“Ngala, Fighting for Lions” Filming in Progress

“Ngala, Fighting for lions” Update, 10 December 2015

“Ngala film is progressing steadily. We are about to finish a pilot that should help us get further funding for the following stages of the documentary. We already recorded the voice over with actor Jerome Flynn and everything is looking pretty amazing.”

“PHASA, Professional Hunters Association of South Africa, has condemned canned hunting and will be removing the membership to any hunter involved in this cruel practice. That is great news and means that the canned hunting industry has its days numbered.” 

“We hope that with this documentary we help politicians take more of these good decisions until eventually trophy hunting will be something of the past.” 

“With this good news we want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We hope in 2016 we don’t have to hear of any atrocious deaths like that of Cecil’s and we hear more of the good stories (hopefully the ban of trading with lion parts that will be decided in October).”

I have received the following “Ngala, Fighting for Lions” Update – 19 October 2015

“…..we have been very busy preparing our first film adventure to South Africa and we need to tell you that our first filming was a success 🙂 Thanks to your contributions we have been able to hire all the film equipment we needed, and to arrange the filming for our team in all the different locations we thought would be best for the documentary.”

“We have been filming for 3 weeks in South Africa covering a beautiful lioness reintroduction in a reserve, community work to protect lions, the inside of lion petting and walking industry, and the pros and cons of lion trophy hunting from the perspective of hunters, conservationists, NGOs and local communities. Now filming continues in London with different NGOs, scientists as well as the process and result on the next CITES 2016 that will review the lion conservation status again.” #Ngala, 19 October 2015

See and sign IWB’s Petition calling for CITES Appendix I protection for the African lion (and other suggested resolutions to CITES, CoP17)

Reference: Actor, Jerome Flynn’s Jerome Flynn’s support for the “Ngala, Fighting for Lions” film.

BACKGROUND OF THE “NGALA – FIGHTING FOR LIONS” FILM

Ngala explores the current difficult life that the African lion is facing and what are the conservation purposes to protect their species from extinction. Lions have been represented in a variety of ancient mythologies and even named the most powerful and elegant mammals in the world. It is the “king of the beast” and thus has been pictured in many cultures. However, their history illustrates the huge decline they suffered, from patrolling larges extensions in all Africa, India and South east Europe to reduced fenced areas in central, southern Africa and a small territory in India.

The African lion is the symbol of a great continent and its vast, heat-scorched savannahs. Over the last two decades, Africa has lost between 30% and 50% of its lions and today far fewer than 32,000 remain in the wild in contrast to the 100,000 that roamed all of Africa during the 80s. This figure is in decline year on year, and lions are now listed as vulnerable (IUCN status) but many conservationists acknowledge that lions are in fact endangered and something needs to be done.

OUTLINE

Lions face several battles to their survival as a species, but recently one of the most controversial topics is with trophy hunting. This type of hunting involves the selective killing of animals for “sport”. Lately, this practise is becoming a pointiful and heated discussion in western countries on social media and through activists’ campaigns.

This and the increasing campaigns against trophy hunting like “Global March for Lions” and the response from hunters in support of such “sport”, who say it will continue for the welfare of the species and conservation, has created a real interest all over the globe.

A documentary on the topic has become more necessary than ever in order to create and expand public debate on trophy hunting and eventually contribute to the changing of policies.

SYNOPSIS

This film explores the political and conservationist angles on trophy hunting, in particular on lions, which are in sharp decline in South Africa. The story will observe and document the work of hunters, NGOs, and local communities in a fight to preserve the wild lion population in order to put pressure on the next CITES* convention in 2016, which wants to look at a possible new conservation status of lions. A question we try to answer is:

“What would happen if lions are listed Appendix I** this time round?”

*CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

**Appendix I would just stop the commercial trade of lions.