Umbabaat/Ingwelala controversial lion hunt

[Lisbeth]

There are too many non law-abiding persons and groups of persons around.

[Lisbeth]

Kruger Park gets grumpy over lion hunting and bad PR with it’s errant neighbour

BY DON PINNOCK - 11 SEPTEMBER 2018 - THE SOUTH AFRICAN -

It was in Umbabat that a lion was recently hunted and ended up being discussed in Parliament, following accusations that it was an under-age pride male and was baited illegally.



The Kruger National Park is an internationally renowned, exemplary national reserve tasked to protect the biodiversity under its management. This it does extremely well. But when it dropped its fences with private reserves along its western border, it inherited, it seems, some unruly children hanging onto its impeccable skirts. One of them is Umbabat.

Umbabat

Intense media pressure failed to have an independent observer check assurances by Umbabat and the licencing authority, Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Authority (MTPA) that it was a boney old male, heightening speculation that it was indeed a magnificent tourist favourite named Skye.

The incident clearly nettled Kruger officials. In a letter written to the Umbabat chairperson, Lenny Willson in June 2018, shortly after the hunt, Kruger’s managing executive, Glenn Phillips, threatened to re-erect the fence between it and Umbabat if the reserve didn’t get its house in order. It was given six months to do so.

A subtext of the letter is that Kruger is taking unwarranted media flack for actions in Umbabat over which it has little control. Its attempts at positive PR are being undermined and ‘very poorly supported by some hunting operators in the Greater Kruger.’

There is a string of other complaints, one of which is that, although Kruger did not support the hunt (and also that of a leopard which Umbabat had requested), the MTPA sanctioned it and failed to inform Kruger. Umbabat also ‘forgot’ to inform Kruger that the hunt was taking place, so when shots were heard by the nearby section ranger, he came within a hairsbreadth of deploying an anti-poaching aircraft.

It remains to be seen whether MTPA will again ignore Kruger’s recommendations and issue Umbabat with a permit to hunt a leopard.

Where to now?

For some time, Kruger has been raising concerns about Umbabat’s governance. The latest letter says ‘sadly [it]is evident that Umbabat’s house is not in order, resulting in major negative scrutiny of KNP, but also impacting on the Greater Kruger as a destination of choice.’

In his letter, Phillips notes that Umbabat’s federal system is fragmented, ‘raising the question if there is a united and responsible management.’ Lack of internal consensus ‘is now impacting not only on Umbabat… but also impacting on the Greater Kruger and cooperative arrangements.’

He also puts on record that the MTPA did not inform Kruger about the quota change that led to the lion hunt, although formal feedback was required.

In response to what Umbabat in an answering letter describes at the ‘agenda-pushing media’ questioning trophy hunting in Greater Kruger, Phillips raises no objection to the shooting of what are often Kruger animals in Umbabat, but suggests that the reserve engages in a more aggressive public relations exercise.

Umbabat’s response

The letter ends by saying that Umbabat has failed to sign the Greater Kruger Cooperative Agreement and associated protocols and until it does, no hunting will be supported. It is accordingly questionable why any hunting was supported by Kruger in Umbabat in 2018.

‘Lastly and most importantly, if Umbabat does not get its governance in place within six months, KNP will be left with no option but re-erect the fence.’

In a somewhat cap-in-hand reply, Umbabat’s chairperson, Willson, agreed to all Kruger’s points and promised to sort things out shortly.

‘The Umbabat PNR understands your concerns and you can rest assured that we take the process very seriously and we don’t believe it will be remotely necessary to go to such extremes [as re-erecting the fence].’

What the future holds

If the internally fractured Umbabat can pull things together before that happens remains to be seen. Whether Kruger means what it says about the fence is also a consideration.

For the private reserve, however, the hunting of what a newspaper headline described as ‘a lion too far’ has been a sharp lesson. Trophy hunting by rich American gun-toting tourists may be in a far, wild corner of Mpumalanga, but it’s not too far from public scrutiny to escape notice, though Umbabat clearly wishes it was. The last thing the reserve could have imagined was that the issue would end up in the glare of Parliamentary scrutiny.

Read original article: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/kruger- ... neighbour/

[Richprins]

For some time, Kruger has been raising concerns about Umbabat’s governance. The latest letter says ‘sadly [it]is evident that Umbabat’s house is not in order, resulting in major negative scrutiny of KNP, but also impacting on the Greater Kruger as a destination of choice.’

In his letter, Phillips notes that Umbabat’s federal system is fragmented, ‘raising the question if there is a united and responsible management.’ Lack of internal consensus ‘is now impacting not only on Umbabat… but also impacting on the Greater Kruger and cooperative arrangements.’

Whoooo...Kruger must be careful not to throw stones...it is doing quite enough by itself in attracting "major negative scrutiny". Karma, you know.


Great fun to be a bully though!

[Flutterby]

Yep, people in glasses houses and all that!

[Lisbeth]

You mean glass houses?

[Flutterby]

[RogerFraser]

https://www.parliament.gov.za/press-rel ... be-revised

ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE BELIEVES AGREEMENT BETWEEN KRUGER NATIONAL PARK AND PRIVATE RESERVES SHOULD BE REVISED

Parliament, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 – The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs today had an engagement with the Department of Environmental Affairs, South African National Parks (SANParks) and Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency Board on issues arising from our recently held Colloquium on Captive Lion Breeding, particularly hunting in the Greater Kruger National Park and the implementation of TOPS (Threatened or Protected Species) regulations.

The recent hunting of a male lion which took place in Umbabat Private Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga on the 7th of June 2018, highlighted wider issues of concern, both in terms of law governing hunting in the Kruger National Park and the contractual arrangements between the Kruger National Park and the Association of Private Nature Reserves (APNR).

The committee is extremely concerned that 10 years after the promulgation of the amended TOPS regulations in 2008, Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency is not complying with the regulations, especially those relating to hunting of listed species in the regulations like lions, based on a flawed technical argument that the regulations are in conflict with the Provincial Act as they have not been taken through the NCOP. The committee has thus directed that the department should ensure that these regulations are processed through the NCOP before the end of the year and that the Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency should ensure compliance with these regulations by January 2019. Baiting as a form of hunting of TOPS-listed species should cease immediately.

The committee would further like to urge the Minister of Environmental Affairs to expedite the process of realising full compliance with these regulations, through the MINMEC process in order to have a uniform standard for the whole country.

The other matter which concerns the committee is the agreement between the Kruger National Park and Association of Private Nature Reserves (APNR) concluded in 1996. We believe that this agreement needs to be revised to ensure that there is sharing of benefits arising from the collapse of the fences in the western boundary of the Kruger National Park in the interest of the broader society. The committee believes that issues of transformation and beneficiation should be taken into account in this agreement. In this regard, the committee has directed SANParks to develop a concept paper on this matter for discussion with the committee in October/November 2018. The committee will hold public hearings to determine the best way forward after its engagement with SANParks.

The committee also wants discussions to take place around the current hunting protocol that allows hunting of animals in the Greater Kruger National Park as a results of an open system arising from the taking down of the fences between the Kruger National Park and Association of Private Nature Reserves. The committee wants this protocol to be interrogated to properly account for this system, for which the Kruger National Park prohibits hunting inside the park, but nonetheless animals are hunted when they roam over to private nature reserves.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, MR PHILLEMON MAPULANE.

For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:

Name: Faith Ndenze (Ms)
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: (021) 403 8062
Cell: 081 377 0686
Email: fndenze@parliament.gov.za

[Lisbeth]

The committee also wants discussions to take place around the current hunting protocol that allows hunting of animals in the Greater Kruger National Park as a results of an open system arising from the taking down of the fences between the Kruger National Park and Association of Private Nature Reserves. The committee wants this protocol to be interrogated to properly account for this system, for which the Kruger National Park prohibits hunting inside the park, but nonetheless animals are hunted when they roam over to private nature reserves.

Will be interesting to see how they are going to resolve the above, without marking all the KNP animals

[Richprins]

We believe that this agreement needs to be revised to ensure that there is sharing of benefits arising from the collapse of the fences in the western boundary of the Kruger National Park in the interest of the broader society. The committee believes that issues of transformation and beneficiation should be taken into account in this agreement. In this regard, the committee has directed SANParks to develop a concept paper on this matter for discussion with the committee in October/November 2018.


Aha! The penny drops...it is about money and politics after all. A Kruger speciality.

[Lisbeth]

Of course! Did you expect that they would be worried about the animals being shot next door