Cabinet approves strategic biodiversity draft white paper for publication for public participation

[RogerFraser]

Cabinet approves strategic biodiversity draft white paper for publication for public participation

https://www.dffe.gov.za/speeches/creecy ... whitepaper

27 June 2022

On 22 June 2022, Cabinet approved the draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity for public comment, emphasising that “South Africa's biodiversity provides an important basis for economic growth and development, and is critical to people’s livelihoods”.

Despite having a range of biodiversity and sustainable use legislation and policies, biodiversity loss continues to threaten the health of ecosystems and survival of species, and results in negative impacts for livelihoods and the economy. Global change, habitat loss and degradation, invasive alien species, overharvesting, and illegal harvesting all threaten South Africa’s biodiversity.

Over two decades since democracy, the biodiversity sector remains substantially untransformed and there is inequality in access to benefits arising from biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Furthermore, the sector has not reached its potential in terms of the contribution to the national economy and Growth Domestic Product (GDP). Biodiversity and its use is a catalytic engine of rural economies, and the value chains that emerge from these need to be fully realised.

The draft White Paper gives effect to the recommendations made by the High-Level Panel of Experts (HLP) appointed in 2019 to review our current policies, legislation and practices on matters of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros management, breeding, hunting, trade and handling.

The HLP recommendations provide a very clear way forward on how to address key sector challenges. The HLP consulted widely, including with various spheres of government, wildlife industry stakeholders, conservation and animal welfare NGOs, as well as traditional leaders, traditional healers, and communities adjacent to “big five” protected areas in North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Kwazulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

The voices of these stakeholders have strong presence in their report and informed many of the HLP recommendations. The HLP highlighted the importance of transformation of the sector, with empowerment and capacitation of communities living with wildlife, and recognition of their traditions and culture, as practiced through the traditional leaders and traditional healers.

The HLP recommended the development of a White Paper for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity and indicted the need for a shift to an Africanised conservation approach, that embraces the diverse cultures, traditions, and knowledge systems in South Africa, and values such as Ubuntu. The HLP also emphasised the need for a more holistic approach to sustainable use, which ensures responsible and humane use of South Africa’s biodiversity, and the ending of poor and harmful practices, such as those associated with the captive lion industry. Importantly, a White Paper should also ensure transformation, with access and beneficiation by communities adjacent to protected areas, as well as for previously disadvantaged individuals.

The Department has worked closely with SANBI, SANParks, and our partners in the provinces to craft the draft White Paper. The draft White Paper sets out a vision of “A prosperous nation, living in harmony with nature, where biodiversity is conserved for present and future generations, and secures equitable livelihoods and improved human well-being.”

To accomplish this, the mission is “To conserve South Africa's biodiversity, and maintain and/or restore ecological integrity, connectivity, processes, and systems, with resulting ecosystem services providing transformative socio-economic development benefits to the nation, through justifiable, responsible, and ecologically sustainable, and socially equitable, use of components of biodiversity.” The outcome of this is encapsulated in the impact statement of “Thriving People and Nature.” The draft White Paper also sets out important principles which will guide future policy, legislation, and decision-making across the sector.

There is a need for us to do things differently! Through the White Paper, South Africa will adopt an enabling definition and understanding of biodiversity conservation that releases South Africa from the shackles of the past, and which emphasises the constitutional imperatives within the environmental right, but also which will improve the wellbeing of people consistent with Ubuntu.

Furthermore, the White Paper will reshape ecologically sustainable use of components of biodiversity, in a manner which forefronts the responsibilities incumbent on use, including ensuring species persistence and the ecological integrity of ecosystems. Social responsibilities are also emphasised, by ensuring that continued benefits to people are fair, equitable and meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations. Furthermore, in the case of animals, use must be humane and not compromise their well-being.

In addition, the White Paper proposes to adopt a philosophical framing of Ubuntu for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, emphasizing an African approach that is consistent with the traditions, culture, knowledge and aspirations of African people in terms of defining their wellbeing.

This will empower communities and traditional leaders and healers as influential and impactful leaders of the sector, and as equal and meaningful participants, as well as to ensure and enhance the spiritual and sacred contribution of nature to people, especially fore-fronting the close connection of African people with nature and the environment, and of living in harmony with nature.

The White Paper emphasises partnerships and adopting participatory and consensus approaches throughout the biodiversity sector, which will promote meaningful participation and influence of all stakeholders, with communal rather than individual outcomes.

These shifts will provide a clear understanding of the intent and aspirations of South Africa, in terms of promoting conservation in order to achieve protection of the environment for present and future generations, as well as securing ecologically sustainable use to promote justifiable economic and social development.

“The White Paper will be relevant to the historical, socio-economic, and environmental context of South Africa, and the aspirations and needs of the people: It is a New Deal to ensure people will not only be living in harmony with nature, but that both people and nature will thrive,” said Minister Creecy.

The White Paper will be published in the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year for public comment.

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[Lisbeth]

The HLP highlighted the importance of transformation of the sector, with empowerment and capacitation of communities living with wildlife, and recognition of their traditions and culture, as practised through the traditional leaders and traditional healers.

I don't want to offend anyone, but isn't it time to grow up?

[Richprins]

This seems to be a lot of waffle. What do they want exactly??

[RogerFraser]

How to leverage the countries biodiversity to win votes without any long term planning of the affects ....

[RogerFraser]

Draft whitepaper published for comment
https://www.dffe.gov.za/sites/default/f ... gon685.pdf

[Lisbeth]

SA in ground-breaking rethink on protection of biodiversity


A baboon grooms a fellow troop member at the Cape Point Nature Reserve in Cape Town. (Photo: Gallo Images / Mark Skinner)

By Don Pinnock | 08 Jul 2022

As the world’s biodiversity slips ever deeper into crisis, a ground-breaking South African White Paper demands a paradigm shift to put care of the creatures with whom we share the planet at the centre of our concern.
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The White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, gazetted yesterday for public comment, is built around a set of definitions that, if implemented, have revolutionary implications for the welfare of animals in South Africa.

At its core is the contention that nature has value in its own right, independent of human uses, even if it does not benefit humans. Its intrinsic value, the paper says, cannot be calibrated against its economic worth.

The paper, issued by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, comes close on the heels of a policy document that takes aim at lion farming and the intensive breeding of rhinos.

The White Paper seeks to remedy the shortcomings of the current conservation model which, it says, was founded on the historical colonial practices – entrenched by apartheid – of over-exploitation of nature and the exclusion of the indigenous and local communities.

It embodies the definition that the well-being of an animal involves circumstances and conditions conducive to its physical, physiological and mental health and quality of life, including its ability to cope with its environment.

The issue of sentience

The paper goes further. By acknowledging – and this has huge legal implications – that animals are capable of suffering and experiencing pain and are sentient requires us, in our use of animals, to show respect and concern for them individually. The conclusion that follows must be that they have individual legal rights.

The White Paper points out that, as a signatory to the International World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), we are obliged to abide by its standards of animal welfare which recognises animals as sentient.

In South Africa the foundations for change were laid down in a landmark judgment in a case brought by the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) against the Minister of Justice in 2016. The Constitutional Court not only elevated the welfare and protection of non-human animals to a constitutional concern, but also significantly related their welfare and protection to biodiversity and the constitutional right to have the “environment protected … through legislative and other means” in Section 24 of the Constitution. It set down that:

• The rationale behind protecting non-human animal welfare has shifted from merely safeguarding the moral status of humans to placing intrinsic value on animals as individuals.

• Non-human animals are sentient beings capable of suffering and experiencing pain.

• Non-human animals are worthy of protection.

• Guardianship of the interests of non-human animals reflects constitutional values and the interests of society at large.

This was followed by Justice Edwin Cameron’s minority judgment in the case of NSPCA vs Openshaw, that recognised that animals are worthy of protection not only because of the reflection that this has on human values, but because animals “are sentient beings that are capable of suffering and of experiencing pain”.

Sustainable use

Tightly defining the status and treatment of animals has considerable implications for our use of them and the much-abused notion of sustainable use. The White Paper underscores the definition in the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (NEMBA).

To be considered sustainable, it says, the use of any “component” of biodiversity may not contribute to its long-term decline in the wild, disrupt the genetic integrity of the population or the ecological integrity of the ecosystem in which it occurs.

It must ensure continued benefits to present and future generations and, in the case of animals, must be humane and not compromise their well-being.

The White Paper expresses concern for the decline of living systems in South Africa, with 14% of taxa (groups of creatures) threatened with extinction. It notes that 99% of estuarine areas and 88% of wetland areas are threatened.

“Across the main ecosystems, estuaries and inland wetlands are the least protected ecosystem types, with less than 2% of their extent in the well protected category.”

It notes that, in the wildlife sector, current practices promote short-term economic gain for the few, undermine ecological sustainability, are not culturally sensitive and exacerbate poverty and inequality.

A goal in increasing biodiversity, it says, is to create large, connected conservation landscapes that enhance naturalness and wildness. Scaling up linkages and corridors within the country and with neighbouring countries would enhance ecological integrity and resilience and lead to the rehabilitation and restoration of natural landscapes.

The road ahead

The Biodiversity White paper has been passed by Cabinet and will now stand for public comment. It then becomes a Bill requiring further discussion before it becomes law. There will certainly be opposition along the way from deeply entrenched vested interests benefiting from consumptive utilisation of biodiversity. Definitions become vitally important in the legal system when actions are challenged and defended.

Farming lions for canned hunts, cub petting, or for their bones, for example, could not be considered supportive of their well-being.

If animals are seen to be sentient – capable of suffering and experiencing pain – and are regarded as individuals, this strengthens the case of charges of cruelty brought to court by the NSPCA or other parties.

The reshaping and restoration of South Africa’s biodiversity, says the paper, will require introspection, reflection and courageous discussions among all stakeholders. “Innovations will be required to develop new funding models, including an emphasis on public-private partnership that incorporate local rural communities in meaningful ways.”

To do this, strong partnerships will need to be forged between government agencies, community based organisations, the private sector, NGOs, women’s groups, the scientific community and individuals.

To get it right, the paper says, a considerable investment will be required. DM

[Lisbeth]

Governments still favour profit over nature, ‘driving global biodiversity crisis’ — UN report


From left: Unsplash / Naja Bertolt Jensen | Octavian Catana | Giorgio Trovato

By Ethan van Diemen | 12 Jul 2022

An assessment report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services argues that the way nature is valued in political and economic decisions is a ‘key driver of the global biodiversity crisis’ and provides a ‘vital opportunity to address it’.
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‘The causes of the global biodiversity crisis and the opportunities to address them are tightly linked to the ways nature is valued in political and economic decisions at all levels.”

This is one of the key messages to emerge from an assessment report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The four-year assessment, which includes more than 13,000 references ranging from scientific papers to indigenous sources of information — and is informed by 82 scientists and experts from around the world — builds on the 2019 IPBES Global Assessment which highlighted the role of economic growth as a key driver of nature loss, with one million species of plants and animals precariously close to extinction.

The IPBES, outlining the biodiversity crisis in that 2019 report, found the “abundance” of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, while the same is true for more than 40% of amphibian species.

It also found that almost one-third of reef-forming corals — and more than 33% of all marine mammals — are threatened.

Moreover, more than a third of the world’s land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production, while urban areas have more than doubled since 1992.

Fertilisers entering coastal ecosystems, it found, have produced more than 400 ocean “dead zones”, totalling more than 245,000 km2 — a combined area just less than twice the size of the Western Cape.

Read: Biodiversity is in crisis worldwide and time is running out

The new report, titled Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature, says in the summary for policymakers that “unprecedented decline of biodiversity and climate change are affecting ecosystem functioning and negatively impacting people’s quality of life”.

It goes on to explain that “an important driver of global decline of biodiversity is the unsustainable use of nature, including persistent inequalities between and within countries, emanating from predominant political and economic decisions based on a narrow set of values”.

Achieving a shared vision of prosperity for people and the planet, the authors write, “depends on system-wide transformative change that incorporates the diverse values of nature aligned with the mutually supportive goals of justice and sustainability and its intertwined economic, social and environmental dimensions”.

The second key message to emerge from the report is closely linked to, and expands on, the first. It notes that despite the diversity of nature’s values, “most policymaking approaches have prioritised a narrow set of values at the expense of both nature and society, as well as future generations, and have often ignored values associated to indigenous peoples and local communities’ worldviews”.

The authors explain that people interact, perceive and experience nature in a variety of ways. The result is myriad conceptions of the role nature plays in people’s lives, which lead to a “wide diversity of values” about nature.

Despite this, “policymaking largely disregards the multiple ways in which nature matters to people”, and predominantly prioritises specific values of nature, “particularly market-based instrumental values of nature”.

Ana María Hernández Salgar, Chair of IPBES, said “biodiversity is being lost and nature’s contributions to people are being degraded faster now than at any other point in human history.

“This is largely because our current approach to political and economic decisions does not sufficiently account for the diversity of nature’s values.”

Weighted heavily towards economic and market considerations, insufficient thought is given to how changes in nature affect people’s quality of life and other non-market values associated with “nature’s contributions to people, such as climate regulation and cultural identity”, the report finds.

But the focus on supporting economic growth and short-term profit is not the only example.

“Conservation policies that focus on biodiversity for its own sake, may downplay other values and exclude local populations that depend on nature for their livelihoods,” the authors write.

Read: SA in ground-breaking rethink on protection of biodiversity

Inger Andersen, Executive Director at the UN Environment Programme, responding to the report’s findings, said “nature is what sustains us all. It gives us food, medicine, raw materials, oxygen, climate regulation and so much more. Nature… is the greatest asset that humanity could ever ask for.

“Yet its true value is often left out of decision-making. Nature’s life support system has become an externality that doesn’t even make it onto the ledger sheet. And so, it is lost in the pursuit of short-term profit.

“If we do not value nature and account for it in decision-making, it will continue to be lost. And that can only be bad news for humanity.”

Putting sustainability “at the heart of decision-making” can be supported by “redefining ‘development’ and ‘good quality of life’, and recognising the multiple ways people relate to each other and to nature”, the report continues, explaining that the transformative change needed to address the global biodiversity crisis “relies on shifting away from predominant values that currently over-emphasise short-term and individual material gains to nurturing sustainability aligned values across society”.

The report identifies four values-centred “leverage points” that can help create the conditions for this transformative change. They are:

• Recognising the diverse values of nature;

• Embedding valuation into decision-making;

• Reforming policies and regulations to internalise nature’s values;

• Shifting underlying societal norms and goals to align with global sustainability and justice objectives.

The report lends credibility to and follows hot on the heels of what Our Burning Planet’s Don Pinnock has described in an op-ed as a “ground-breaking rethink on protection of biodiversity”.

“At its core is the contention that nature has value in its own right, independent of human uses, even if it does not benefit humans. Its intrinsic value, the paper says, cannot be calibrated against its economic worth,” he writes.

Published by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) for public comment, a draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity seeks to “remedy the shortcomings of the current conservation model which, it says, was founded on the historical colonial practices — entrenched by apartheid — of over-exploitation of nature and the exclusion of the indigenous and local communities”, Pinnock writes.

Draft White Paper on Conser… by Krash King

whitepaper_2022.pdf

(4.05 MiB) Downloaded 41 times

The White Paper says the policy objectives are structured to achieve eight goals:

• Biodiversity conservation and sustainable use is transformative;

• Integrated, mainstreamed and effective biodiversity conservation and sustainable use;

• Biodiversity conservation promoted;

• Responsible sustainable use;

• Equitable access and benefit-sharing;

• Enhanced capacity;

• Biodiversity economy transformed; and

• Promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity globally.

In its summary, the DFFE hopes the paper will “set South Africa on a strong path of sustainable development based on rich biodiversity and the valuable ecosystem services provided”.

It goes on to say that the paper emphasises the “importance of the biodiversity sector to the South African economy, and to people’s livelihoods and wellbeing”.

“This White Paper”, it continues, “will take into consideration and be relevant to the historical, socioeconomic and environmental context in South Africa, and the aspirations and needs of its people: it is a new deal to ensure people will not only be living in harmony with nature, but that both people and nature will thrive.” OBP/DM

[Lisbeth]

Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in South Africa. ( See above). The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has published the Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in South Africa and is asking you to comment.

Comments can be emailed to Mr Khuthazo Mhamba at whitepaper@dffe.gov.za by no later than Thursday, 8 September 2022.

Enquiries can be directed to Mr Khuthazo Mhamba on cell 066 115 8144

https://pmg.org.za/call-for-comment/1178/

[Lisbeth]

South Africa’s new environmental policy – a positive shift or a licence to kill?


Wild animals, as an intrinsic part of natural landscapes, are significant to 'living in harmony with nature'. (Photo: iStock)

By Michael Chèze | 23 Aug 2022

Our much-heralded new White Paper on Biodiversity establishes a much higher duty of care towards wild animals, but another strategy document makes a mockery of the minister’s promise of ‘a prosperous nation living in harmony with nature’.
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The right to life is enshrined in our Constitution. Yet this right is precarious – every living moment is completely dependent on our environment. The truth is that we cannot exist independently of nature.

In the face of our catastrophically denuded natural world, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, which is responsible for the protection of this precious resource, has released a White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity for public comment. Its stated intention is to provide a single, overarching legal and policy framework to guide future strategy and implementation of conservation efforts.

However, at the same time, and with a much shorter window for public comment, the department has issued a separate strategy document (the Game Meat Strategy) which advocates for the industrial-scale breeding, farming and slaughter of wild animals. As an implementation plan, the Game Meat Strategy is required to adhere to the principles laid out in the White Paper, but the two are irreconcilable.

Although it is complex and sometimes conflicted, in many ways, the White Paper is a progressive document. It establishes a much higher duty of care towards wild animals as part of the ecosystem, recognising both their “sentience” and their ability to “suffer and feel pain”. It recognises, too, that nature has a right to exist independent of its economic value to us humans. The department describes the White Paper as “South Africa’s New Deal on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, aimed at achieving a South Africa where people live in harmony with nature, resulting in thriving people and nature”.

Despite being a policy document for the conservation of biodiversity, the White Paper puts “people first” as a guiding principle. However, recognising the damage done through the exploitative colonial model of conservation, the department includes the concept of Ubuntu as another fundamental guiding principle. Ubuntu provides for “harmonious relations, based on nature for nature’s sake”, is an “African social compact for just relations between humanity and the whole of creation”, and is a “unifying vision of community built upon compassionate, respectful, interdependent relationships”. The “very essence of Ubuntu hinges on consolidating the human, natural and spiritual tripartite”. In other words, the well-being of our people is dependent on our spiritual and natural health. Ubuntu makes it clear that to put people first means simultaneous healing of our relationship with spirit and nature.


The Animal Improvement Act 62 of 1998 was originally intended for agricultural livestock, yet under the amendment, wild animals including lions, cheetahs and rhinos can be genetically modified. (Photo: Gallo Images / Volksblad / Mlungisi Louw)

Wild animals, as an intrinsic part of natural landscapes, are significant to “living in harmony with nature”. For this reason, the paper defines the well-being of animals as “the holistic circumstances and conditions of an animal which are conducive to its physical, physiological and mental health and quality of life, including its ability to cope with its environment”.

The paper goes on to recognise that the concept of “biodiversity” implies intact ecosystems which exist in all their natural complexity and balance. The paper defines this biodiversity as “the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems” and “the ecological complexes of which they are part; including diversity at genetic, species and ecosystem levels”. The implication of this definition is that any sustainable use of our biodiversity must maintain the ecological integrity of the whole system and not just its individual parts.

This definition of biodiversity is in line with Section 24 of our Constitution which states that we all have a right to have our environment protected, not ecologically degraded or polluted, and that any use of our natural resources and development must be “ecologically sustainable” while promoting justifiable economic and social development.

The White Paper incorporates ecological sustainability into its definition of Sustainable Use, which has four pillars. Any component of biodiversity may only be used in a manner that:

1

• Does not contribute to its long-term decline in the wild; or disrupt the genetic integrity of the population;

2

• Does not disrupt the ecological integrity of the ecosystem in which it occurs;

3

• Ensures continued benefits to people that are fair, equitable and meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations; and

4

• In the case of animals, is humane and does not compromise their well-being.

Given all the progressive elements in the draft White Paper, it is indeed disconcerting, and even shocking, to discover that another paper issued for public comment by the department, the Game Meat Strategy, paves the way for a very different future landscape, for both wildlife and humans.

Unlike the White Paper, the Game Meat Strategy treats wildlife merely as a resource to be ruthlessly, systematically and efficiently exploited.

In discussing various business models for the expansion of the game meat industry (presented as the solution to South Africa’s economic woes and food shortages), the department’s strategy is strongly considering a “Large Scale Game Production and Harvesting Commercial Focus Business Model”. This model advocates the practices used in commercial livestock production, to “increase scale in order to be competitive”. It presents a slippery slide from game ranching to the intensive breeding and agricultural farming of wildlife.

[url=file:///C:/Users/utente/Downloads/588545160-47024-Gon-2293.pdf]Game Meat StrategyDescrizione completa[/url]

Unlike economically successful regenerative farming models which are leading global conservation strategies today, the Game Meat Strategy is a ramping-up of the old paradigm industrial model of agriculture, which has all but laid waste to our planet. Regenerative farming restores the health of the whole, while old-style industrial farming profits through taking species out of their natural environments and overexploiting them, thereby causing damage to the integrity of the animal and the environment. Industrial farming with its crowding of animals in environmentally degraded circumstances, use of antibiotics and growth hormones, toxic waste and the massive carbon footprint of animal feed production, has been identified internationally as one of the most serious causes of habitat degradation and climate catastrophe as well as being a practice associated with great cruelty.

Not only is this model morally questionable, it also poses a multitude of risks. Following concerns raised in 2009 within the scientific community about the growth of selective breeding and intensive management of game within the South African wildlife industry and its effect on biodiversity, the environmental affairs minister commissioned a report, released in 2018, which emphasised many risks, including the loss of genetic integrity, zoonotic disease and further environmental degradation. In defiance of these findings, the department’s Game Meat Strategy is based on the very practices that have been cautioned against by its own experts.

Equally disturbing, in 2019, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries amended the Animal Improvement Act 62 of 1998 to reclassify 33 wild animals as subject to its regulation. This act was originally intended for agricultural livestock, yet under the amendment, wild animals including lions, cheetahs and rhinos can be genetically modified.

‘Genetic pollution’ and reputational damage

Driven by a financial imperative, the agricultural industry breeds for characteristics demanded by market forces rather than necessitated by nature. Bigger rumps, softer hides, enlarged livers, and increasingly tender muscle meat soon result in animals that differ markedly from their wild counterparts, losing their ability to survive in the wild and risking what has been termed “genetic pollution”.


Unlike the White Paper, the Game Meat Strategy treats wildlife merely as a resource to be ruthlessly, systematically and efficiently exploited. (Photo: Gallo Images /Alet Pretorius)

South Africa recently suffered moral and reputational damage caused by the intensive breeding of lions in captivity for the canned hunting and bone trade industry. In the light of the “progressive” White Paper on Biodiversity, with its recognition of animal sentience, as well as its clarity on healthy biodiversity requiring intact ecosystems, the Game Meat Strategy demands particular scrutiny. The concept of Ubuntu – representing harmonious, respectful and compassionate relationships between ourselves and nature – is incompatible with the goals of the Game Meat Strategy.

The window for public comment on this critically important Game Meat Strategy is about to close. The government has rolled out a fast and furious public participation campaign ending on 26 August 2022. The fact that the Game Meat Strategy has been issued for public comment before the White Paper has been finalised, indicates that it is being strategically pushed through to avoid being encumbered by the White Paper’s progressive principles, and effectively makes a mockery of the minister’s promise of “a prosperous nation living in harmony with nature.” See the venues where the White Paper and the Game Meat Strategy are being presented simultaneously and make your opinions heard. DM/OBP

Michael Chèze is a former investment banker and a South African filmmaker. He is currently authoring a book promoting a more equitable international monetary system.

[Lisbeth]