Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 29 June 2017

South Africa approves export of 800 lion skeletons this year

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG (AP) —
Some 800 skeletons of
captive-bred lions can
be legally exported from
South Africa this year, the
government said Wednes-
day, meeting demand for
the bones in parts of Asia
while alarming critics who
believe the policy threat-
ens Africa’s wild lions.
The lion bone industry,
which supplies a traditional
medicine market, has be-
come a key part of the de-
bate over how to protect
the continent’s wild lions,
which are under pressure
from human encroach-
ment and poaching.
The lion bone quota meets
international guidelines on
wildlife trade and a three-
year study with annual re-
views will assess its impact
on wild lions, South Africa’s
environmental affairs de-
partment said.
“South Africa reiterates its
concern that if the trade
in bones originating from
captive-bred lions is pro-
hibited, lion bones may be
sourced illegally from wild In this file photo taken June 15, 2014, lions yawn in the Madikwe Game Reserve, South Africa. Associated Press
lion populations,” the de-
partment said.
Some conservationists, “canned hunting.” exports of South African lion tially devastating for wild bones have begun to fill
however, say the legal A 2015 report on lion bones skeletons increased from lion and critically endan- demand for increasingly
trade may be fueling de- said demand in China and about 50 skeletons in 2008 gered tiger populations.” scarce tiger bones,” Pan-
mand for bones, whether Southeast Asia followed to 573 in 2011, the report The South African trade thera said.
from captive-bred or wild stronger conservation mea- said. Panthera, a global feeds “a growing market The number of wild lions
lions. They also note that sures aimed at protecting conservation group, said in among upwardly mobile in Africa has plummeted
many of the captive-bred tigers and other Asian big March that the South Afri- Asians for luxury products by about 40 percent in
lions are killed by pay- cats, possibly prompting can government’s plans for such as lion bone wine” the last two decades to
ing clients in a practice dealers to turn to African a lion bone quota this year and “has grown exponen- roughly 20,000, according
described by critics as lions as a substitute. Legal were “arbitrary and poten- tially since 2007, as lion to estimates.q