National Action Plan for the conservation of the African Lion Panthera leo in Ethiopia.

This National Action Plan for the conservation of the African Lion (Panthera leo) is a nationwide 5-year document aimed at securing, and where possible restoring, sustainable lion populations in Ethiopia, recognizing their potential to provide substantial social, cultural, ecological, and economic benefits. The ultimate goal is to achieve the long-term vision of the strategy, ensuring a sustainable environment for the mutual benefit of lion populations and the people in the country.
The Action Plan sets out the following objectives and activities (i) Management: To ensure effective conservation and management of lions, their habitats, and wild prey. This includes conducting surveys, monitoring, developing management plans, building capacity, and conducting research on lion ecology and socio-ecology; (ii) Mitigation: To mitigate human-lion-related conflict. This includes establishing a database on conflict incidents, developing and implementing public awareness and education packages, developing non-lethal and effective problem animal control protocols, and building the capacity of the concerned institutions to deal with conflict; (iii) Socio-Economics: To maximize the benefits of lion conservation and ensure equitable distribution of the same to communities and other stakeholders in Ethiopia. This includes identifying and prioritizing stakeholders, developing and implementing training and benefit-sharing programs, and establishing transparent mechanisms for income distribution and incentives; (iv) Policy and land use: To ensure that all land use plans and strategies do not negatively impact, and if possible contribute to, lion conservation in Ethiopia. This includes conducting surveys on lion range and habitat encroachment, reviewing and developing wildlife-integrated land use plans, developing and enforcing legal and institutional frameworks, addressing the issue of trophy hunting, and collaborating with neighboring countries on transboundary lion populations; (v) Trade: To prevent illegal trade in lion and lion products. This includes training law enforcement officers, producing identification tools and awareness posters, ensuring prosecution and sentencing of offenders, collecting and sharing information on illegal trade, and complying with CITES requirements.