Trade in bones, teeth and claws of wild lions has been banned following compromise by 182 countries at CITES CoP17, currently under way in Johannesburg, The Guardian reports.
However, bones, teeth and claws from Captive-bred lions can still be legally sold. South Africa will now have to report how many it sells each year. The export of trophies from lion hunting also remains legal.
Botswana Minister of Wildlife, Environment and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, who backed a total ban, was quoted in the Guardian as saying: “It would be a very, very sad day when we are not able to show our children’s children what a lion looks like because they have been hunted into extinction or because we traded their body parts into extinction, and that we have taken no responsibility in managing the situation.”
