Ian Johnson is the CEO of Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation. Now that all the furore about the death of a lion in Zimbabwe has died down somewhat, this seems a good time to publish Ian’s piece.

Over the past few weeks I have found myself saddened by the whole lion incident in Zimbabwe. Saddened by the event itself, by some of the reactions and by what seems to be a failure on our conservation efforts to educate people on pressing conservation issues, those issues beyond the ones such as Cecil the lion or those that easily appeal to people’s emotional sides.

To this extent I hesitate to refer to the lion, as “Cecil” as this alone, seems to focus the issue at hand on the individual rather than the larger issues at stake. The naming of wildlife, is something that I battle with in general. But that is my own quandary…