Zambia bans hunting of lions and leopards
Sylvia Masebo, Zambia’s Tourism Minster, has announced that Zambia has banned the hunting of lions and leopards because of the rapid decline in its numbers of big cats.
“Tourists come to Zambia to see the lion and if we lose the lion we will be killing our tourism industry,” she told Reuters.
Zambia’s tourism minister said there was more value in game-viewing tourism than blood sport, which brought in just $3m (£1.9m) last year and that the country did not have enough cats for hunting purposes.
Chuma Simukonda from the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) said the ban would be bad for tourism. “The population of cats in Zambia is around 3,400 to 3,500 and with the ban on safari hunting for cats, we are likely to lose on revenue,” he told the AFP news agency.
This follows after Botswana banned hunting form January 2014 Read more
