the practice is replete with poor management and corruption. The potential of trophy hunting as a conservation tool is context/taxa specific. Its value may be considered in terms of the conservation of species, populations or individuals. Each level can in turn be considered in terms of its contrasting instrumental and intrinsic value. Trophy hunting is thus both a tool and threat to lion conservation. Ultimately, this discussion accepts that regardless of the scales of analysis used, or the apparent practical and theoretical issues surrounding it, trophy hunting is here to stay. The practical, not theoretical, debate is thus not whether trophy hunting is a conservation tool, but whether it can be improved so that animals and humans can benefit as much as possible from this polarizing practice.
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Contents
Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... 2
1 Introduction: paradoxical conservation ............................................................. 3 2 Trophy Hunting of lions: Conservation tool ...................................................... 6 2.1 Benefits of trophy hunting ........................................................................................... 6 2.2 Alternative conservation .............................................................................................. 7 2.3 Sustainability .................................................................................................................... 8
3 Trophy hunting of lions: Conservation threat ............................................... 10 3.1 Limitations and vulnerability ................................................................................... 10 3.2 Deleterious impacts ...................................................................................................... 12
4 Conservation Values ............................................................................................... 15 4.1 Intrinsic-‐Instrumental Trade offs ............................................................................ 16
5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 18 6 References .................................................................................................................. 19
7 Figures ......................................................................................................................... 25
Abbreviations IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature PA Protected Area PETA People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
List of figures Fig. 1: Number Foreign hunters in sub-Saharan Africa………………………..…..P 26 Fig. 2: Proportion of hunters visiting each country in sub-Saharan Africa.……….P 26 Fig. 3: Effects of 30 years of lion trophy hunting as a function of hunting quota size and male age in a hypothetical population………………………………………... P 27 Fig. 4: Age estimation for adult lions using nose colouration..………………...…P 27 Fig. 5: Effects of 40 years of trophy hunting of male lions on female population size as a function of hunting quota size and male age ……………………………….…P28 Fig. 6: Stochastic model using 40 years of trophy hunting data from the Serengeti…………………………………………………………………………….P28 Fig. 7: Boundaries of different types of protected areas in Tanzania………………P29 Fig. 8: Average number of lions and leopards harvested in major hunting areas..…P29 Fig. 9: Estimated proportion of the lion population in each country removed annually by trophy hunting ………………………………………………..….………….....P30
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1 Introduction: paradoxical conservation Trophy hunting is an important, emotive and controversial aspect of conservation
(Palazy et al., 2011). The controversy derives from the fact that it can be both a
significant threat to and a tool in conservation, especially of African lions. Indeed, its
aims, including sustainable use of natural resources, high economic benefits and low
environmental impacts (Loveridge et al., 2006), make trophy hunting a potentially
important conservation tool (Hutton and Leader-Williams, 2003; Lindsey et al.,
2007). However this view is challenged by the argument that the negative effects of
poor governance and unsustainable practices outweigh its ecological and economic
benefits. Trophy hunting is considered by some to be a significant threat to
endangered species (e.g. Courchamp et al., 2006), and is also vehemently opposed
from an ethical standpoint (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA],
2012).
Contemporary Western conservation, especially the policy of protected areas (PA),
has its roots in nineteenth century colonial trophy hunting (Adams, 2004), where wild
species were protected in order to be hunted by wealthy visitors (Loveridge et al.,
2006). Despite significant populist condemnation (e.g. Laing, 2012), trophy hunting
remains a popular practice (Figs 1 & 2) across North America and in sub-Saharan
Africa, where over 1.3million km2 of land is used for hunting. This exceeds the area
encompassed by national parks by 22% in the countries where hunting is permitted
(Lindsey et al., 2007). Trophy hunting generates gross revenues of over US$201
million annually in sub-Saharan Africa, although over half accrues in South Africa
and towards its canned lion hunting industry (Lindsey et al., 2007). Trophy hunting is
important for both conservation and development, as exemplified by its prominent
role in the proliferation of Community-Based Natural Resource Management. Trophy
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hunting is an aspect of ‘sustainable use’ in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s
report (2003) (Loveridge et al., 2006; Bélair et al., 2010), and is increasingly accepted
in the contemporary conservation paradigm of human use/consumption of wildlife.
The growing integration of humans in conservation strategies has generated a need for
trade-offs between human and ecological values. Trophy hunting has therefore to be
framed in terms of conservation values, morals and ethics.
African lions (Panthera Leo) are currently categorized by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as “vulnerable” (Bauer et al, 2008). Numbers appear
to have declined from 100,000 in 1990 (Nowell and Jackson, 1996) to as low as
23,000 today (Myers, 1975; Chardonnet, 2002; Bauer and van der Merwe, 2004), and
there is concern for the survival of the species. The main threats to lions are illegal
killings (poaching or retaliatory), habitat loss/fragmentation and disease (Milner-
Gulland et al. 2003; Whitman et al. 2004; Ray et al., 2005; Bauer et al., 2008; Caro et
al. 2009; Fryxell et al. 2010). Trophy hunting can also be a threat, with significant
impacts on the viability of populations, especially when seen in the light of the
increasingly alarming context (lower genetic diversity, smaller populations, human-
lion conflict) within which lions now exist. Lions are very important to the trophy
hunting industry (e.g. Lindsey et al., 2012), and they are often the most valuable
species sold in safari hunting concessions (Loveridge et al. 2007). The large home
range of lions and other ecological features pre-dispose them for conflict with human
(Lichtenfeld, 2005). Trophy hunting potentially relieves this conflict and is arguably
paradoxically in the species’ best interest. The recent (partly UK funded) LionAid
conference, where wildlife delegates across sub-Saharan Africa collaboratively
considered future conservation programs and the role of hunting for the survival of
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African lions, is an important step in addressing key issues of management and wider
scale approaches (LionAid, 2012).
This paper reviews data on the influence of trophy hunting on populations of lions. It
examines the ecological and human criteria necessary for sustainable trophy hunting,
and reviews how trophy hunting needs to be evaluated on the basis of viable
alternatives and the necessity for tradeoffs. These are contextualized in the wider
conservation discourse of intrinsic-instrumental values. It proposes that through
careful management, a practical and sustainable line must be drawn between the
opposing paradoxical forces of threat/conservation.
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2 Trophy Hunting of lions: Conservation tool
2.1 Benefits of trophy hunting
Trophy hunting of lions can be a conservation tool through the process of
incentivisation. Perhaps the most important manifestation of this incentivisation is the
protection and/or acquisition of land (Jew and Bonnington, 2011; Lindsey et al.,
2007; Loveridge et al., 2006). In Zimbabwe, which has seen extensive land
conversions, there are examples of species recoveries/re-introductions though land
protection (Loveridge et al., 2006, 2007; Bond et al., 2004). There are good examples
of species recoveries through trophy hunting (white rhino- Leader-Williams et al.,
2005; leopard- Packer et al. 2009; black wildebeest- Lindsey et al., 2007). Trophy
hunting can also serve to reduce illegal hunting and improve population viability
through the operator’s self-interest in preservation (Lindsey, 2008; Lindsey et al.,
2007, 2012; Leader-Williams and Hutton, 2005). Whitman et al. (2007) note for
example how the removal of wire snares in hunting areas has reduced one
anthropogenic threat to lions. In Zambia, one of the achievements of Administrative
Management Design has been the use of hunting revenues to employ 500 village
scouts for anti-poaching in Game Management Areas (Lewis and Alpert, 1997).
With large home ranges (at least varying between 22 km2 to 7337 km2 in Cameroon
[Van Rijssel et al., 2008]), lions ideally require large tracts of connected habitat, and
this is where trophy hunting could play a significant conservation role on a large
spatial and long-term temporal scale. There is a growing acknowledgement for the
need for conservation action outside of PAs due to habitat loss/fragmentation (Fjeldsa
et al., 2004; Grunblatt et al., 1995; Wilkie and Carpenter, 1999; Willis et al., 2012).
Given trophy hunting’s potential to exist outside of PA’s and incentivize matrix
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biodiversity conservation (especially considering qualitative research suggesting
hunters prefer “unfenced wilderness areas” [Lindsey et al., 2006:288]), the colonial
justification of habitat protection through trophy hunting (see Jepson and Whittaker,
2002), could be one answer. Indeed, perhaps with extensive post-normal (Funtowicz
and Ravetz, 1992) strategic planning with scientists, local communities, hunting
organisations and politicians, combined with government intervention and
regulations, a conscious organization of connected habitats with corridors would
provide a guaranteed (spatial and genetic) sustainable base for a wider network of lion
populations.
Perhaps the most significant trophy hunting benefit is development, although even
this is commonly undermined by elite capture and corruption, whereby the benefits
actually reaching communities are minuscule compared to the total profits
(Loveridge, 2011; Loveridge et al., 2006). Despite the fundamental importance of the
conservation-development intersection, an in-depth exploration of trophy hunting’s
role in socio-economic development will not be pursued here. So, ecologically
speaking, when certain criteria and conditions are met, lion trophy hunting has the
potential to benefit both lions and wider biodiversity. Importantly though, there is a
distinct lack of quantifiable ecological evidence that lions have actually benefitted
from trophy hunting (Lindsey et al., 2007; Loveridge et al., 2006; Packer et al. 2011).
2.2 Alternative conservation
Moreover, given the ways in which trophy hunting can act as a conservation tool,
perhaps the strongest argument in favour of trophy hunting is that it provides the best
conservation alternative in many instances. Photographic tourism generates up to
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twice the revenue of trophy hunting (Whitman et al., 2007; Loveridge et al., 2006).
However, in areas unsuitable or unused for wildlife purposes like photographic
tourism, converting them into wildlife (hunting) areas is arguably better than its prior
non-consumptive use. Jenkins et al. (2003) allude to Tanzania’s remote and less
scenically attractive Kilombero Game Controlled Area, where trophy hunting has
provided benefits such as protection against poaching and livestock encroachment.
Furthermore, multiple authors note the resilience of the trophy hunting industry to
political instability, especially in the hunting rich country of Zimbabwe (Leader-
Williams and Hutton, 2005); there, hunting revenues dropped by only 12% (compared
to the tourism industry’s 75%) in the first year of the land seizures (Booth, 2002;
Bond et al., 2004). Lindsey et al., (2006, 2007) argue that trophy hunting is a
complementary consumptive resource use, and can therefore be used as part of a
wider conservation strategy, such as allowing hunting only during non-tourist seasons
or at very specific narrow times of the day (Whitman, 2002). Thus, despite significant
limitations that undermine the viability of populations, the potential for wildlife
habitat acquisition/protection and lion population sustainability, means that trophy
hunting can be pragmatically employed as a conservation strategy in areas unsuitable
for photographic tourism.
2.3 Sustainability
Importantly, trophy hunting of lions has the potential to act in a sustainable manner,
and thereby provide wider aforementioned conservation benefits. The two main ways
of ensuring this are through a minimum age and strict quotas. Since the age of the lion
killed is so ecologically significant, if an age-based criterion to trophy selection is
applied (at least 6 years old), Whitman et al. (2004, 2007) argue that trophy hunting
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can be biologically sustainable- even without the use of quotas (Fig. 3). Following
“[Craig] Packer’s black nose theory” (Damm, 2008:8), Whitman et al. (2004)
strongly support the use of nose pigmentation for estimating age (Figs 4 & 5),
demonstrating how an age-based criterion can be successfully applied. In practice,
since age restrictions have not, and probably will not be, followed 100%, enforcing
quotas is still vital in reducing potential deleterious consequences. Indeed, others
advocate the need for varying degrees of quotas, which must of course be context
dependent (Packer et al., 2011). Although Tanzania’s annual off takes are lower than
its quota of 500 (average of 243 between 1996 and 2006), Lindsey et al. (2012) and
Packer et al. (2011) recommend, in addition to a minimum 6 year age limit, maximum
off takes of 0.5 per 1000 km2 across Tanzania, with an increase to 1.0 in the Selous
game reserve.
The potential to achieve a sustainable balance is further substantiated by evidence
suggesting the resilience of trophy selection to environmental disturbance through
stochastic modeling (Fig. 6) (Whitman et al., 2007). The social stability of lions
appears to increase their resilience to population collapse (Packer et al. 2006). Thus,
given few clear-cut cases of genetic, behavioural and population impacts having
significant impacts on the viability of populations (Loveridge et al. 2006), combined
with models of potential ecological sustainability, the current rates of unsustainability
(Packer et al. 2009) are perhaps instead anthropogenically determined.
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3 Trophy hunting of lions: Conservation threat
3.1 Limitations and vulnerability
Given current practices and unsustainable off takes, trophy hunting can also be a
significant threat to lion conservation. Trophy hunting can increase the vulnerability
of lions to other threats, which undermines the sustainability of the practice. Despite
models of projected resilience (Whitman et al., 2007) and the social ‘safety net’ that
prides can provide (Packer et al. 2009), in practice, reducing the population (even if it
is temporarily ‘sustainable’), nonetheless increases their vulnerability to a variety of
threats. Several authors also note the danger of environmental-based vulnerability.
Smaller and isolated lion populations are more vulnerable to disease (Packer et al.,
2011). The increased game fences surrounding hunting areas (often to prevent prey
species predation from wild dogs and cheetahs [Lindsey et al., 2005]) restrict
movements of wild populations and contain individual or multiple prides within
smaller discrete biogeographical units; this increases the risk of a synergistic interplay
of detrimental drivers (Lindsey et al., 2007). Croes et al., (2011) recently found that
in Cameroon, hunting zones outside of Pas act as population ‘sinks’, drawing lions
from the protected ‘source’ population.
Moreover, one (human-induced) form of vulnerability could be the relatively untested
‘anthropogenic Allee effect’ (Courchamp et al., 2006), whereby the value of the
charismatic lion will increase its rarity, which could ultimately lead to an extinction
vortex (ibid; Palazy et al., 2011, 2012). Packer et al. (2009) highlight this risk using
examples in Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe of the maintenance of off-takes
through compensatory increases in hunting effort, where ecological criteria such as
minimum age are broken. Finally, local communities can undermine the vulnerable
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and brittle sustainability of trophy hunting. Lichtenfeld (2005) suggests that the
interplay of trophy and Maasia-induced hunting and the loss of habitat and reductions
in prey populations, are probably the reason for the lower lion density in Loibor
Serrit, Tanzania. Croes et al. (2011) suggest that high poaching and harvest rates of
17.5% in the Bénoué Complex, lion populations are well below carrying capacity.
They propose a fiver-year hunting moratorium, which, although criticized for lacking
sufficient evidence (Joppa and Hutton, 2012), is further defended by de Longh (2012),
given the functional extinction of lions in the neighbouring Gashaka-Gumti complex
in Nigeria (Henschel et al. 2010). To assess the viability of trophy hunting as a
conservation tool, trophy hunting must be evaluated in the light of the broader threats
to lions (see Bauer et al., 2008), and how trophy hunting’s interaction with these
threats may synergistically affect the delicate and vulnerable balance of sustainability.
The conservation benefits of trophy hunting are further limited by the manner in
which it is practiced. An important array of conditions needs to be met to achieve
ecological sustainability, and these currently seem a long way off from universal
adherence. Loveridge et al. (2006: 236) call for an “institutional structure that is able
to implement regulations effectively”. This is crucial to ensure sustainable practices,
good governance, transparency, reduced corruption and that the economic benefits are
distributed fairly (Whitman et al., 2007). Successful levels of regulation and
enforcement are however unlikely, given the extent of privately-owned hunting land
(Loveridge et al., 2006), and the varying scales of self-interest and desire for profit or
trophies. Trophy hunting is an archetypal conservation issue, where a lack of
resources and competing interests (such as between the profit-making industry and
international conservationists; between lions and farmers’ livestock), hinder
enforcement, ecological monitoring, and equal benefit distribution (ibid).
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3.2 Deleterious impacts
There is good evidence that trophy hunting can reduce the rate of increase of
populations of lions, having deleterious impacts, and in this sense, is ultimately
unsustainable. The harvesting of 2.4% of the total African lion population (600 out of
around 25,000) “is not sustainable” (IUCN, 2009:12); trophy hunting therefore
remains a threat to lion conservation. The majority of studies suggesting a detrimental
impact on lions from trophy hunting, focus on Tanzania (e.g. Lindsey et al., 2006,
2007; Loveridge et al., 2006; Packer et al. 2009, 2011), which holds most of the
remaining large lion populations (Packer et al. 2011), and where a large proportion of
land allows some degree of hunting (Fig. 7). Between 1996 and 2008, lion harvests
have declined by 50% across Tanzania, thereby suggesting that total lion populations
have also decreased (Packer et al., 2011). Hunting areas with the highest initial
harvests suffered the steepest declines, indicates a correlation between trophy hunting
and population decrease (Fig. 8). Trophy hunting appears to have been the primary
driver of a decline in lion abundance in the Tanzania’s trophy-hunting areas (ibid).
Elsewhere, in the Northwestern Matetsi Safari Area of Zimbabwe, between 1974-
2004 male lion harvests also reached “exceptionally high” unsustainable levels of up
to 11 lions per 1000km2 (Packer et al., 2006:2) (Fig. 9).
This population decrease from trophy hunting is related to two problems in lion
trophy hunting. Firstly, there is a significant sex bias, with the majority of lions
harvested being males (Packer et al., 2011; Lichtenfeld, 2005; Grobbelaar and
Masulani, 2003). This sexually selective force has significant impacts on the
sustainability of trophy hunting (Whitman et al., 2007). Surrounding Zimbabwe’s
Hwange National Park, Loveridge and Macdonald (2001) found that 67% of mature
male lions were harvested from a study population covering 6000 km2 of the National
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Park, reducing the adult male proportion from 30% to 13%. Packer et al. (2011:151)
found this “unsustainable” proportion to be up to 28% year-1 in the late 1990s.
Secondly, shooting underage lions (below 5 years) has significant impacts. The
practice of baiting in Tanzania for example mainly attracts underage lions who have a
propensity to scavenge (Whitman, 2002); this increases the chance of younger lions
being shot, especially when there is pressure for the high-paying client to shoot at
least one trophy (Kiffner, 2008). Whitman (2007) model the wider demographic
effects of different aged males on females, showing a clear unsustainability when
lions below 5 years are shot (Fig.6).
Drawing the demographic significance of the gendered bias and underage shooting
bias together, it is clear that the social structure of lions plays an important role in
trophy hunting impacts. One major socially driven impact of trophy hunting
documented in lion populations is infanticide (Lichtenfeld, 2005; Loveridge et al.,
2007), which can have long-term impacts on multiple populations (Grinnell et al.,
1995; Whitman et al., 2004). Packer et al.’s (2009) comparison of simulation models
(and harvest data) between infanticidal lions and non-infanticidal North American
black bears, projects lion population declines from even moderate hunting, with no
such parallel for black bears. The paternal investment of lions means that a bias of
male harvests increases the rate of replacement (ibid). Male lions also play an
important protective role for prides. Cooper (1991) document an example of one
potential impact in Savuti, Botswana, where they found high levels of
kleptoparasitism by spotted hyaenas amongst female groups that were devoid of
(hunted) males. Thus, with the potential that killing just one individual from a social
species (such as lions) can affect not only a whole pride but its long-term viability
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(Tuyttens and Macdonald 2000), highlights the significance of even small scale
analysis, and the serious consequences of trophy hunting
Furthermore, the male bias in hunting selection can lead to males expanding their
home range (due to a lack of competition), which increases the potential for them to
move out of the reserve, and therefore become vulnerable to trophy hunting, as seen
in the Okavanga Delta, Botswana (Loveridge and Macdonald, 2001). It would be even
worse for lion populations to shoot an equal male-female ratio; however, the fact that
trophy hunting necessitates this selective imbalance, and that this imbalance can result
in deleterious impacts, highlights the vulnerability caused, and the likely
unsustainability of trophy hunting practice. Thus, ecologically speaking, trophy
hunting can have significant harmful effects on lions, which undermines the notion of
trophy hunting as a conservation tool.
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4 Conservation Values Modern conservation is about “people in nature” (Collins, 2004: 461), the ethos of
which is increasingly challenged and politicized. Trophy hunting is controversial, the
argument being polarized between nature-centered intrinsic values and
anthropogenic-based utilitarian values. Ecosystem services, for example, are valued
and determined in functional and financial terms. However, translating the accepted
commodification of carbon into the functional commodification of (nonhuman)
animal life is not so easily supported.
Ethical considerations are inescapable elements of conservation strategies- especially
trophy hunting (Loveridge et al., 2006). Animal welfare organisations (e.g. PETA)
argue that it is fundamentally wrong to kill living creatures- especially for sport.
Conservationists may instead take an ethological approach; they question the extent to
which hunted animals suffer (Jeppesen, 1987; Macdonald et al., 2000), the risk of
overhunting (Whitman, 2002) and whether hunting is morally compatible with
conservation. Unethical practices like baiting also negatively impact public
perception of trophy hunting as a conservation tool (Lindsey et al., 2007). Some
authors (e.g. Ehrenfeld, 1988) consider biodiversity as an intrinsic value and therefore
also a moral absolute in conservation. This absolute view however, is currently
limited in a milieu of wildlife consumption and messy tradeoffs (Polasky, 2008), and
therefore trophy hunting, like wider conservation practice, requires a politicized
process of tradeoffs.
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4.1 Intrinsic-‐Instrumental Trade Offs
Counter to Loveridge et al. (2006: 227), it is important to attend to “motivational
[ethical and intrinsic] issues” in conservation, which need to be placed in the context
of population/species/global conservation strategies, and used to aid increasingly
popular functional approaches. Indeed, trade offs are necessary in trophy hunting, and
serve to blend the polarized intrinsic-instrumental values in conservation and trophy
hunting. Interestingly, the intrinsic value of lions manifests in ostensibly polarized
ways through trophy hunting, and is felt strongly on both sides of the hunting debate
(Loveridge et al., 2006). Drawing on insights from Loveridge et al. (2006) and Jepson
and Whittaker (2002), those involved in the hunting industry (at least historically)
express(ed) a right to functionally benefit (experientially or economically) from the
lion’s death, whilst simultaneously desiring intellectual and aesthetic preservation and
assuming a moral obligation/conviction to ensure the species’ survival. This
destabilizes the intrinsic-instrumental binary, and raises questions of whether this
intrinsically based moral responsibility and limit depends on the right to benefit from
the wildlife ‘resource’, which thereby (in death) gains an instrumental value. Perhaps
then, intrinsic moral value depends on instrumental value (which paradoxically
derives from an intrinsic value)?
There is an increasing necessity to introduce “wider management systems needed to
deliver sustainable use and, if possible, incentive-driven conservation” (Hutton and
Leader-Williams, 2003: 215). Trophy hunting is a pragmatic tool in this respect. For
contemporary conservation, tradeoffs are a significant aspect of translating ecological
ideals into conservation practice (Leader-Williams et al., 2010). Whether it is
balancing the short-term economic benefits of trophy hunting with the long-term risk
of exploitation (Lavigne et al. 1996), accepting loss of individuals as the price paid
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for providing a sustainable population in an area where no lions would otherwise
exist, or balancing environmental conservation with the development needs of local
communities, the conservation role of trophy hunting must be evaluated relative to the
alternative. One example of this potential tradeoff process is problem animal control.
Lindsey et al. (2006) also found strong interest among hunting clients to shoot
problem animals (those threatening humans or livestock), with Conover (2002)
lauding the potential for this to minimize the costs of living with problem animals
through economic compensation of local communities living near hunting areas in
Zimbabwe (Whitman et al., 2007). Another example is green hunting, whereby
clients pay huge prices to immobilize wildlife (Loveridge et al., 2006). More
compromising solutions, such as these, are one way of attending to both sides of the
debate.
Trophy hunting is not an ideal conservation strategy, but is an important tool, and
therefore shouldn’t be universally banned. Indeed, this can be illustrated through a
comparison with contemporary critiques of aid (see Moyo, 2009). Just like aid, trophy
hunting can be harmful to its recipients due to poor governance, corruption and
dependence; however, if it were suddenly taken away it would have even worse
consequences for the recipients (lions or aid-dependents). As economically quantified
by Lindsey et al., (2012), the huge profits generated from lions, means that totally
prohibiting trophy hunting would have even worse impacts on the lions (and
dependent ecosystems and local communities) than continuing the practice or even
over-hunting. For example, lion populations have declined in Kenya, since its trophy
hunting ban in 1977 (Lindsey et al., 2006). Thus, a pragmatic approach that does
attend to intrinsic and instrumental values is crucial to ensure trophy hunting of lions
is sustainable and beneficial to both lions and people.
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5 Conclusion Trophy hunting can and does conserve lions. It incentivizes the protection of habitat
and maintenance of sustainable populations in areas where there is no conservation
alternative. However, increased vulnerability to other threats, poor governance,
corruption, and unethical and unsustainable practices pervasively undermine its
success as a conservation strategy, and can result in deleterious impacts. Trophy
hunting is a hugely significant conservation tool, although perhaps not a good
conservation strategy.
With such huge sums of money entering the industry, it is vital that the development
needs of local communities are met in order to justify what in practice may often be a
tradeoff between killing individual lions and benefitting locals. More studies of where
money actually accrues are therefore vital (A. Loveridge, 2011). Trophy hunting
necessitates a trade off between intrinsic moral values and killing. Trade offs of this
kind are common in contemporary conservation strategies- especially in conservation
outside of PAs (Willis et al., 2012)- which often balance instrumental values with
political and practical necessity. For trophy hunting to realize its conservation
potential and cease being a significant threat to lions, requires better use of scientific
information (Lindsey et al., 2006; Packer et al., 2011; Whitman et al., 2007), better
regulation, and better control mechanisms. Motivating all sections involved in trophy
hunting is crucial to achieve this. There is thus still a long way to go before trophy
hunting becomes a tool, and not a threat, to lion conservation
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7 Figures
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Figure 2: Proportion of hunters visiting each country (based on latest estimates for hunters visiting each nation). Source: Lindsey et al. (2007)
Figure 1: Recent trends in the number of foreign hunters visiting southern and East Africa, demonstrating an overall increase in total foreign hunters between 19990 and 2004. Source: Lindsey et al. (2007)
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Figure 3: Effects of 30 years of lion trophy hunting as a function of hunting quota size and male age in a hypothetical population. Average outcome after 100 simulation runs is shown from shooting males in four age groups (≥ 3, ≥4, ≥5, and ≥ 6 years old): (a) number of adult females after 30 years, (b) total number of males harvested, (c) total number of 5- to 6-year-old “trophies” harvested. Figs. 3a-c demonstrate that irrespective of quota size, harvesting males at least 5 years old had a negligible effect on population viability. Figs. 3a,b demonstrates the higher vulnerability of females than males. Fig. 3c suggests that placing age restrictions on lions shot increased the total number of males harvested after 30 years and increased the number of 5- and 6- year old trophies in the population by protecting young males. Source: Whitman et al., (2004, 2007)
Figure 4: Age estimation for adult lions using nose colouration. a, Identification photograph of a 3-yr-old Serengeti male; b, Excised photo of nose tip; c, GIS rendering of nose colouration; d, Age-change of nose colouration for males and females in two separate populations. Whitman et al., (2004) demonstrate the clear relationship between nose pigmentation and lion age, with the model proving “robust…to errors in age assessment based on nose coloration”. There is an obvious difference in the degree of pigmentation between 30% and 60%, and even if hunters applied a 50% rule (for 5-year-old lions), the long-term effect on population size would be small (Whitman et al., 2007). Professional hunters in Tanzania are currently using the nose pigmentation index in concert with other aging methods to reduce the likelihood of shooting immature male lions (ibid). Source: Whitman et al., (2004)
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Figure 5: Effects of 40 years of trophy hunting of male lions on female population size as a function of hunting quota size and male age. Average outcomes over 100 simulation runs from shooting males ≥3, ≥4, ≥5, and ≥6 years old are shown. The dotted lines show use of nose coloration as an accurate and reliable measure of male age: ≥40% black, 4 years old; ≥50% black, 5 years old; and ≥60% black, 6 years old. Source: Whitman et al. (2007)
Figure 6: Stochastic model using 40 years of data from the Serengeti. It shows the effects of 30 years of trophy hunting of male lions on the number of adult females as a function of the hunting quota size and male age for a population recovering from a hypothetical environmental disturbance after 100 simulation runs (males shot in four age groups: ≥3, ≥4, ≥5, and ≥6 years old). The graph demonstrates that provided age limits are followed, environmental disturbance did not undermine population viability/sustainability. Source: Whitman et al., (2007)
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Figure 7: Boundaries of different types of protected areas in Tanzania. Hunting is prohibited in National Parks, permitted in some parts of game reserves and permitted in ‘Game Control Areas’ and ‘Open Areas’. (Source: Pelkey et al., 2000). Trophy hunting is the chief land use in game reserves (aside from limited photographic tourism in some areas like the Selous Game Reserve) (Lichtenfeld, 2005). Tanzania has an extensive network of national parks (38,365 km2, including Ngorongoro Conservation Area), game reserves (102,049 km2), and game-controlled areas (202,959 km2), and has more lions than any other country in Africa. Source: Packer et al. (2011).
Figure 8: Average number of lions (heavy lines, diamonds) and leopards harvested (thin lines, circles) in major hunting areas. (The solid regression line demonstrates statistically significant declines between 1996 and 2008; dashed regression line demonstrates an insignificant relationship). Source: Packer et al. (2011)
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Figure 9: Estimated proportion of the lion population in each country removed annually by trophy hunting, using population estimates from Bauer and van der Merwe, 2004. Graph demonstrates that whilst this proportion of harvested lions is low for most countries (<4% per year- ibid), Zimbabwe seems to have harvested a far higher proportion of lions from 1988 to 2004 than any other country, and its off take rate has been 2-3 times higher than most other countries from 1998-2004. Source: Packer et al. (2009)