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WildCRU and Panthera announce the Cecil Lion Summit
Meeting of World Leaders in Lion Conservation Convened by WildCRU and Panthera at the Recanati-Kaplan Centre in Oxford in 2016
New York, NY – Partners WildCRU and Panthera today announced that they are organizing and hosting a landmark summit for range wide lion conservation in 2016, in honour of Cecil the lion, whose death triggered a global outpouring of empathy and awareness for lions and their imperilled status.
As the American talk show host Jimmy Kimmel said when he exhorted his viewers to support WildCRU’s Hwange Lion Project, out of the sadness of the illegal death of Cecil can come good. The global roar for lion conservation that followed has created a unique moment – and potentially a historic turning point – for lion conservation. Seizing that moment, partners WildCRU and Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, are convening the Cecil Summit to grasp this new momentum in lion conservation, and inviting the foremost conservation experts from organizations throughout the lion conservation community to join us in a concerted effort to save the lion.
Professor David Macdonald, Director of WildCRU, said, “The key question for the summit to address, realistically but ambitiously, will be what could success look like? How might Africa, with all its varied circumstances look, following a successful revolution in lion conservation and how could this feasibly be delivered.” He added, “and delivering the well-being of lions, and other big carnivores, necessitates also delivering the well-being of local people, communities and nations that live alongside them – that is the holistic goal of modern wildlife conservation.”
Lions are in crisis. Because lions are uniquely visible to tourists there is a false impression that they are not endangered. The opposite is true: they are disappearing in plain sight. From an estimated population of 200,000 across Africa a century ago, and 30,000 a decade ago, as few as 20,000 lions may now roam free in the entire continent. Their numbers have been devastated by loss of habitat and wild prey, poaching, conflict with farming communities, unsustainable legal hunting, and emerging threats including the use of lion bones in traditional Asian medicine. Lions are being killed daily in Africa.
Dr. Luke Hunter, President of Panthera, said, “When I first started studying lions over two decades ago, it was inconceivable that the species might one day be endangered. Now, we have to confront that reality. Lions and people both evolved in Africa and co-existed for millennia, but today, one is losing the race for survival. The Cecil Summit will bring together the best minds to respond to this massive conservation challenge. ”
Cecil was studied through the Hwange Lion Project, operated by Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) and supported by Panthera, for eight years before being tragically killed outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.
Read the Press Release – Panthera and WildCRU Call for Global Efforts to Conserve the African Lion
About WildCRU and Panthera
WildCRU is the leading university-based felid research and conservation centre in the world. Its partnership with the highly accomplished cat scientists of Panthera, who represent the most comprehensive effort of its kind in cat conservation, enable them and their multiple partners to achieve landscape level impact. To effectively implement strategies that stick, as exemplified by WildCRU’s Hwange Lion Project and Panthera’s Project Leonardo, they actively work with governments, park managers, landowners, local communities and NGOs to develop actionable solutions.
WildCRU, founded in 1986 by David Macdonald, has as mission to achieve practical solutions to conservation problems through original scientific research. It is a part of the Zoology Department, University of Oxford. Visit www.wildcru.org and follow twitter @WildCRU_OX
Panthera, founded in 2006, is devoted exclusively to the conservation of wild cats and their ecosystems. Utilizing the expertise of the world’s premier cat biologists, Panthera develops and implements global conservation strategies for the most imperiled large cats – tigers, lions, jaguars, snow leopards, cheetahs, pumas and leopards. Representing the most comprehensive effort of its kind, Panthera works in partnership with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, local communities and governments around the globe. Visit www.panthera.org
