BBC posted an article about Kenya’s lions. As the human population is growing, lions are losing their space. A great dilemma has arisen because humans need to be safe and protected too. At the same time, there have been large movements supporting the protection of these animals. Though lions are not an endangered species, they quickly can be. The article points out that there are only an estimated 20,000 of them in Africa today.
Unfortunately, these lions are killing livestock and getting closer to urban areas as they look for food. When an American or European farmer loses a pig or a cow, this is usually a loss but only accounts for a small percentage of their overall revenue. On the other hand, when a Kenyan loses a cow this is a major hit to their livelihood because they usually have smaller farms. Further, tourism flows into Kenya partly thanks to these lions, and many of those living in Kenya depend on this tourism for their livelihood. This is a complex issue involving many stakeholders.
I hope that we can soon find a way to resolve this issue. The idea of getting the government to compensate for livestock may help for the short-term, yet this is clearly not enough and could be damaging for the long-term. Farmers would lose incentives to be very careful about where they let their animals feed, etc… Though compensation would probably not be enough to fully recover the losses associated with losing an animal to a lion, and therefore farmers would not be entirely careless, some bad habits could be created. On the other hand, could the government train farmers on how to protect themselves better from the lions? Are there ways to encourage people to spread in directions away from the parks? This idea is quite limited however, when we understand the proximity of the park to the capital.
A solution needs to be found, and it is no longer possible to take a single side of the issue. The lions and the humans need to learn to co-exist, and we all need to figure out how.
Just Saying 