On 7 September, the Oxford Martin School hosted part of the Cecil Summit, organised by Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), together with Panthera, to consider future initiatives to conserve the African lion. The topic is urgent because numbers of lions have plummeted over the last century from an oft quoted figure of around 200,000 to nowadays closer to 20,000 and falling. The workshop was prompted by global attention given to the death of Cecil the Lion, who had been tracked for years by WildCRU. The Summit culminated with an open session at the Blavatnik School offering the opportunity to hear the views of top lion experts and also a variety of innovative thinkers from economics, development, international relations and ethics.