[Music] [Applause] hello for as long as I can remember I've been fascinated with the big cats in Africa a Fascination that brought me on an adventure into the African Wilderness an adventure that brought me face to face with the king of the Beast with a raw so powerful it thunders through the open Plains a thunder so deep it took my breath [Music] away in 2008 I decided to go to Africa to realize my childhood dream I was full of excitement to finally see my Lions I guess my view on conservation at that time was a bit biased by watching The Lion King one too many times I was the kind of person who would be on the streets to collect signatures for any petition claiming to help Simba and especially for something like Banning in commercial line hunts the ban which became a reality in bosana in September 2000 when the government made it illegal to hunt lines commercially now that was a pretty good achievement don't you think yeah now SBA won't get shot now he can live a long happy line life today I want to tell you a story a story about the wild Li population in bosana a story about how we thought we were doing something good but did we really do the right thing my story is focused in the hansi area of bosana an area of 11 17,900 square kilm and just to put this number into perspective the size of bwana equates to roughly the size of France or just under the size of Texas and the hansi area makes up for about 20% of the entire country the Hans area is divided into two areas the first area is Central Kalahari game reserve with it 52,800 Square kilm it is the second largest national park in the world a beautiful untouched Wilderness where no hunting is allowed the second area has commercial cattle Farms where hunting is allowed with this 65,00 square kilometers it still cuts off for about one/ tenth of bosana size but with a population of only 33,000 people and that is roughly the same number of people working in JFK airport at some point in the past Wildlife used to ro free IND those two areas free and undisturbed by humans and cattle Farms but after bwana got their independency in 1966 people started commercial cattle farming but the farmers and the Lions coexisted the short cattle fences do not make a barrier for any wildlife and the lies could easily move through those fences and now some of you might be wondering how the cows and the lions coexisted with the farmers farming the livestock but I can assure you that the relationship was far from peaceful occasionally lines were shot because they killed the cows and posed a potential threat to the farmer's business at this point we should keep in mind that 70 to 75% of of the beef produced in this area was for the European market to supply our demand for beef Odd as it may seem the farmers still had a way of living alongside with the Lions roaming on their farmlands and here's the catch tourists mainly from the United States and from Europe would travel to baswana to hunt for Lions the money paid for this kind of Tourism was a lot enough to make the farmers tolerate lies on their land the last line officially sold for hunting went for the price of 750,000 us the farmer would not be getting all of that money but a good portion of it would make him feel secure especially in times where foot and mouth disease could result in big loss of his cattle it was good to know that there was other ways of keeping his farm running since the last port of bwana's GTP is also generated through photographic tourism a new conflict started to rise animal rights activists all over the world started blaming the commercial hunt for the decline of lions the more popular this became in the international media the more pressure was there on the government in bosana to do something about this questionable business of lines getting shot by Rich tourist in September 2000 the animal rights activist reached their goal and bwana ban commercial line hunts the government in baswana didn't have the money to reimburse the farmers for their loss of cattle and after my quick explanation of the farming areas I believe that most of you can now imagine what the farmers did with the Lions since the area has never been National Park all lines were now officially classified as problem animals and permits were granted to the farmers to go and shoot them but it doesn't stop here lions are territorial animals and live in family groups called Prides they mark their territory by scent and by the impressive rowing by killing the entire lion population in an area creates empty territories those empty territories are like an invitation for other Lions this means that the Lions who used to live safely in central Kalahari game reserve are now moving into the farmlands where they'll be classified as prop animals and shot so what have we actually achieved with Banning the commercial lion hunts the lion population in the entire western part of the hansi area has been killed and since the area is no longer occupied with lions the other lions from Central Kahari game reserve are now constantly trying to expand their population into the farmlands where every lion that walks in today will be killed in a heartbeat it is not illegal to shoot the lines and we can't really blame the farmers since he's actually producing the meat that we are asking for for fact is that by trying to support lines in bosana the worldwide animal rights movement and the media supporting this idea achieved that bosana that the people in bosana had no option but to kill a large amount of the already small remaining lion population because lions from Central cab game reserve are trying to expand their population into the farming areas we ended up with with more lines get shot every year more lines than we ever did with the commercial line hunts the only difference is that no one is paying to shoot them anymore and here's a very simple question to all of you do you believe that align with Minds weather is getting shot by someone who left almost a million dollars in the country or by a farmer who needs to pay for the bullet himself there is without a doubt a big ethical issue with the commercial line hunts and I do have that issue just as much as any of you but sometimes it it's better to stick with the lesser of two evils until we can find a real sustainable solution that can solve the problem the majority of people on this planet are driven by their emotions when it comes to animals and trust me it is a very emotional moment to watch a wild lion roll every time I sit in the bush watching the sunrise light up the Savannah feeling the warm sand between my feet while listening to the Lion's powerful Roar that goes through my bones I feel more free and Alive than ever before I sit and wonder wonder how people are able to pay money to shoot lines and then proudly hang the trophy up at the wall back home I guess that is just something that I will never understand unfortunately that is the case and just like everywhere else in the world there is no picture perfect of black and white it makes me proud to see how many people are active in the field of nature conservation and animal rights but I've count countless times seeing how the best intentions simply made a bad situation even worse I do not believe that a single person who went to demonstrate sign petitions and supported the plan of shutting down to commercial lion hunts really understood the consequences of their actions I also do not believe that any of them would still think that shutting down this business was such a great idea after understanding the situation I'm definitely not a friend of the hunting business today I simply understand that it is not as easy as it may seem and we need to find a proper solution before weact I believe that education and awareness about this topic is the key to save the Alles we need to understand that knowledge needs to come first before our emotions otherwise we are likely to achieve nothing or destroy even more my experiences in Africa gave me the motivation to start modisa Wildlife project together with Valentine Gina from Germany the project is situated in the H area on the border between Cent Kahari game reserve and the cattle Farms we are working together with one of the most successful commercial farmers in baswana will deav who share our passion for the big cats we believe that by creating a place where research institutions government and the public meet we can actually make modisa Wildlife project an organization that not only promotes Innovative and sustainable management practices but also Prov provides practical advice and guidance we want to find a long-term solution for 30 lines which we saved from certain death we want our lines back into the wild and we want to secure a future for all lines in Africa we wanted to create a project that defines new standards new standards on how we think feel and act with regards to conservation no one can argue that bwana's ban on Commercial lion hunts didn't make us feel better but all the facts points towards an allog together different truth the knock on effect is that the lion population has suffered even more by this feed we are still losing lions and more lions are getting shot each year this is this is why we need to research all aspects seek information and possibilities before we act so we don't end up doing more damage than have already been done we need to act now to ensure that the future Generations can have the same privilege as we have the privilege to feel Alliance role before it's too late [Music] thank you [Music]