There is a lot being said about the length of time taken to process the USFWS permits and some suggestions that the delays might be on the outfitters side? For whatever reason the USFWS decided to target Zimbabwe, we accept what must be done and the requirements are seriously onerous.
That being said, ZimParks (and a few other conservation organisations) have been working with USFWS to get the process streamlined. For example ZimParks ecologists have produced a Non-Detrimental Finding on Lion and Leopard which provides all the relevant scientific information required by USFWS to approve the import permits. The 2016 report has been updated this year. They have also asked the Outfitters to supply an "Operator Enhancement Questionnaire" which is a detailed document providing Operator-specific information which goes with each and every application.
With this in place now, we have seen that the approvals have taken a lot less time now and hopefully they will drop the application requirement once they realise that, in general, Zimbabwe are doing a pretty good
job on the conservation front.