For the record, it was already my understanding that lion quotas in at least some GMAs in Zambia do need to be cut. Anyone who has purchased our Zambia Country Report already knows that, as the book mentions this in its concession-by-concession review. My intention last month was to warn hunters booked for a lion hunt in Zambia about the possibility that their hunt may be postponed or cancelled due to the cuts and the possible litigation that would most likely ensue between safari operators and ZAWA. I reminded you that this exact development occurred the last time ZAWA announced cuts. So you understand, those law suits resulted because safari operators possessed signed contracts with ZAWA for their quotas and had done their marketing based on that. Cutting the lion quotas meant hunt cancellations and lost income for some operators, especially those who take their full lion quota each year. The courts at the time agreed that the cuts were a breach of contract, and ZAWA was forced to concede.
Zambia, as does the rest of Africa, desperately needs to implement a national lion conservation plan. E-mail Extra subscribers saw the e-mail bulletin I distributed for John J. Jackson, III, of Conservation Force regarding the urgent crisis we face in lion hunting and his efforts to head it off. As I already mentioned, African lions are on the verge of........(continued)
