Africa Wild

Absolutely disgraceful...

Strange story

Very strange!

AfriForum serves PAIA application on Department of Environmental Affairs over lion skeletons

The civil rights organisation AfriForum today served an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 (Act No 2 of 2000) to compel the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to release information pertaining to its decision to increase the export quota for lion skeletons.

This follows the DEA announcement on 16 July 2018 that it would increase the export quota of lion skeletons to 1 500 annually, based on their research. In 2017, the export quota was set at 800 lion skeletons per year.

AfriForum applied to obtain the following information:

1. Complete copies of the research projects on which the decision was based to increase export quotas

2. Information on where the lion skeletons would be exported to, as well as where the money generated would be appropriated

3. Proof that the DEA informed the Convention on International Trading in Endangered Species (CITES) of its decision

4. Information on how the export of lion skeletons would be regulated, as well as records of the origin of these skeletons

5. Proof that the trading in lion skeletons would contribute to the preservation of lions.

“AfriForum took note of the DEA’s decision and will decide on the road ahead depending on the requested information. We are worried about the preservation of South Africa’s unique and endangered species. The state must prioritise this. An open and transparent process based on scientific proof and to the benefit of preservation must be followed in such a case,” says Chris Boshoff, AfriForum’s Coordinator for Environmental Affairs.

With all the media talk that there has been, somebody had to ask for explanations on this questionable decision taken by the DEA

Well done to AfriForum

This has great implications for getting answers from DEA and SANParks about a whole host of things. PAIA is a lengthy business, though.

Time to end lion bone trade

BY DON PINNOCK - 20 JULY 2018 - THE MERCURY

A DAMNING report on South Africa’s lion bone trade has called for the end of the trade, a forensic investigation into the affairs of lion breeders and a restriction on the keeping and breeding of lions and tigers.

The report, The Extinction Business, compiled by the EMS Foundation and Ban Animal Trading, says it’s time to discuss dismantling the big cat industry, address criminal networks linking it to traffickers in China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and monitor the CITES permitting process that allows wild animal translocation. The report’s release coincided with an announcement by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) that it was increasing the annual export quota of lion skeletons from 800 to 1 500.

South Africa is already the largest exporter of lion bones to mainly Vietnam, Lao PDR and Thailand, countries which are at the nexus of the illegal wildlife trade.

The bones are mainly used for fake tiger bone wine which is a bogus health drink.

According to the report, the bone trade is benefiting very few people. They appear to be an interconnected group of fewer than 10 South Africans, all somehow linked to canned lion hunting and who are factory-farming lions for bone export.

“It is confounding,” Dr Paul Funston of Panthera is quoted in the report as saying, “that a country whose iconic wild lions are such a source of national pride, not to mention tourist revenue, would take such risks as to sustain a marginal captive breeding industry that is condemned globally for its shameful practices.”

According to information published on the internet by DEA in 2011, importers were listed in CITES permits as S Durosagham, Sipharpra Duarseram, Vixay Keosovang, Jacek Raczka and Bounpasong Paphatsalang.

Keosavang is one of the world’s most notorious illicit wildlife traders and the US has placed a $1 million (R13.5m) bounty on his head leading to his capture, a fact that the DEA could hardly not have known.

“The fact that South Africa was issuing CITES export permits to criminal syndicates and questionable destinations after they had knowledge of the Keosavang Network speaks to gaping loopholes in CITES permitting mechanisms,” the report notes.

When the original quota was legalised in South Africa, the DEA claimed the bone industry was merely a by-product of the trophy hunting industry. If so, the skull, jaw and clavicles would be absent from the skeleton exports because they’re required to mount a trophy.

However Extinction Business researchers found that 91% of the skeletons that went out in 2017 included skulls.

“It can therefore be concluded, contrary to claims from the government, that South Africa’s lion bone trade is not simply a by-product of the canned trophy hunting industry. Big cats are being commercially bred for their bones.”

The shift from hunting to bones has necessitated industrial scale killing. Earlier this year a whistle-blower disclosed the existence of a lion slaughterhouse in the Free State established to kill lions for their skeletons. It is situated on the farm Wag ’n Bietjie in the Glen district outside Bloemfontein. Lion farmers told Beeld journalist Marietjie Gericke that there were more lion slaughterhouses in the Free State – including one in the Winburg district – and that at least 400 lions had been killed there in the past year.

There is also evidence, says the report, that some of the local traders are cheating. “Given that the mean average of a full lion skeleton is 9kg, our examination of a sample of 10 skeleton consignments exported in 2017 indicates that the individual skeletons actually exported on average weighed between 11kg and 30kg, indicating multiple skeletons per consignment.” This means exporters are exceeding the quota – unchecked by CITES.

Concerns around commercial lion breeding appear to have reached the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs. In August it will be hosting a high-level discussion on the issue entitled Lion breeding for hunting in South Africa; destroying or promoting the conservation image of the country?

Read original article: https://www.pressreader.com/south-afric ... 9730595866

The above looks like a shorter edition of this https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 82#p417582 more or less.

Parliament is set to discuss hopefully some proper discussion will be done .

https://conservationaction.co.za/resour ... romoterPro

BY PARLIAMENT - 2018 - PROGRAMME

CAPTIVE LION BREEDING FOR HUNTING IN SOUTH AFRICA: HARMING OR PROMOTING THE CONSERVATION IMAGE OF THE COUNTRY
DATE: 21ST & 22ND AUGUST 2018
VENUE: GOOD HOPE CHAMBER, PARLIAMENT, CAPE TOWN
CHAIRPERSON OF THE COLLOQUIUM: HON MR MP MAPULANE, (MP)
PROGRAMME

SCENE-SETTING SESSION

08:30 – 08:45 Registration, Tea & Coffee – Committee Secretariat

08:45 – 09:05 Welcoming and opening address – Hon Mr MP Mapulane, Chairperson: Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs

09:05 – 09:25 Keynote address – Hon Edna Molewa, Minister: Environmental Affairs

09:25 – 10:00 Regulatory frameworks for wild and captive-bred lion hunting (e.g., ethical considerations, size of the hunting area, release period prior to the hunt, human interaction with the lions to be hunted, hunting methods, etc.):
1) Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) Regulations (National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, 2004 (Act No 10 of 2004) and other applicable legislation – Mr Shonisani Munzhedzi, Deputy Director General: Biodiversity and Conservation

10:00 – 10:30
2) DAFF’s regulatory role in captive lion breeding for hunting – Mr M Ramasodi, Acting DG: DAFF

10:30– 11:00
3) The Extinction Business: South Africa’s ‘Lion’ Bone Trade – Michele Pickover, EMS Foundation

11:00 – 11:15 TEA BREAK – ALL

11:15 – 12:15 DISCUSSIONS: COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – ALL

PANEL DISCUSSION SESSION: EVOLUTION, SCOPE AND THE ETHICS OF CAPTIVE LION BREEDING FOR HUNTING

12:15 – 12:40 Genesis of Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting and the factors that promoted the industry – Born Free Foundation, Shamwari Nature Reserve

12:40 – 13:05 Size of South Africa’s Captive Lion Breeding (for Hunting) Industry – PHASA

13:05 – 14:00 LUNCH – ALL

14:00 – 14:25 From the hand that nurtures to the one that kills: where in the process is the human fear factor built in the animal? – SAPA

14:25 – 14:50 Ethics of captive lion breeding for hunting – Custodians of Professional Hunting and Conservation – South Africa (CPHC-SA)

14:50 –15:15 Why the international uproar against the South African Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting Industry? –
International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC)

15:15 – 16:15 DISCUSSIONS: COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – ALL

16:15 – 16:35 Winding up – Chairperson of the PC on Environ Affairs

DAY TWO: CAPTIVE LION BREEDING FOR HUNTING (CONT…)

08:45 – 09:00 Tea & coffee – Committee Secretariat

09:00 – 09:15 Outlining the day’s approach – Hon Mr MP Mapulane, Chairperson: PC on Environmental Affairs

09:15 – 09:45 A lion too far: the case of trophy hunting in the Greater Kruger National Park- Dr Don Pinnock, Research Fellow, UCT

09:45 – 10:20
1) SANParks’ Response to claims of trophy hunting in the Greater Kruger National Park; and
2) South African lion conservation in the wild: breeding approach, trends, challenges & opportunities, inter alia
South African National Parks (SANParks)

10:20 – 10:50 Determination of hunting quotas in the Greater Kruger National Park Department of Environmental Affairs

10:50 – 11:05 TEA BREAK – ALL

11:05 – 12:05 DISCUSSION: COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS – ALL

PANEL DISCUSSION SESSION: EFFECTS OF CAPTIVE LION BREEDING ON SA’S CONSERVATION IMAGE & BRAND – (EXTERNAL FACILITATOR)

12:05 – 12:30 Possible effects of lion bone trade on lion conservation in the wild: stimulating or buffering the demand? – WWF-SA

12:30 – 13:00 Conservation benefits or harm of captive lion breeding for hunting: what does the empirical evidence say? – Endangered Wildlife Trust

13:00 – 14:00 LUNCH – ALL

14:00 – 14:25 Effects of captive lion breeding for hunting on Brand South Africa – CEO of Brand SA

14:25 – 14:50 Profile of captive-bred lion hunters and trends in the most recent past (e.g., from 2012 to date) –
CHASA

14:50 – 15:50 DISCUSSION: COMMENTS, QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ALL

15:50 – 16:05 TEA BREAK – ALL

16:05 – 16:20 Reflections on the future of Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting Industry – External Facilitator

16:20 – 16:40 Concluding Remarks – Chairperson of the PC on Environmental Affairs

view original programme: Colloquium on Captive Lion Breeding – 21 & 22 August 2018[2]

It will not be easy to keep the schedules

At least the Government has understood that the public opinion is important and having raised the lion bone quota has let the Devil loose

Some of the conservation organisations have become rather important and have a good media coverage.