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Bauer, H.
Synthesis of threats, distribution and status of the lion from the two lion conservation strategies
2008 Conference Proceeding
In 2005, IUCN and WCS organized a Range Wide Priority Setting exercise for the lion in two workshops which were reported in two lion strategy documents. This paper presents a synthesis of those data, showing a large recent reduction in lion range, with currently between 23.000 and 40.000 lions left of which only 10% in west and Central Africa. There are 86 Lion Conservation Units (LCU); major threats and characteristics for these LCU's are summarized. Most LCU's (52 cases, 73%) have more than half their area under some form of legal protection. Seventeen LCU's are very large areas greater than 50,000 km2 and can be considered strongholds for lions. Indiscriminate killing came out as the most serious threat and presumably most of this killing is retaliatory or pre-emptive killing by pastoralists. Prey depletion is almost equally threatening, followed by small population size and its inherent extinction risks.
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