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Southern African countries are on a collision course with the United Kingdom over its proposed legislative ban of imports of hunting trophies, spurred on by animal rights groups in the country.

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are pressing for the proposed bill banning imports of hunting trophies into the UK not to be enacted into law.

All the six countries are claiming that with the region’s wildlife population well managed and increasing, there is no iron-clad reason for undermining their controlled trophy hunting activities, especially as the UK itself permits extensive trophy hunting at home.

Their dissent comes amid claims that legitimate conservation concerns have been hijacked by animal rights activists who claim that it is inhumane to kill wildlife and unethical to make money out of  game.

The wildlife economy – including trophy hunting – is an important part of the overall economy in Africa, especially in rural areas where natural resources are crucial for livelihoods and local development.

Southern Africa has a good record in biodiversity conservation, and it holds globally important populations of the world’s lions, buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, and many other species.

The UK government is pushing legislation to ban the importation of hunting trophies. The proposal, which those backing the bill say is intended to protect endangered species, have been widely attacked by leading scientists, conservationists and governments from across the Southern Africa region. Experts and commentators are calling it hypocritical and a form of neo-colonialism.

Far from protecting endangered species, the UK Bill will likely put species at greater risk by undermining a hunting revenue model which protects natural habitats, funds anti-poaching resources and compensates communities involved in human-wildlife conflict.

But the UK is refusing to listen to expert opinion, or the views of those who live and work alongside wildlife in Africa.

British ministers have even suggested that those impoverished by the hunting trophy import ban should apply for UK aid or grants, in what several African governments have described as a “19th Century” attitude towards African development.

The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill is a private member’s bill sponsored in the House of Lords by Tory peer Baroness Fookes (Conservative).

Labour peer Baroness Hayman of Ullock, said: “In my personal opinion, trophy hunting is cruel. It is inhumane and it is unjustifiable.”

But cross-bencher Lord St John of Bletso, who sits on the board of wildlife conservation charity, Tusk, said: “Whilst I do not like the practice of trophy hunting, the evidence shows that properly regulated and managed wild trophy hunting does play an important role in wildlife conservation.”

The Bill would prohibit the import into Great Britain of hunting trophies from animal species listed in annex A or B of a piece of retained EU law referred to as the ‘Principal Wildlife Trade Regulation.’

The UK government describes these lists as “broadly equivalent” to the lists of species in appendices 1 and 2 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES), established in 1973 and now adopted by 184 nations. CITES exists to curb trade in endangered animals and plants, and goods derived from them. It bans trade in ‘all species threatened with extinction’ and sets strict safeguards over other species seen as under lesser threat. – New Ziana.