Durban — A robust discussion on the captive lion-breeding industry was held in KwaZulu-Natal recently between role-players in solidarity with the global march against canned lion hunting.
The number of wild lions totals only around 3 500, according to the Endangered Wildlife Trust non-governmental organisation.
The South African government approved the revised Policy Position on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Elephant, Lion, Leopard, and Rhinoceros for implementation. The IFP hosted the discussion led by Narend Singh, IFP chief whip, and moderated by advocate Anthony Mitchell.
Among the speakers were Swati Thiyagarajan, Indian conservationist, documentary film-maker and investigative journalist, who discussed the challenges for South Africa’s biodiversity. Also Craig Pedersen, crime and safety expert: digital forensics and cybercrime, who discussed South Africa being one of the largest cybercrime capitals in Africa.
Craig Foster, South African documentary film-maker, naturalist and founder of the Sea Change Project, discussed the need for South Africans to embrace nature to bring a deeper connection to the way humans view conservation.
The government had already announced its intention to ban the breeding of lions for hunting in 2021, and an ad hoc panel has been working on the issue for the past two years, said Department of Forestry, Fishery, and the Environment (DFFE) Minister Barbara Creecy earlier this month.
“The panel recommended the closure of the captive breeding sector, including the keeping of lions in captivity, or the use of captive lions or their derivatives commercially,” she said.
Four Paws South Africa director Fiona Miles commended the DFFE for reiterating the intention to close captive lion industries, but expressed concern over the lack of specific time-bound goals for the implementation of the plan. Miles said there as an urgent need for action.
“The captive lion breeding industry, which has proliferated uncontrolled for almost 35 years for commercial purposes with no conservation benefit, has harmed the country’s reputation,” said Miles.
According to the White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity which was published in the “Government Gazette” No 48785, for implementation on June 14, 2023, it provides a broad policy context with four goals: enhanced biodiversity conservation; sustainable use; equitable access and benefit sharing; and transformed biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
As with the Colloquium and High-Level Panel report, the White Paper identified, among the challenges, “Practices within the sector that have brought the country into disrepute. This Policy Position is also guided by the White Paper. Consistent with the policy context of the White Paper, this Policy Position focuses primarily on correcting unsustainable practices, promoting conservation, sustainable use, and the well-being of the five species, and providing policy direction for international commercial trade in the five species.
“The Policy Position, therefore, proposes three conservation and sustainable use policy objectives to enhance species management: to end the captive keeping of lions for commercial purposes and close captive lion facilities, put a halt to the intensive breeding of lions in controlled environments and end the commercial exploitation of captive and captive-bred lions; to phase out intensive management and captive breeding of rhinoceros for commercial purposes, and enhance wild populations; and to ensure that the use of leopards is sustainable and incentivises and enhances their conservation in the wild.
“The Policy Position also proposes three international commercial trade-related policy objectives: to promote live export of the five species only to range states or any other appropriate and acceptable destinations with suitable habitats on the African continent; for South Africa to work with range states and potential destination countries to support a proposal for international commercial trade in rhinoceros horn from protected wild rhinoceros, for conservation purposes, when conditions become favourable; and to consider international commercial elephant ivory trade only when conditions become favourable.”
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa said all the speakers who presented on the various crucial topics indicated the need for legislative intervention.
“I am left with a wonderful sense of hope knowing that people like our speakers here tonight are fighting the good fight for all our benefit. I am also left keenly aware of how little we as legislators know of the complex issues with which we are called to grapple.
“There is a need for environmental education to be brought back into the South African schooling system, which I believe will allow the new generation to learn about how to take better care of our conservation,” he said.
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