The UK government's attempt to ban the import of hunting trophies of endangered and vulnerable species was thwarted in 2023, despite strong public support and initial legislative progress. Here's a breakdown of the latest developments:
Background:
· A 2019 Conservative Party manifesto pledge promised to outlaw trophy imports.
· The Animals Abroad Bill, aiming to implement this, was shelved in 2022.
· A Private Member's Bill, the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, was introduced by Henry Smith MP with government backing.
Recent Developments:
· The Bill successfully passed the House of Commons in March 2023.
· However, its progress stalled in the House of Lords in September 2023.
· Over 60 amendments were tabled, seen as deliberate efforts to weaken or delay the Bill.
· The government didn’t allocate further time for its passage before the parliamentary session ended, effectively killing the Bill at that time.
Current Status:
· Public opinion polls show overwhelming support for a ban, exceeding 80%.
· Wildlife NGO’s and scientists urge the government to reintroduce the legislation.
· John Spellar MP (Labour) reintroduced this Bill as a Private Members’ Bill on the 6th December 2023. The second reading of this Bill is due to take place on the 22nd March 2024. We are urging as many MPs as possible to attend and see the Bill safely through to the next stage.
· If you are in the UK, please contact your MP and ask him/her to support this Bill by attending.
There is a clear need for trophy hunting to cease. This Bill limits the import ban to endangered and vulnerable species where such a ban is urgently needed to prevent further catastrophic declines in the wild. Lions, for example, we believe now number fewer than 10,000 animals pan Africa and there are likely no more than five viable populations remaining.
Hunting tourism is quite simply not sustainable and we risk losing so many majestic iconic animals if this ban is not speedily enacted.
LionAid Meeting with former President of Botswana, Ian Khama
We were delighted to meet once again with former President Ian Khama when he recently came to the UK. Mr Khama stopped all trophy hunting in Botswana when he was in office. After ten years in office, he has extensive experience and is definitely of the informed opinion that trophy hunting has no conservation benefit and no rural community value.
Whilst the opposition to a ban on trophy hunting express their “concerns” that the economic impacts of a cessation of trophy hunting will potentially harm livelihoods in rural communities and go further to suggest that trophy hunting contributes to tourism revenue and conservation efforts, they fail to produce any independently verifiable evidence of their claims.
Take a look at any of the “evidence” that supporters of trophy hunting quote to support their claims – it will inevitably be another “scientific paper” written by a fellow hunter advocate. Simply more rhetoric.
In actual fact, 110 of the 165 hunting concessions in Tanzania are now defunct and similarly 40% of the hunting concessions in Zambia have also closed. Unsurprisingly, the hunting communities try to bury such information as it doesn’t fit the rhetoric they so like to espouse.
The truth is that the trophy animals within these defunct hunting concessions have all been shot and there is nothing left to shoot – what a sad reality this is. Africa’s majestic wildlife is being mined almost to extinction for commerce and Africa’s magnificent wildlife heritage is disappearing before our eyes.