Tag: CITES

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ALLEGED SMUGGLING OF LION BONE CALLED “LEGAL” BY MINISTER’S SPOKESPERSON

WAPFSA MEDIA STATEMENT

07 OCTOBER 2019

The recent news release of 342 kg of lion bones discovered on an outbound flight at OR Tambo Airport on 1stOctober 2019 which was subsequentially confiscated, had extensive media coverage.

The comment from the Director of Communications at the Department of Environmental Affairs, Albi Modise was that “although the export of lion bones born in captivity was legal, a special permit was required to send them out.” This statement was reported by a number of media outlets, including World News, The Straits Times, BBC News, EWN, MSN, Business Standard, 7D News, and This is Money UK, Getaway, Jacaranda FM, and NST.

The export of lion bones from South Africa is currently illegal. In order to be legal, a yearly quota is supposed to be proposed by the Scientific Authority through the National Convention on the international Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Management Authority, then approved and communicated to all provincial conservation departments and managed at National level under the authority of the Minister of Forestry and Fishery and Environmental Affairs, Barbara Creecy.

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BLACK RHINOCEROS NON-DETRIMENT FINDING ASSESSMENT

WILDLIFE ANIMAL PROTECTION FORUM

IN CORRESPONDENCE WITH

THE SCIENTIFIC AUTHORITY OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY INSTITUTE

Dated: 20th September 2019

Forum-on-NDF-Black-Rhinoceros-Final-Download

It must be noted that the findings of the above mentioned assessment were issued by the Scientific Authority of South Africa on the 12th July 2018. A year later on the 22nd August 2019, your office offered members of the public a thirty-day period in which to respond to these proposed assessments.

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THEIR FUTURE IS DARK – THE RHINO HORN TRADE – A LETTER TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

COPY OF A LETTER ADDRESSED TO:

The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries

Environment House

473 Steve Biko Road

Arcadia

Pretoria

0083

email:  fshaik@environment.gov.za

           tzikalala@environment.gov.za

15th August 2019

Attention: The Minister of the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries

“Their Future is Dark” THE RHINO HORN TRADE 2019

The history surrounding the demand for African rhino horn is complex.  During the European colonial era trophy hunting was largely responsible for the decimation of the rhino populations, for decades thereafter the uncontrollable illegal rhino horn trade between Africa and Vietnam and China is to blame. 

Traditionally, once removed the horn was polished to a beautiful translucent hue and carved to make magnificent ornaments, or the horn was ground down into a fine powder and used in traditional Asian medicine, but increasingly rhino horn is now being used as a status symbol to display success and wealth.  

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RE-DETERMINATION OF THE 2019 LEOPARD TROPHY HUNTING QUOTA SOUTH AFRICA

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SUBMISSION FROM MEMBERS OF THE WILDLIFE ANIMAL PROTECTION FORUM SOUTH AFRICA

TO

MINISTER BARBARA CREECY, THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum South Africa recommends a zero quota and a cessation of the issuance of leopard trophy hunting based on the available science and deficiencies of the regulatory environmental and consultative process that are in place in the determination of population viability and status of the species.

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THE SOUTH AFRICAN LION BONE QUOTA

A SUBMISSION FROM TWENTY-FIVE NGO’S REPRESENTED BY THE WILDLIFE ANIMAL PROTECTION FORUM SOUTH AFRICA

TO

MINISTER BARBARA CREECY AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES

Lion-Bone-Quota-Submission-to-Minister_DEFF-from-25-SA-NGOs_17052019Download

The establishment of a lion bone export quota cannot be done without examining and understanding the context and major problems with this so-called industry which are untenable, indefensible and unsustainable.

For more in-depth analysis and articulation of these issues please refer to Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 in The Extinction Business: South Africa’s Lion Bone Trade .

It is important to note that the issue of South Africa’s highly controversial lion bone trade is a national policy issue which has enormous local and global opposition. As a country, if we no longer choose to trade in big cat bones, it will have no impact on our commitments to CITES.

South Africa is under no obligation to CITES to trade in lion bones.

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THE EXTINCTION BUSINESS South Africa’s Lion Bone Trade

EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT COMPILED BY THE EMS FOUNDATION AND THE BAN ANIMAL TRADING ORGANISATION

For more than a decade, South Africa has been actively supporting and growing the international trade in big cat bones, despite local and international outrage and condemnation from conservation and protection organisations, lion scientists and experts.

In 2017, South Africa’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, controversially, and in the face of vociferous opposition and robust arguments against this trade, set the annual export quota at 800 lion skeletons. Even more alarmingly, Molewa, without stakeholder participation, took the incomprehensible decision to almost double the quota in 2018 to 1,500 skeletons.

On July 11th 2018, the person in charge of the quota at the Department of the Environment told us categorically that no quota had been set for 2018. A few days later the DEA was forced to make a public announcement about the 2018 lion bone quota following a public outcry when a letter from Molewa, dated 7th June 2018, informing the provinces of the new quota allocation, was leaked. The undeclared reasons behind government’s decision to conceal this information from interested and affected parties needs to be brought to light and interrogated.

Two members of the Wild Animal Protection Forum South Africa namely the EMS Foundation and the Ban Animal Trading organisation spent eighteen months gathering information and investigating South Africa’s international lion bone trade.

The data that was gathered forms the basis for this report: The Extinction Business: South Africa’s Lion Bone Trade.

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