Conn. can help ensure future for Africa’s Big 5
Recently Dr. Chuma Simukonda, director of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife for the Republic of Zambia, disparaged SB-925, Connecticut legislation that would ban the import and possession of the trophies of Africa’s Big 5 — elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards and giraffes.
He claimed communities in Zambia tolerate the wildlife largely because they derive income, social services, and much-needed game meat from regulated hunting. However, he lacks credibility. What he neglected to mention is that in September of 2019 the Community Resources Boards in Zambia released a press statement expressing their deep concern that the communities had not been given their share of either concession fees or hunting revenues. The CRBs withdrew their signatures to all the hunting permits in their areas and refused to sign any others. The communities had received no concession fees since 2016 and no hunting revenue since last 2018, according to president of the Zambia National Community Resources Board. By law, the communities are entitled to 20 percent of the concession fees and 50 percent of the hunting revenue. The chiefs who run the communities are owed a 5 percent share of both.
That news came after the halting of a controversial hunt of at least 1,250 hippos in Zambia’s worldrenowned Luangwa Valley.
“It is clear to the community that this cull was a thinly disguised money-making venture, dressed up as a wildlife management tool,” Zambia’s National Community Resource Boards Association coordinator Isaac Banda told the media. “Our hippos, in terms of economic value, are worth more alive than dead, and the impact of this cull on tourism in Zambia would have had significant long-term effects.”
The truth is, hunting organizations, and the corrupt governments they cozy up to, do not want the public to know that non-consumptive, community-based wildlife watching tourism is what provides incentive for conservation in Africa. It is the silver bullet for protecting African wildlife, not actual bullets.
Simukonda claims Zambia has maintained stable or increasing populations of elephant, lion, leopard, and many more species, but the truth is African elephants are just a step away from extinction.
That is what a new report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature revealed in March.
The population of savanna elephants has fallen 60 percent since 2008 — they are now considered endangered, while forest elephants have declined by more than 86 percent. They are considered critically endangered. Together, there are only 415,000 elephants left in Africa.
In recent years, the IUCN also elevated the threat level of giraffes two categories to “vulnerable to extinction,” estimating there are only 97,500 giraffes remaining in Africa. Leopards have lost 31 percent of their range worldwide in the past 22 years; plus, there has been a 59 percent decline in their prey populations across 78 protected areas in Africa. Lions have disappeared from 94 percent of their African range — their numbers have plummeted to 25,000. And overall, the black rhino is critically endangered while the white rhino is classified as near threatened. Some subspecies are already extinct in the wild.
However, Connecticut can help ensure their future by passing SB-925.
Despite such grim numbers, trophy hunters still kill these animals for recognition like the African Big 5 Grand Slam Award, not conservation. The Safari Club International’s Record Book ranks biggest tusks, horns, skulls and bodies. And make no mistake, Connecticut residents want bragging rights too. Since 2005, Connecticut residents have killed 71 leopards, 39 lions and a giraffe. They also killed seven elephants. The 2016 near total federal ban on commercial trade in elephant ivory still allows Americans to import two elephant trophies per year. Let that sink in.
Trophy hunters want you to believe they are better than poachers because they have a permit from Fish and Wildlife Service. However, Cecil the lion did not suffer any less because the American who shot him with the first arrow at 10 p.m. July 1, 2015, had a permit. Wounded, he was left for at least 11 hours before the hunter found him and finished him off with a second arrow. That was key because the hunter wanted a bow hunting record. (If a rifle were used the record would be disqualified.)
And permits do not make a difference to the offspring of dead animals who must survive without parents to teach them about the harsh lessons of nature and avoiding conflicts with humans. Leopard cubs, for example, would normally stay with their moms for two years.