International cooperation crucial to save lion populations

In a recently published review article, they assessed the current and potential future role of international treaties regarding lion conservation.

To conduct this study, international wildlife lawyers Melissa Lewis and Arie Trouwborst from Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands teamed up with lion experts David Macdonald, Amy Dickman and other scientists from the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) – the research group that made Cecil the lion famous.

Their analysis, published in the journal Nature Conservation, clearly shows the importance of various global and regional treaties for lion conservation. For instance, dozens of important lion areas have received international protection under treaties like the World Heritage Convention and the Ramsar Wetlands Convention, whereas trade in lion bones and hunting trophies is regulated through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Apply international conventions

There is still much room for improvement in the way the international commitments of lion range states are applied on the ground, the review notes. However, the authors conclude that it is worthwhile to invest in such improvements, and stress the importance of strategies involving the local people who live alongside lions. The review offers many concrete recommendations for optimizing the contributions of the various treaties to lion conservation.

Convention on Mirgratory Species

A particularly important recommendation is to formally list lions under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS). A proposal to list lions is on the agenda of the next intergovernmental summit of the parties to the CMS in October this year. As lead author Arie Trouwborst explains:

“Listing the lion would raise the profile of this iconic species, and would moreover enable the CMS to provide a framework for coordinating and assisting conservation efforts in the 25 countries where lions still occur in the wild.”

Reference

Arie Trouwborst, Melissa Lewis, Dawn Burnham, Amy Dickman, Amy Hinks, Timothy Hodgetts, Ewan A. Macdonald & David W. Macdonald (2017). International law and lions (Panthera leo): understanding and improving the contribution of wildlife treaties to the conservation and sustainable use of an iconic carnivore. Nature Conservation, Sept. 2017.