IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Funston, P. | |
| The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area - critical for African lions | |
| 2014 Cat News (60): 4-7 | |
The Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area KAZA is the largest conservation landscape in Africa (approximately 440,000 km2), and includes 36 protected areas. Four of its national parks support regionally important lion _Panthera leo_ populations. KAZA probably contains about 3,500 lions, and is one of the most important regions for lion conservation in Africa, probably the most important in southern Africa. However, no landscape level lion population estimates have been published for KAZA, and there is no literature on maintaining connectivity between key lion populations. Human population growth, leading to rapid rates of land conversion and bushmeat poaching, threatens lions even in core protected areas, and in at least three national parks lion populations are substantially reduced. Furthermore connectivity between respective key populations is threatened by human development. In order to develop a Strategic Conservation and Action Plan for lions in KAZA it is vital to collate all current estimates of lion abundance and evaluate these along with the threats within the key protected areas, while also assessing the connectivity potential within the region. |
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