From China’s panda to lion-diplomacy

The arrival of seven South African lions in Rwanda reminded me of China’s long standing Panda diplomacy; like the giant pandas, African lions too are designated as vulnerable and are on an international “red list” of species facing extinction. Estimates by conservationists say only 32,000 lions currently roam the African wilderness compared to 200,000 a century ago; Rwandan lions were lost two decades ago through poisoning and their re-introduction this week was a historic moment. Countries have different levels of conservation threats and in Rwanda, years of sensitisation campaigns have made communities around the national parks more responsible and protective of nature reason why the new lions are likely to thrive and multiply. In cases where all factors are favorable, we could shift other endangered species to countries where their security is tighter, and post genocide Rwanda doesn’t only guarantee security for humans but wild animals too because most Rwandans now value conservation efforts. The cubs reportedly traveled a 2,500-mile journey by truck and plane from Phinda, a private South African game reserve, to Rwanda. Before being sedated and blindfolded, the lions were reportedly baited with a carcass of a large antelope which brought the unsuspecting beasts closer to a veterinarian with a tranquilizer gun. They were then bundled onto trucks, then planes to embark on a journey of over 30 hours to Rwanda; it would have been a shorter journey for them had Kenya agreed to an earlier plan to sell us a few of their estimated 2000 lions. Nonetheless, given the high levels of poaching in South Africa, the journey of these seven beasts was worth every effort and it’s now a responsibility of all of us to ensure that they have a nice stay and long life in Rwanda.Personally, I plan to visit the kings of the jungle as soon as they get used to their new kingdom and after they have grown large enough to roam around the jungles with royal swag and pomp. You will be surprised by the amount of diplomacy involved in conservation efforts; it was at the centre of the failure of an earlier plan to import Kenyan lions. First, Kenyan conservationists aggressively claimed that Rwanda hasn’t addressed issues that led to the extinction of over 230 lions that once inhabited Akagera; such a claim, although untrue, reduced chances of the deal which required presidential endorsement. Ironically, Kenya, which has a very close diplomatic relationship with Rwanda and is part of the Single Tourism Visa initiative, wanted to sell the lions for a very large sum of money. The seven lions which will soon get Rwandan nationality and names were not bought and although they came from a private game reserve, the fact that the South African government allowed their transfer to Rwanda is a great thing for the bilateral ties between the two countries. Akagera National Park is managed by African Parks, a Johannesburg-based group that manages several other national wildlife parks in Africa, but the transfer of lions from their South African game reserve couldn’t have happened without government blessings. Since the 1950s, China has used its endangered giant pandas to strengthen its ties with countries in Europe and USA a practice which has since been named ‘Panda diplomacy.’ Early last year, Belgium welcomed Xing Hui and Hao-Hao, two giant pandas given as gifts from the Chinese government to celebrate good relations between the two countries. There are fewer than 1,600 pandas remaining in the wild with China’s Sichuan province having majority of them and about 300 others living in captivity worldwide. Students of Sino-American diplomacy will remember when United States President Richard Nixon received two pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing as a gift from the Chinese government after his historic visit to China in 1972.President Nixon reciprocated the gesture by giving China a pair of Musk Oxen; again, animals which were exchanged and this happened before the end of the cold war. Between 1958 and 1982, China had given away over 20 pandas to different countries but after 1984, it wasn’t purely about promoting diplomacy but ‘tourism loans’ of sorts. A country would receive a panda on condition that they paid an annual fee of US$1 million and agreeing to another provision that any cubs born during the loan would be the property of the People’s Republic of China.In the meantime, the recipient country would cash in from tourism related revenues of people viewing the pandas; I find this a clever way of expanding tourism opportunities. Kenya’s recent insecurity has seen tourism earnings drop with hotel occupancy rates declining; maybe loaning some wild animals, where possible, to its safer Single Tourism Visa partners, is worth trying.

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From China’s panda to lion-diplomacy