RESULTS - Historical data from CITES regarding the export of leopard trophies
Sub-Saharan quotas for hunting leopard as trophy animals
In 1983 a number of countries made representation to the 4th Conference of Parties (CoP 4) to CITES to be allowed to destroy problem leopards and realize some benefit from the products of the animals destroyed. These benefits would then be used to offset the losses the predator(s) had caused the landowner and increase tolerance towards the leopard. It was recognized at this CoP that many leopard were being indiscriminately destroyed by livestock producers to protect their livelihoods and that there was a need for a system that would allow such producers to realize benefit from the presence of leopard, and hence increase tolerance to the species.
The case to CITES in 1983 was accepted and for the first time, a quota of leopards that could be destroyed and the products exported was allocated to each country that had made representation. However, the products exported are for personal use only and cannot be sold or traded. This situation allowed the countries allocated quotas to advertise leopards as trophy animals to hunters, and charge an appropriate fee. The money raised is then used to offset the cost of having leopards to the landowner. The system in often referred to as the CITES "tag" system as a leopard may only be hunted as a trophy animal, and exported as such if the relevant authority in each country has issued the landowner with a tag. The number of tags corresponds to the CITES quota, which can and has been altered at different conferences of the Parties to CITES. National quotas are agreed on by the Parties to CITES on the assumption that the offtake will be non-detrimental to the survival of the wild population of the country.
Since 1983 the annual quotas for each of the range states allowed to export trophies have been increasing, and new countries have been allocated quotas (Table 1). No country has yet reduced its annual quota.
|
Country
|
Annual quota (from 2007)
|
Year last revised (previous quota)
|
|
Botswana
|
130
|
|
|
Central African Republic
|
40
|
|
|
Ethiopia
|
500
|
|
|
Kenya
|
80
|
|
|
Malawi
|
50
|
|
|
Mozambique
|
120
|
2007 (60)
|
|
Namibia
|
250
|
2004 (125)
|
|
South Africa
|
150
|
2004 (75)
|
|
Uganda
|
28
|
First quota allocated in 2007
|
|
Tanzania
|
500
|
2002 (250)
|
|
Zambia
|
300
|
|
|
Zimbabwe
|
500
|
1992 (300)
|
Table 1: Annual quotas for the export of leopard trophies under the Convention in the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) as of the last Conference of Parties held in June 2007, Resolution 10:14 (Source: World Conservation Monitoring Centre)
