Debunking myths about the impact of elephants on large trees African elephant in Kruger national park, South Africa. PACO COMO/Shutterstock Ross Harvey, University of Cape Town...
Let's be clear - tigers are perilously close to extinction. There are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers in the world. The last sighting of a Javan tiger was in...
South Africa, DRC, Namibia and Zimbabwe believe they should be able to sell threatened wildlife species on global markets, just like mass-produced trinkets. The South...
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY (For written reply) QUESTION NO.410 (NW1382E) INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 7 of 2019 DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26 July 2019 Ms H S Winkler (DA) to ask the Minister of...
The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Environment House 473 Steve Biko Road Arcadia Pretoria 0083 email: fshaik@environment.gov.za...
The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ruled in favour of the NSPCA regarding the welfare of lions in captivity and how that should affect the setting of an export quota for lion...
National Director of Public Prosecutions To: National Prosecuting Authority VGM Building123 Westlake Avenue Weavind Park, Silverton Pretoria, 0184...
Exclusive: Organisation has been heavily involved in Cites and IUCN for up to 20 years, winning campaigns to allow African lions and other species to still be killed. Trophy...
Some ranches are effectively battery farms CREDIT: FERGUS THOMAS he growing appetite for 'conservation holidays' has shone a light on the dark – and poorly...
The life of an elephant that faces being shot for being a 'nuisance' is hanging in the balance as animal campaigners in South Africa fight in court to keep him alive. Riff Raff's...
Picture: Martin Meja/AP A Parliamentary Resolution to end the Captive Breeding of Lions in South Africa has been ignored by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), who...
Once cubs in captivity get too big to be stroked and cuddled by tourists, they’re sold into the canned hunting and Asian bone trade industries. Shutterstock Ross Harvey, South...
Every year, thousands of tourists visit South African private nature reserves to see wild animals in unspoilt surroundings. But how many of these travellers know that some of the...
We, the undersigned elephant specialists, would like to set the record straight in the case of the lone female elephant, Lammie, at the Johannesburg Zoo, South Africa. There have...
CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA Eighteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Colombo (Sri Lanka), 23 May – 3 June 2019 Read...
HSI/Africa urges department of environmental affairs to heed Parliament’s call to end captive lion breeding for trophy hunting and the bone trade CAPE TOWN (6 DECEMBER 2018) – In...
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: BIODIVERSITY ACT, 2004 (ACT NO. 10 OF 2004) THE NATIONAL NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF ELEPHANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA I, Derek Andre...
DRAFT REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS ON THE COLLOQUIUM ON Captive lion breeding for hunting in South Africa: Harming or promoting the conservation...
Chairperson: Mr M Mapulane (ANC) Meeting Summary The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs hosted a two-day colloquium on captive lion breeding under the...
Captive Bred Lions destined for canned hunting or slaughter for their bones are not protected by South Africa’s animal welfare laws. The Departments responsible for their welfare...
There was an overwhelming consensus for the need to bring an end to the controversial captive lion breeding industry in South Africa at a two-day Parliamentary Colloquium of the...
New poll: vast majority of South Africans believes the lion breeding industry harms the country’s international reputation Economic contribution of the industry is tiny compared...
"MPs must be concerned when reputable conservation agencies turn their backs on SA and deplore its policies [regarding captive lion breeding],” said Mohlopi Mapulane, Portfolio...
Executive Summary In July 2018, without public consultation or scientific substantiation, South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) raised its annual lion skeleton...
Should we be farming lions to slaughter? The Problems No conservation value Inadequate welfare standards Lack of regulation Inability of DEA, DAFF and Provinces to enforce...
South Africa has opened hunting season on leopards after two years of grace. The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has given permission to shoot two leopards in...
Predator breeding using lions and other species could cost South Africa over R54-billion over the next 10 years in loss of tourism brand attractiveness. This is according to a...
At least 600 cheetahs are kept in captivity in South African tourism facilities, offering interactions and cub petting in the name of conservation and education. Do these...
This week, we have been taking part in the 70th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Animals Committee in Geneva, calling...
In 2017, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) announced an annual export quota of 800 skeletons (with or without the skull) for the international trade in lion bones....
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...
1. The Petition 1.1 On the 7th June 2018, a citizen of the United States of America, named in a recent article as Jared Whitworth...
The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has increased South Africa’s lion bone export quota from 800 to 1,500 a year, despite being aware that some skeletons are being...
This Report examines and investigates substantial problems and endemic loopholes in the CITES permitting, enforcement and oversight system. It further demonstrates the failings...
The troubled East London Zoo’s plans to buy Wild Dogs as soon as a moratorium on purchasing animals at the zoo is lifted are facing criticism from conservationists. The Zoo is...
It's been a bloody time for the South African canned lion industry. Last week‚ a lion 'abattoir' was exposed on a farm in the Free State‚ where close to 100 lions were...
In Africa an elephant dies from a poacher’s bullet every 15 minutes. But in South Africa’s private reserves they’re breeding like bunnies and there’s trouble up ahead. The...
The practice of breeding the animals in captivity as ‘ambassadors’ is doing the species more harm than good, Louise de Waal reports A WORRYING trend is emerging in South Africa...
Criminal syndicates may use the legal trade in lion bones from our captive lion population, as a cover for illegal wildlife trade, reveals new report. A damning report titled...
Forward Africa’s lions are facing an unprecedented crisis. Loss of habitat, reduced prey numbers, increasing conflict with a rapidly growing human population, unsustainable...
1. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT Since the early-1980s the number of fenced elephant populations on private property in South Africa has grown considerably, contributing to the...
MEDIA STATEMENT Fellow South Africans, Ladies and gentlemen of the media, Welcome to the first report back for 2018 on the Integrated Strategic Management approach to combat...
The walls are closing in on animal interaction operators in South Africa as international tourism role-players distance themselves from unethical wildlife experiences....
The Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, has permitted an annual sale of 800 skeletons of captive-bred lions. Conservation organisations say the quota has been...
Author: Don Pinnock The DEA is concerned that we’re getting it wrong about the legalization of domestic rhino horn trade. But it is they who are getting it wrong about the...
Cape Town - The South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has blatantly ignored public opinion by formally approving the export of 800 lion skeletons to Asia this...
What is the purpose of national parks in modern South Africa and where will the money come from to protect and sustain them? asks TONY CARNIE. What will South Africa’s national...
The Department of Environmental Affairs has emphasised that no exports of lion bones will be authorised in 2017 until the export quota for the trade in these specimens has been...
PROPOSAL OF NAMIBIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE This document has been submitted by Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.* Background At its 14th meeting of the Conference of...
South Africa and Kenya will hold talks with other African countries to find a common position on ivory trade ahead of the 17th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on...
South Africa has announced its first decrease in rhino poaching since 2007: “We are pleased to announce that for the first time in a decade the poaching situation in South Africa...
South Africa opposed a resolution that lauded CITES for supporting the destruction of government stockpiles of ivory seized from poachers and traffickers. It asserted that CITES...
The world's wealthiest hunting organization, Safari Club International (SCI) and professional hunting groups, met behind closed doors with the South African Department of...
Leopards are in trouble. But how much is hard to tell. For hundreds of years they were classed as vermin. Today we don’t know how many have survived the guns – they’re elusive...
Following attacks on a child and two women by cheetahs at KwaCheetah ‘petting park’ in KwaZulu-Natal, Ezemvelo authorities this week suspended all non-staff access to the...
The death of Cecil the Hwange lion and a new documentary film have catalyzed a worldwide rethink on trophy hunting. By Don Pinnock Deep in the ancient part of our brains is a...
To save African elephants from extinction, “range states should put their ivory stockpiles beyond commercial use immediately and simultaneously,” says South African economist...
If you want to save elephants, don’t legalise the international trade in ivory. That’s the message of a major research paper published to coincide with World Elephant Day on...
A child from Cowan House Preparatory School in KwaZulu-Natal was on Thursday bitten on the shoulder by a cheetah at the KwaCheetah Breeding Project in the Nambiti Private Game...
New research suggests things are getting worse for South Africa’s declining wild lion population as the trophy hunting industry is boosting the Asian trade in lion bones. Tiger...
In the past week Southern Africa’s lucrative trophy hunting industry received two devastating blows: the release of an explosive new documentary detailing the unsavoury practices...
In an unprecedented move, the Professional Hunters' Association of South Africa (PHASA) has been told that its "position on lion hunting is no longer tenable". In an email sent...
Johannesburg - An emergency was declared as the first elephant was poached on the western border of Kruger National Park. Each day in Africa around 100 elephants die at the hands...
Durban - Blood Lions, a new documentary film delivers a damning verdict on the rapidly growing South African industry that breeds, hunts and trades lions in captivity. Blood...
A legal trade in rhino horns lies at the heart of a proposed new government policy for the conservation of white rhinos in South Africa, despite the fact that an official...
The video is shaky having been secretly captured. But the image of the table full of polished ivory artifacts and the merchant sitting behind them is clear. “How much?” asks the...
The World Bank has allocated $700,000 bolster trophy hunting of elephants and lions in Mozambique as a way to preserve wildlife. “Hunting, when properly regulated and when...
Environmental destruction across the world is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, which begs the question why the South African government is so complacent in the face of...
A group of international experts comprised of over 30 conservationists, academics, journalists, authors and lawyers from Africa, Europe, Asia and America has warned the Committee...
International tourism to Africa reached record levels in 2013, with 56 million tourists bringing in $34.2-billion (about R410-billion). Significantly, 80% of them came to see the...
To: Ms. M.E. Nana Magomola, Chairperson, Committee of Inquiry Cc: Minister Edna Molewa, Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) All rhinoceros species are threatened by...
INTRODUCTION Greetings to the Chair of the Committee of Inquiry and to all the members of the COI. I am Dr. Alejandro Nadal, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies, El...
Cape Town – At a conference here at the end of May, experts from around the world gathered to discuss responses and solutions to the poaching crisis facing South Africa’s...
Limpopo Nature Conservation officer Gerhard De Beer is working feverishly with concerned conservationists to save two bull elephants from Botswana currently trekking through the...
Earlier this year horrific photographs and graphic video footage showing baby elephants being abused at an elephant sanctuary in the Eastern Cape and an elephant-back safari...
There will be no further culling of elephants in Kruger National park for population control. So says Dr Sam Ferreira, SANParks’ large mammal ecologist. That’s because the new,...
International indignation over the canned hunting of lions in SA is growing, writes Martina Polley. Lions are majestic animals, the alpha predators of the African bush. We think...
It looks like South Africa is going to break another record: 2014 is set to exceed 2013’s 1,004 rhino poached. But sadly, it’s not as though the nation is sitting back and doing...
A farmer has shot a leopard, which was collared for research, in the Boesmanland area in the Northern Cape earlier this month. The leopard, which was collared by the Landmark...
A permanent ban on the importation of lion parts, including trophies is planned by Australia. This was announced after South African conservationist; Ian Michler met with...
The African elephant population is already facing unprecedented pressure on its survival from poaching, so added pressure from the captive elephant industry is the last thing it...
Edna Molewa, Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs joined the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos (GMFER) in Pretoria on Saturday causing conservationists to wonder if...
While Africa is losing an elephant every 15 minutes to ivory poachers, trophy hunters are targeting the cross-border population of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier...
In the Proposed Amendments to South African Legislation (PALSA) participants urgently request the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to intervene in the rhino...
Conservationist Ian Michler met European lawyers, politicians, NGOs and the media this month to discuss ways of introducing a ban on the importation of canned lion hunting...
International arrivals at South African airports are greeted with an image of happy tourists on the back of an elephant experiencing, according to the wording, “Wild and Free...
The contentious issue of whether South Africa will apply to trade legally in rhino horn remains in the hands of a mystery Panel of Experts (PoE) which South Africa’s Department...
INTRODUCTION: At a recent stakeholder meeting called by the Department of Environmental Affairs to discuss proposed amendments to the Elephant Norms and Standards, it became...
Yes, say conservationists if proposals to change The Elephant Norms and Standards (ENS) law are accepted by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). Conservation groups are...
Conservationists across South Africa have commended the severe penalty meted out in Cape Town last week to Cheng Jie Liang, a Chinese national for the illegal possession of one...
In a Parliamentary debate on Tuesday on the rhino poaching crisis, government provided little hope for rhino as speaker after speaker lamented the rhino poaching...
The Department of Environmental Affairs is clearly scratching around for the ‘good story’ in relation to rhinos. In its latest attempt to solve the poaching problem it had to...
This August - on World Elephant Day - the Conservation Action Trust hosted a Mock Ivory Burn in Cape Town to raise awareness with South Africans about the slaughter of elephants...
On Tuesday Minister Edna Molewa announced SA’s intention to implement an integrated management strategy to reducing rhino poaching – but the failure to change legislation related...
In Cape Town, conservationists, sports stars and celebrities gathered in Blaauwberg Nature Reserve yesterday to celebrate World Elephant Day by igniting a fire of mock ivory...
A second elephant has been butchered for its tusks by poachers in Parfuri, northern Kruger National Park, 10km in from the Mozambican and Zimbabwean borders. SANParks officials...
The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) has finally issued an invitation to stakeholders to participate in its exploration of Rhino Horn Trade Feasibility. The long-awaited...
I have recently read the May/June South African Journal of Science report on a Kruger National Park workshop aimed at finding a management solution to counter the escalation of...
Guardian animals offer far better livestock protection than lethal methods, according to new research. They’re more effective, need less work, and are cheaper. A formal study of...
TWO top international economists say those who advocate trade in rhino horn and ivory fail to understand world markets or the economic muscle of multinational poachers....
It was Leonardo da Vinci, the great Renaissance-era mathematician, architect and artist, who said: “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards a ship...
Every 15 minutes an elephant is butchered for its tusks. That is 100 elephants every day. Nonetheless, the South African Minister of Water and Environment Affairs, Edna Molewa,...
Is the government really doing all they can to combat rhino poaching? In a report investigating the challenges facing the enforcement of South Africa’s environmental laws,...
In 2006, the Minister for Environment Affairs and Tourism convened a Science Round Table to advise on the different approaches to elephant management in South Africa....
The Elephant Management Plan for 2013-2022 describes the elephant management objectives to be implemented in Kruger National Park. Compiled by Scientific Services and the Kruger...