South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

DON PINNOCK SOUTH AFRICA 25 JAN 2016

The Department of Environmental Affairs has set to zero all hunting permits for leopards in South Africa – which is, effectively, a total ban on hunting the cats. This follows an alert by its Scientific Authority that the number of leopards in the country was unknown, and that trophy hunting posed a high risk to the survival of the species. The DEA ban, sent to all provincial authorities, cancels all leopard export permits for 2016.

Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), South Africa is permitted to allocate 150 leopard trophy export permits a year. Early warning of possible permit curtailment appeared in the Government Gazette late last year indicating that if guidelines were not adhered to, provincial quotas would be set to zero. At the time the DEA issued what it described, rather cryptically, as a “negative non-detrimental finding”, meaning that hunting was likely to have a damaging effect on the species.

It listed threats to leopards as excessive legal and illegal shooting of “damage-causing animals,” poorly managed trophy hunting, illegal trade in leopard skins for cultural and religious attire and generally poor monitoring of hunts and permit allocation.

The Research Authority found that leopards:

Had a low reproductive rate;
Their distribution was fragmented;
Their abundance and population trend was uncertain;
Illegal off-take was uncertain;
There was little control of harvesting (especially illegal harvesting) which was high;
Confidence in harvest management and monitoring was low;
Incentives for conservation in the country were low, and
Only between 5% and 15% of leopard habitat was strictly protected.

Commenting on the Gazette notice at the time, Guy Balme of the environmental NGO Panthera said: “We just don’t know how leopards are faring in South Africa. They’re secretive, mainly nocturnal, solitary and range over huge areas. Counting them requires intensive research using expensive technology such camera traps, which can only be deployed over small areas, far smaller than the areas in which hunting quotas are determined.

“It seems prudent that hunting should only continue once the appropriate measures are in place. Only then can we be confident that the practice is sustainable and not putting additional pressure on leopard populations already under a great deal of strain from other threats.”

The trophy ban is in place throughout this year. According to the DEA statement, the Scientific Authority will then review the situation. It will also develop norms and standards for the management and monitoring of leopard hunting throughout the country.

Kelly Marnewick, the Environmental Wildlife Trust’s carnivore conservation manager, supported the ban. “It is important to ensure that any wildlife trade we do is sustainable,” she said. “If we cannot do that, it’s highly problematical. We need a trade ban until we can get to that.

“Record keeping on trophy hunting in this country is shocking. We haven’t been recording age, sex or size of trophies. If our hunting fraternity is serious about using wildlife sustainably they will embrace this ban and find ways to work with government until trade is sustainable.”

Helen Turnbull of the Cape Leopard Trust also supported the move. She said the trust was pleased to see that common sense has prevailed, and that the government would maintain the ban until provinces had got their acts together. Andrew Muir of the Wilderness Foundation said the ban was good news, but noted that it was an interim measure while norms and standards were being put in place.

“We cannot stress enough the need for high quality research on the population numbers, make-up and distribution of leopards, especially in core conservation areas,” he said. “Leopards are charismatic and an apex species. Until we know population numbers and carrying capacity we should not hunt them.” DM


bambazonke

Has South Africa banned Leopard Hunting?

Post by bambazonke »

Have been told this was on Facebook???? and that there had been some tweets? P.M. yesterday, but as usual any official news?? :O^


bambazonke

Re: Has South Africa banned Leopard Hunting?

Post by bambazonke »

Why did they even bother. O/ The flagship game park cannot produce a credible census of any animal numbers, so how on earth do they envisage accurate numbers country wide in a year??


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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These leopard hunts take place in protected hunting farms, by and large, and provide a lot of foreign capital in uncertain economic times for SA.

No farmer would kill off all the leopard, excess animals are normally targeted.

The hunters' Association's comments are not mentioned?

The "illegal offtake" problem is the real one, IMO, as are the local traditional wearers of leopard skins, including our President...

So this is not going to solve anything, and lead to further job and international visitor losses, IMO.


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting
O/\ O/\ O/\ ^Q^ ^Q^ ^Q^


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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#ShockWildlifeTruths: Leopards one step closer to endangered list
2016-12-02 07:34 - Selene Brophy

Cape Town — Africa's leopards are one step closer to the protection from trophy hunting as the US Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that all leopards may qualify for “endangered” status under the Endangered Species Act.

The decision comes in response to a legal petition submitted in July 2016 by The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Fund for Animals.

According to the legal petition considered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a loophole in place since 1982, has seen hundreds of leopard trophies per year being imported into the United States without proper scrutiny by the federal government or scientific experts. In 2014 hunters imported 311 leopard trophies into the United States.



In sub-Saharan Africa, the leopard population has declined by more than 30 percent in the past 25 years, and the species has lost 48 to 67 percent of its historic range in Africa.

Between 2005 and 2014, at least 10,191 individual leopards were traded internationally as hunting trophies, with the United States as the top importer (accounting for 45 percent of this trade).

The number of leopard trophy imports has remained over 300 per year since 1999, despite commitments from the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1982 to only allow “very few” leopard trophies into the country.

In South Africa leopards hunting has been placed under a one-year ban for 2016, as they are at risk of extinction across their African and Asian range, having suffered a population decline in sub-Saharan Africa of more than 30 percent in the past 25 years, in part due to unsustainable trophy hunting by Americans.

SEE: #ShockWildlifeTruths: Will the Zulu traditional dress wipe out the SA leopard?


The SA department of environmental affairs has yet to confirm if and when the leopard hunting ban will be removed or extended.

In making its decision, the agency found that the group’s petition presented substantial scientific evidence that endangered protections may be warranted. The decision kicks off a comprehensive review of the status of the species.

“African leopard numbers are plummeting and as the largest leopard trophy importer in the world, the United States has taken a critical step toward ensuring that our consumption does not threaten the survival of this species,” said Teresa M Telecky, director of the wildlife department at HSI.

“This is a crucial step forward in saving these imperiled animals,” said Jeff Flocken, IFAW’s North America regional director. “We thank the US Fish and Wildlife Service for recognizing that enhanced protections under U.S. law may be warranted.”

“Initiating a status review of the species is long overdue,” said Anna Frostic, senior wildlife attorney for The HSUS, “and it is imperative that FWS expeditiously conclude this process and take action to increase oversight of African leopard trophy imports, as required by law.”

“Leopards in Asia and northern Africa have long been recognized as endangered,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “And the United States must extend this same level of protection to all leopards to reverse their disturbing decline.”

http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/G ... isapp=true


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

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Leopards in the crossfire: Trophy hunting and the 7 year rule

Image

BY JANINE AVERY - 27 MARCH 2017 - TRAVELLER24

If cats do have nine lives, leopards are on their last. Especially the big, strong males of the species as the DEA seems set on reintroducing leopard trophy hunting quotas.

The DEA issued a zero quota for 2016 and 2017 – effectively enforcing a ban on leopard trophy hunting in South Africa. The decision followed a report by the Scientific Authority that found leopard population estimates unreliable and consequently, hunting practices unsustainable. Accordingly, a precautionary hunting quota in 2018 was only to be implemented following a number of interventions including the development of the norms and standards for the management and monitoring of leopard hunting.

These norms, which apply if quotas are reinstated, were recently released by the DEA and opened for comment.

Contentiously, the norms state that only adult males, seven years or older, may be hunted. While meant to protect females, and viably reproductive leopards, the norms quote a study which concludes that off take of older males has little impact on populations. According to the norms, if this age limit is adhered to the number of animals available to hunt exceeds that proposed for a sustainable population (10 -16% compared to the recommended 3.6%), essentially negating the very purpose of the norms and standards.

Pieter Kat is just one big cat expert disputing this study, “the ‘7 year rule’ was based on a computer model generated on very limited information in Tanzania. Off take of leopards in South Africa should not be guided by such non-reproducible studies in eastern Africa.” He goes on to say, “If those requirements cannot be proven, the entire proposed age limitation of hunted leopards becomes irrelevant.”

There is also debate concerning if hunters can reliably age and sex leopards. The DEA says professional hunters will need to, “pass a once-off leopard hunting examination.” However the website provides unlimited practice exams and one study quoted in the norms even says, “Respondents performed poorly at aging male leopards, with less than 50% of photographs classified correctly. Hunters recorded the lowest scores.”

In the event that a younger male or female is hunted then that particular Leopard Hunting Zone (LHZ) will not be issued a quota the following season and an export permit won’t be issued. However Helen Turnbull of the Cape Leopard Trust says that, “there is an illustrated lack of compliance amongst the hunting fraternity, as well as a lack of capacity at management level for adequate and realistic policing of the new protocols that are proposed in order to ensure only males over the recommended age of seven years are targeted.”

The norms propose the SANBI-established LHZs with the allocation of one permit per property or zone per year, stating that a, “hunting permit allocated to one LHZ cannot be used in another LHZ.” But, “apart from the geographic limitation of one quota per LHZ, there needs to be clear reference as to how the quota will be allocated to an applicant,” says Kelly Marnewick of the EWT. She has also raised concern that there will not be, “enough time for DEA and SANBI to evaluate and analyse data and adaptively manage the quota for the following year.”

Turnbull also questions the work done by SANBI in the creation of the LHZ. She says, “the population estimates in the Western and Eastern Cape have not been adequately researched. We, as the Cape Leopard Trust, do not agree with the proposed hunting quota of 4 leopards for the Western Cape Province, and are in support of the rejection of this quota by the provincial issuing authority, Cape Nature.”

Tharia Unwin, Chief Executive Officer of the PHASA, says that without hunting, landowners have no incentives for habitat conservation, “The legal off take of leopard is not the problem. On the contrary, without any legal off take, there is no incentive for landowners to tolerate predators.” But Bool Smuts of the Landmark Leopard Predator Project believes that, “this document is a deliberate attempt, despite evidence to the contrary, to appease the hunting industry.”

Although the purpose of the norms is to manage the hunting of the leopard in order to reduce the impact of this practice on the species, trophy hunting seems to be going ahead despite the fact that it may still present a high risk to the survival of leopards in South Africa.

Read original article: http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/G ... e-20170327


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

Post by Lisbeth »

I am all for NO leopard trophy hunting, but if it will be allowed, who is going to control? 0*\


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Re: South Africa bans leopard trophy hunting

Post by stefan9 »

Can not and will not support any trophy hunting ever.


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