SCIF Conservation Report Highlights African Projects

Safari Club International Foundation, which funds and manages wildlife conservation projects, outdoor education, and humanitarian services worldwide, reported on its projects in Africa during the SCI Convention in Reno. Among the highlights of the report:

Rhinoceros

SCIF is working to connect hunting with conservation and enhancement of black rhinoceros. Namibia has the most progressive black rhino management program in Africa and has the CITES-approved ability to auction 5 (five) black rhino hunts as part of their management program. In 2009, an American hunter took one of these hunts, thus creating a need for the USFWS to approve the importation of the first black rhino trophy into the United States in decades. This issue is significant because the black rhinoceros is listed as Endangered on the Endangered Species Act, and thus would require the hunter to demonstrate that the harvest of the animal enhanced the species.

SCIF assisted the Government of Namibia to provide critical information about their rhinoceros management program to the USFWS to show how the hunting of a single rhinoceros can enhance the black rhinoceros population. SCI and SCIF submitted official comments to the USFWS in support of importing the black rhinoceros. Also, SCIF’s DC staff worked to garner support from twenty-six like-minded organizations on the request to import the black rhinoceros hunting trophy. If the importation is approved, it will be the first recognition by the USFWS that the taking of an animal can enhance a species. This issue demonstrates how the use of a natural resource promotes the betterment and sustainability of that resource. Many other species will benefit from success in this issue.

African Lion

As researchers completed a SCIF-funded population survey and review of national lion status in Mozambique, plans were already underway to conduct a similar project in Tanzania. Efforts to attract conservation partners to the project were successful, and funding was obtained for the entire project as the result of generous contributions from SCIF, Tanzania Game Tracker Safaris, Gerald and Eric Pasinisi of Tanganyika Wildlife Safaris, and the SCI NC Triangle Chapter.

While the SCIF Tanzania Lion Project continues, SCIF is working to help Mozambique complete the remaining step, which is to finalize a national lion management plan. SCIF sponsored and participated in Mozambique’s national lion workshop which intended to produce the plan and will sponsor Tanzania’s workshop when they are ready to develop their plan.

AWCF

The 8th annual African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) was attended by fourteen countries including the USFWS, six NGOs, and nine professional hunting associations to focus on African lion, leopard, and CITES issues. Since the meeting was held in November, after the submission deadline for listing proposals, all proposals being considered for action at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to CITES in March were available and discussed.

Significant at the meeting were CITES proposals on elephants and rhinoceros. Tanzania and Zambia are trying to downlist elephants from CITES Appendix I to Appendix II, and Kenya, Ghana, Congo and others are proposing to ban all trade in elephant ivory for the next 20 years. Kenya is also proposing stricter rhinoceros enforcement measures. Also significant at the AWCF meeting were range state presentations on the management of leopards, another cat species that has attracted the attention of conservation groups. Progress reports were given on all work regarding the African lion. It appears that SCIF’s continued population surveys and efforts on lion conservation and management plans have paid off; no CITES listing proposals concerning the African lion were submitted.

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