with Zambia National Dance troupe Livingstone based artists and other
delegates during a cocktail hosted for RETOSA delegates in Livingstone
at Chrismar Hotel on Wednesday night
Tourism and Arts Permanent Secretary Stephen Mwansa says there is need to change the mindsets of Zambia from thinking that every animal should end up in a pot.
Mr Mwansa said Zambia needs to step up animal conservation efforts before it loses its entire wildlife resources.
He warned that posterity will judge the current generation harshly if it fails to converse its wildlife.
Mr Mwansa expressed worry that Zambia is losing its wildlife resources at an alarming rate.
His comments are in total contrast to Tourism Minister Jean Kapata’s recent decision to allow the hunting of Lions and Leopards in Zambia.
‘We need a total change management of our people to make them understand that it is not every animal they see which should end up in a pot. Let our people know that once they kill that Elephant and they eat and go and give business to the Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company, that’s it,’ Mr Mwansa remarked.
Mr Mwansa was speaking Tuesday evening in Lusaka at the residence of German Ambassador to Zambia Bernd Finke when he officiated at the handover of funds to 10 animal conversation organisations.
But Mrs Kapata clarified that Zambia has lifted the ban on the hunting of leopards and will allow lion hunting next year after it established that the population of the big cats was higher than previously thought.
In 2013, then Tourism Minister Sylvia Masebo banned the hunting of lions and other endangered wild cats such as leopards, saying the big cat numbers in Zambia were too low to have a sustainable hunting industry.
Mrs Kapata however stated that trophy hunting would not be done indiscriminately as the government was mindful of the fact that many tourists visited Zambia to see the big cats.
“We have lifted the hunting ban for leopards starting this 2015/2016 season, which begins in July and we are going to allow lion hunting starting next year,” Kapata told Reuters.
“We did an aerial survey and established that we have more than 4,000 lions and leopards are in excess of 8,000.”
The hunters would only be allowed to target old male big cats and those cast away by their families, she said.
“We have always hunted lions and leopards but what we are doing now is to hunt in a more controlled manner. We have reduced the number of big cats to be hunted per block,” Kapata said, referring to 23 hunting zones set aside for hunting.
Lions and leopards are the feline pair of the so-called “Big Five” group of African wild animals coveted by trophy hunters. The others are elephant, rhino and buffalo.
There are concerns about Africa’s big animals in the face of a surge in poaching where well-armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for their ivory tusks and rhinos for horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.
See how this bunch (PF) are clueless and spewing garbage on a daily and actually getting paid for it. A Minister comes up and lifts ban on hunting, then a PS comes with statement saying we should change the mindset of Zambians from thinking that every animal should end up in a pot. I find this statement insulting to us Zambians.
Basically what he’s saying is that its okay for some white (tourist) trophy hunter to kill these animals for the fun of it, while us Zambians cannot do that even if we are hunting for food.
Cry My Beloved Country.
To crown it all, you have some people wanting to create a mine in a game park in the name of job creation. Please can government be consistent.
“…if it fails to converse its wildlife…”
WOW! At age five i already knew the difference between conserve and converse – the two are not related in any way. Good that LT are now letting infants give a go at journalism!
@William Tekere Banda, you are right, inconsistencies are the order of the day in the PF.
Kaili bana lankula kuti vision palibe.
Zambians sure, we can’t even preserve the things we were given for FREEEEEE!!!…to talk about PF, this one says this, this one says that…total confusion in these people, they have no plan at all…nothing..now madam minister is yapping out statistics because she is under pressure,..yaba! and us zambians we will believe those figure of “excess” lions….the worst is yet to come
Stu.pidity at it’s fullest. Telling Zambians to change the mindset instead of themselves. who thing every animal should be sold to foreigners for Trophy Hunting.
PF leadership is so irritating. Zambians should do something to remove these fo.ols of of power. A PS is supposed to a an educated civil servant / subject matter expert to advise the government? not the clowns that PF has appointed?
Lungu should be serious. Than have these fo.ols making such silly statements. what a country Zambia has become.
God: where have we gone wrong? do we deserve such leadership??
JAS ONILY TOKO… NO ACTION AND NO WEKI
Everyone is paying tax in PF Gov, it was landlords yesterday, now its animals. Lungu has to auction his dirty hat, they have run out of money.
Are we surprised ?No!We are beiNg ruled by a bunch of corrupt useless people who always think with their stomachs.Lion,Leopard,Elephant hunting has been banned in most African countries and yet here we are again selling our wildlife for a few thousand dollars.ZAMBIANS WAKE UP AND SPEAK OUT.
The decision must be reversed NOW!
people always hate people who are of integrity and honest,i have lost hope in zambia as the caliber of leaders we vote for are of the least that a dog would even vote for,killing a hunting a rabbit,what a shame silly comment,the worse is yet to come.
Mind you the big cats naturaly control illegal killing of animals as hunters get scared of indiscrimate hunting.game croping is the best.Let’s preserve what God gave us.
Is UTH doing the same to Zambian? The death rate is always high and one would think that they are trying to do ‘Human Cropping’.
YOU ARE VERY CORRECT MR. TOURISM PS. ZAMBIA IS VERY CARELESS IN THE MANNER IT HANDLES ITS WILDLIFE. QUICK RICHES ATTITUDE IN OUR ZAMBIAN LEADERS IS WHAT HAS KILLED OUR COUNTRY. DUE TO DESPERATION AND GREEDY, THESE GUYS ENGAGE IN CORRUPTION. ZAMBIANS LIKE SHOWING OFF! PLEASE WE NEED MORE OF SUCH LEADERS WITH RIGHT MINDS. STOP GIVING LICENSES TO KILL OUR ANIMALS, ESPECIALLY THE BIG FIVE.
Do not condemn Zambia’s big cats to the fate of Zambia’s rhinos. http://www.yousignanimals.org/Lion-hunting-ban-just… Pls sign & share this petition.
Hunting will eradicate the last big cats in Zambia. The fact that Trophy Hunting accounts for about .27% of the GDP and only 1.8% of overall tourism in nine countries that allow trophy hunting has not been discussed. Tourists will avoid Zambia if it allows the hunting of endangered species.
If hunting resumes, poaching will increase. The infrastructure to enforce hunting regulations is not in place. A full ban on hunting makes enforcement easier.
Zambia’s wildlife should be treasured as national assets. These animals are part of the national heritage. They should remain as a legacy for future generations, not be sold to the…
Sometimes I tend to wonder what the policies of this government are like. It was only recent when it proposed the lifting of ban to kill big cats and yet did not have any statistics to back their lifting, here it is today talking about conservation, what a confusion in PF government. I am not worried about one who kills for the pot as long as he does not intend to resell and if he stays close to the park. This is what we call ruling by experiments. Lungu should bring on board hard core learned people specialised in these scientific ministries, not just bringing in rifraffs, who just want to line their pockets with stacks of kwacha. For example Wildlife field require people who have a pation for animals, not people who when they see a diger, IT IS ALWAYS MUNANI UYO, where on earth.
I agree with the PS. There is a national emergency going on with Zambia’s wildlife, and if we are not careful we will only realise once it is all gone! GRZ needs to put more funds forward for conservation, and it needs to be SERIOUS about ensuring communities living with wildlife are the primary beneficiaries. Over the past 5 years there are huge areas of bush in Zambia that are now empty of widlife, where only a short time ago there were herds. You cannot go to Mfuwe only and think that the whole country has so many animals. If we conserve now we can decide later if we want to allow hunting, cropping for food, selling of live animals etc. If it is all gone we will never have that choice again. Wildlife is one of the most sustainable natural resources we are wasting!
Jean Kapata hunting leopards and lions is the past and people are moving away from it as its not sustainable practices. Do you know Butler’s Tourism Life Cycle Model? Right now your management has hit the decline stage, the reason you are resorting to 1990’s old ways of thinking which are short term goals and won’t bring long term economic gains. You need to decide if you’re going to stay in the decline or rejuvenation stage. One way can be through focusing on tourism diversification such as Eco tourism and heritage. Anthropocentrism regards humans as separate from and superior to nature and holds that human life has intrinsic value while other entities are resources that may justifiably be exploited for the benefit of humankind. In sustainable tourism this is a wrong way of thinking.
The hunters would only be allowed to target old male big cats and those cast away by their families, she said.
When your boss is an empty tin like Kapata you have no choice but to follow suit…these people are utterly clueless taking this country nowhere, who can even afford game meat? People who live in these areas near parks do not even eat…the tins are merely contradicting themselves.
How would trophy-hunters know that the old male lion is a cast away and not patrolling its territory? Why is the opposition quiet on this issue?
Wake up Zambians!!
For once you see as I have always stated. The Opposition in government misses the point. They do not know that they being elected are part of government. The are busy crying about a constitution, a constitution that already exists and can be amended.
Viva President Nawakwi.
WAT A GOVERMENT.WHILE MORE THAN 70% OF ZAMBIANS ARE LIVING IN POVERTY,THEY ARE BUSY DISCUSSING LIONS.
Trophy Hunting has negative impacts on sustainable development. In this perspective, humans are given all rights above all things; their needs, wants, and satisfaction are most valued and therefore, all other matters such as natural resources become less valuable. The problem lies in the exploitation of natural resources without discernment and consideration of the future. If humans do not consider the impacts they have on the future, resources may become exhausted. The implications this may pose on sustainable tourism development are then negative in the sense that humans are practicing unsustainable ethics. Indulging in their own needs and wants, humans might overlook the scarcity of resources and therefore exhaust or destroy it. To sustain ourselves we must sustain our resources.
Whats the point of lifting the ban when poaching goes on everyday? Will Kapata be trailing these professional hunters wherever they hunt? We all know how weak and corrupt our officers are. A permit for one cat will mean twenty in the bush. While countries with better organisation and higher stocks of cats in the region have maintained the ban our visionless PF is doing the complete opposite. They are such a pathetic and confused lot that you feel like throwing up.
you *****s with shallow minds why politicise things which are not political,”not every animal should end up in a pot”were is the corruption here shallow minds with lower education.thats why you dont progress in your life personally
iliko bad naba PF kuwayawaya chabe
@chanda joe its actually you who sounds shallow and uneducated. If its not political what is Kapata doing in there? Who doesn’t know how endemic corruption has become in zambia? Come on be real. Is this the level of intelect that has progressed you I wonder?
right, JAYJAY, thats my brother right there! I was totally dumbfounded by this i.d.io.tic decision and now this moron turns around and says to people dont kill wildlife for subsistence but its perfectly alright for sport? MALABISHI!!!!! Who voted for these c.unts? They have degrees but no commonsense. My friend rang me today because she has been calling ZNTB and no one is taking her calls. She is looking to invest in sustainable tourism marketing and yet this so-called committe and the other buffoons who use our money and our resources have the cheek to make such declarations. Kenya has made tourism its cashcow. Zambia has no idea because we have incompetent fools incharge of this important ministry. I create inbound tourism in my job for a country far far away because when i tried to do
P.S. Mwansa would say whatever he said to please his donors. The problem is that these leaders are insulting Zambian peoples’ intelligence because no one holds them to account in Zambia but they respect donors because of the funds they receive.
Inconsistences persist right from the top to bottom because we the electorate in Zambia don’t hold our elected leaders to account. There is a distortion between the elected and the electorate which needs to be seriously rebalanced.
jones i know you very well live the present not the future UPND will never rule zambia,latest news HH agrees to join PF when he finds his successor.
Useless ministry! You are stopping Zambians from hunting for food ‘while allowing foreigners to come and hunt for fun! What kind of dimwits are you?
Total drama! This official says this and the next one says the opposite! At least some sense from the PS. Jean Kapata has no clue what she was talking about. Government officials have in the past contributed to the killing of animals. If you go Luapula Province, Tuta Bridge, that place was teeming with different deer. Some government officials would enter the area with Land Cruisers similar to the ones used for safari, and kill animal ati umunani.
If the people we have entrusted to look after our natural resources have carried out indiscriminate, unlawful slaughter of animals what hope is there?
Shame on them including Felix Chaila’s who does nothing for the tourism industry but gets paid. Kenya had its share of terrorism yet picked up and doing better than Zambia considered we are a safe destination in Africa. Jean Kapata has no idea how she can capitalize through marketing efforts. We had no Ebola, she could have promoted safe destination, come to Zambia. It’s all about the SWOT analysis and these people should know when to take advantage of it. South Africa has Food and Wine Shows every year which draws in billions, we can do the same since we have the Victoria Falls and market it at the same time. They think 1980’s style and don’t realize revenue generation is not only about trophy hunting. Times and things have changed, think outside the box. Conserving wildlife is ideal.
Two years ago Zambia banned hunting. Sylvia Masebo, the tourism minister at the time, said, “People come to Zambia to see the lion and if we lose the lion we will be killing our tourism industry.” The estimated £2 million that Zambia earned from safari hunting of all its wild animals annually was too little to merit the continued depletion of Zambia’s wildlife, she said.
‘Why should we lose our animals for £2 million a year? The benefits we get from tourist visits are much higher,’ she said.
Why has the hunting ban suddenly been lifted? The facts about tourism and about the number of lions have not changed. What possible benefit is there in lifting the hunting ban?