I have to laugh at the author talking about endangered lions going hungry as if that's the thing we should be taking issue with.
This goes to demonstrate, I think, that while our modernized society may be something of an abomination amongst the natural cycles of nature, if we are left with only ourselves in an unfriendly environment, we are not separate from the rest of the animal kingdom. Cameroon enjoys more stability and slightly more prosperity than a lot of other parts of Africa, but many of the people there still live on a strictly subsistence level. At that level of development, survival of the fittest still reigns supreme, and they are resorting to one of the tools available to them: strength in numbers.
Now, I'm all for keeping ne'er-do-wells from poaching animal populations in to extinction, and preserving rare and valuable environments such as rain forests and coral reefs. But I think in a situation like this we need to let nature take its course until such a day that those people can find another way to feed themselves. It's a process best not meddled with, in contrast to outright poaching or actual animal cruelty.
