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CAPE TOWN— Lions bred in captivity to be shot and killed by a pleasure-seeking tourist. Rhinos felled by bow and arrow for fun. Zebras bred with donkeys to slow their escape from hunters.

A panel of experts highlighted the darker side of South Africa's booming wildlife industry on Tuesday and recommended a total ban on "canned hunting"- the release of captive-bred animals to be killed for sport with no chance of escaping their human predators.



Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the government would introduce legislation next year to salvage South Africa's reputation as an international haven for wildlife.

"We want to stop the approach of 'anything goes' in terms of hunting and crossbreeding," said van Schalkwyk.

The hunting of lions and other big cats bred in captivity purely to die at the barrel of a gun will be outlawed.

The Department of the Environment said the new regulations will make it illegal for anyone to kill large predators raised in an enclosed reserve to blunt their survival instincts.

It said it would also ban the shooting of lions, cheetahs and leopards in a "controlled environment," where hunters had an unfair advantage over the beasts, as well as forbidding the killing of tranquilized animals.

"The department shall never condone unacceptable hunting practices including so-called canned hunting," it said.

The proposed laws were drawn up following three years of consultations with hunting industry and conservation groups.

South Africa is famous as home to the Big Five— lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo. Its flagship Kruger National Park attracts in excess a million camera-toting visitors annually.

Some 9,000 privately owned game farms and other government-run reserves also offer visitors a taste of the wild.

South Africa has become a choice destination for those willing to pay a high price to take home a prized trophy.

The TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network said that in 2004, 190 lions worth an estimated $3.3 million were hunted in 2004 by foreigners: $17,500 each. Nearly 5,500 kudu- valued at $5.3 million in all- were also taken, along with 45 leopards worth an estimated $250,000.

Hunting is an integral part of South African life because of its cultural traditions and importance to the economy.

Minister van Schalkwyk is himself an avid hunter.

But the Government panel set up to examine the law found horrific examples of abuse, including the widespread use of predators born and bred in captivity.

Labels: ban, canned hunting, hunting, lions, van schalkwyk

The Blyde River Canyon will officially be declared as a National Park on Heritage Day, September 24, this year. This was announced by Environmental Affairs and Tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk during a budget speech made to the national council of provinces.



The official name of the new national park has yet to be decided upon, but according to Chris Clarke who has been coordinating the initiative for the Department of Environmental Affairs and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) for some time, the preferred name of the new park is Mapulaneng National Park.

Last week a workshop was held with many of the stakeholders in the project, and the communities who have a strong land claim over the park land said that although the Blyde River has been renamed the Motlatse River, they prefer the Park to be called Mapulaneng.

This roughly translates to "place of fortune" (ma -mother, pula -fortune, neng -place of).

The new National Park will be a place of many firsts, and is already being heralded internationally as representing a new era in national park creation. It will bring one of the richest collections of plant and animal species on earth under formal protection, linking up a mosaic of different landscapes like mountain grasslands, mist-belt forests and woodlands and savannah bush.

It will incorporate some of South Africa’s rarest species, many of which are threatened with extinction.

It will also be the first national park to be looked after by a provincial authority. In terms of new environmental laws, the Mpumalanga Parks Board (now officially known as the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency - MTPA), will manage the park instead of SANParks.

In keeping with new visions for bringing conservation and people together, such as discussed at the last World Park's Congress, the MTPA will also be looking after the park for successful land claimants. The descendants of those people evicted from the land many years ago will become partners with the state, allowing the state to become custodians of the land, while the communities benefit from the area's tourism potential.

As highlighted at the signing of the memorandum of agreement for the creation of the park at Bourke's Luck in 2004, local communities will also be empowered to play a significant role in the new park which van Schalkwyk said "is expected to inject R500 million into the local economy over the next ten years."

Over the next three years, Environmental Affairs has budgeted R18 million for the development of the park. The first R10 million of this will be spent on the creation of a public-private partnership luxury hiking trail, which is expected to cost guests in the region of R800-R1,200 for a night's accommodation.

Also on the cards for the national park are 500 beds, restaurants, adventure activities like river kayaking, abseiling and forest canopy trails, and a cableway.

The park will initially cover an area of 44,000ha, but in excess of 10,000ha will be added as commercial pine plantations in the area are rehabilitated and returned to a more natural state over the course of several years.

Minister van Schalkwyk was positive about the creation of the new park, saying, "Blyde has the potential to become one of the fastest growing malaria-free tourism destinations in Africa."

Labels: blyde canyon, hoedspruit, national park, van schalkwyk

Different arms of the government are at one another’s throats over a proposed 21-storey dam on a major river that passes through the Kruger National Park and feeds Mozambique.

South African National Parks (SANParks) has threatened legal action against its principal sponsor, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.

Water Affairs plans to start building the R4billion De Hoop dam on a tributary of the Olifants river in the middle of this year, mainly to feed mining interests.

But SANParks and critical NGOs protest that the project violates national and international laws and pits ministries against each other.

“It will boil down to which department has the most political clout,” said Nick King, executive director of the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), which rejects the project. “Water Affairs’ mandate is the delivery of water; Environmental Affairs must conserve the resource base and SANParks protects biodiversity.”

In last year’s State of the Nation speech, President Thabo Mbeki announced the proposed De Hoop dam is “to provide water for platinum mining and agriculture”. Half a dozen platinum mines are planned for surrounding Sekhukhuneland, which straddles the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

But the Steelpoort river, where the dam will be built, is a major tributary feeding the Olifants. For the first time on record, the Olifants stopped flowing last year for 78 days because of drought and growing demands on its water.

Late last year, Environmental Affairs approved Water Affairs’ application for construction of the dam in a controversial record of decision, against which SANParks and at least four NGOs have appealed.

Water Affairs said one reason it wants to build the dam is to supply three local municipalities with domestic water. But, asked the EWT in its appeal, “How will domestic supply be guaranteed? No evidence is provided that local communities will receive water, let alone be able to pay for it.”

In its appeal, SANParks said the dam would negatively affect tourism, wildlife and concession areas in the Kruger. “If our rivers dry up, the value of the tourism experience in Kruger will be diminished and tourism support for the area will cease.”

If the project went ahead without clear assurances that Kruger would continue to receive its share of downstream water— known as an “ecological reserve”— “SANParks will have no alternative but to approach an appropriate court for appropriate relief”.

SANParks added that the dam proposal “seriously compromises the relationship between South Africa and Mozambique”, which is upgrading the Massingir dam on its end of the Olifants river. Massingir has also come in for criticism, because it will flood parts of the Kruger and endanger an important breeding habitat of the Nile crocodile.

Vera Ribeiro, coordinator of the Mozambican environmental NGO Geasphere, said the Mozambique government had been notified about the De Hoop development. “But we are concerned there hasn’t been enough information adequately disseminated or disclosed on the project and about the potential impact on communities. The available information is mostly in English and almost impossible for Mozambicans to assess and make informed decisions on.

“The two governments must adhere to the Southern African Development Community’s protocol on shared watercourses, with close cooperation to ensure the sustainable use of shared water bodies.”

Ribeiro expressed concern not only about the quantity of downstream water on the Mozambican side, but that chemical pollutants and heavy metals from mining would affect water quality.

Ironically, the EWT added, environmental affair’s own research had identified the Sekhukhuneland region as one of nine national conservation priority areas because of its high biodiversity and ecosystems service value. At least 20 species of plant found nowhere else on Earth will be flooded by the 1,700ha dam, along with at least 20 animal and reptile species already threatened with extinction.

Opponents of the dam were furious when environmental affairs released its record of decision in late November, giving them 30 days over the holiday period to appeal. SANParks said it was given no official communication of the decision, but “only received notification early in December 2005 through other means”.

JP Louw, head of communications at environmental affairs, said there was nothing malicious or intentional about the timing. “The fact that both the Wild Coast [N2 tollroad] and De Hoop decisions were issued towards the end of the calendar year is purely coincidental, and there is certainly no deliberate intent by the department to issue decisions on big or controversial applications during this period.”

After the furore over the Wild Coast decision in December 2004, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk extended the appeal period for 30 days. But no such concession was made for the De Hoop dam this week.

“The law does not provide for an extension of the appeal period. Appellants will, however, be provided a second opportunity to make inputs when the minister avails the applicant’s responses to the grounds of appeals to appellants,” said ministerial representative Riaan Aucamp.

Read about the Kruger Park's river systems here.

Labels: conservation, dams, de hoop, massingir, olifants, SANParks, van schalkwyk

JOHANNESBURG- The Kruger National Park wants to shoot up to 6,000 elephants as part of a national culling programme that could start next winter.

Thousands of elephants in other state and private reserves around the country will also be culled, if a South African National Parks (SANParks) report on elephant management submitted to Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk is endorsed by the public.

Van Schalkwyk said this week that culling— stopped more than a decade ago, mainly because of local and international opposition— had been approved by the Cabinet as a solution to growing elephant numbers.

“I would rather not do culling, and this is the view of the government as well. But there comes a time when not doing anything is not good enough,” he said.

A recent census in Kruger recorded close to 12 500 elephants in the park itself, and there are about 2,000 more living in private reserves on the park’s western boundary.

According to SANParks figures, the Kruger population is increasing at 7% a year and could reach 20,000 by 2012. If the culling plans are approved, culling could start in the middle of next year— the cooler winter months being the most suitable.

Before Kruger closed its abattoir in Skukuza in 1995, its annual culling programme aimed to keep the elephant population at about 7,500. SANParks officials are loath to discuss figures now, but scientists working with the organisation say high-ranking officials still support the original “carrying capacity” figure and are known to want to almost halve the present population over a number of years.

In its report to Van Schalkwyk, released last week, SANParks avoided mentioning the park’s “carrying capacity”, but referred to a management plan drawn up in 2000 by scientists that divided Kruger into six zones.

This plan recommended culling between 400 and 1,000 elephants a year over five years. In zones of envisaged “low impact”, elephant numbers would be reduced; in “high-impact” zones around the central section of the park, numbers would be left to fluctuate.

“We envisage that in those areas where maximum population management will be needed we will be looking at a reduction level of about 7% annually, a figure which will be revised year on year,” David Mabunda, chief executive of SANParks, said in response to M&G questions last week. At current numbers, this would mean culling up to 900 elephants in the first year.

Mabunda denied the plan was to get rid of 6,000 elephants. “It is irresponsible and untrue because SANParks has not put a figure on numbers of elephants that need to be culled in the national park. The issue of numbers is one that is often miscommunicated to the public, resulting in several unnecessary misunderstandings.”

SANParks says in its report to Van Schalkwyk that culling is needed to conserve biological diversity in protected areas and support sustainable use of natural resources for the benefit of communities.

Communities would be involved in processing carcasses, canning plants and butcheries, and in carving tusks and bones, elephant hair products and other by-products.

Van Schalkwyk announced on Tuesday that national guidelines for elephant management would be drawn up by early next year and published for public comment. The national framework will be adapted to the individual needs of different national, provincial and private reserves.

There were about 17,000 elephants in South Africa’s 80 nature reserves and “some commentators suggest [this] is at least double the carrying capacity”, he added.

Critics, including scientists who formerly favoured culling but now reject it, have questioned the accuracy of SANParks figures and the impact SANParks says elephants have on biodiversity.

“While the concept of a static carrying capacity within a dynamic environment has no scientific basis, the idea that Kruger can only support a population of 7,000 elephants has nevertheless become deeply entrenched within the minds of the general public,” Michelle Henley of the Associated Private Nature Reserves, on the western border of the Kruger, recently wrote for an international NGO called Save the Elephants.

She said misconceptions were being fuelled by statements such as “there is an overpopulation of elephants” or “elephants have exceeded their carrying capacity. The majority of scientists do not agree with these perceptions.”

Scientists attending a workshop in Johannesburg in July said the impact of elephants on biodiversity should not be considered in isolation. Factors such as the closing of waterholes in the Kruger, fire and the impact of other browsers such as impalas had to be taken into account.

Where elephant numbers had to be reduced, the workshop concluded, there were alternatives to culling such as expanding parks, elephant “corridors” between reserves, translocation and contraception. Van Schalkwyk said he was considering these non-lethal reduction methods.

Click here for the original article.

Labels: contraception, culling, elephants, SANParks, van schalkwyk

JOHANNESBURG- South Africa will be split into two extreme climate zones in the east and west within the next 50 years.

The Western and Northern Cape will become more drought-stricken while Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal will endure long dry spells followed by torrential rain and flooding.

Bleak predictions of how climate change would impact on water supplies and agriculture were presented by the South African National Biodiversity Institute at a meeting attended by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, in Cape Town this week.

Without intervention from the government, expected changes caused by weather in the future included:

- An inability to produce maize in the western parts of SA;

- A drastic decrease in river flows in western parts of the country and also, on a smaller scale, the eastern regions;

- Possible extinction of numerous plant species in less than 100 years - the Karoo, home to unique floral species, would be significantly affected, as would the southwest Cape's fynbos;

- A decline in bird and mammal populations, with high rates of extinction in the central Highveld and the Lowveld; and

- Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo are at risk of becoming malaria hotspots due to higher temperatures.

Rainfall patterns could change dramatically, depending on how much fossil fuel was burnt worldwide, with up to 45mm less rain in the Western Cape in July 2050 compared to now. Up to 55mm more rain could fall in KwaZulu-Natal in December 2050, according to the Climate Systems Analysis Group at the University of Cape Town.

A National Climate Change Response Strategy was launched by the government last year to tackle the challenges of climate change.

Guy Midgley, the head of the South African National Biodiversity Institute's Climate Change Research Group, said warning signs were already visible in the northern and southern hemispheres.

"We think that the increasing level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is allowing trees to grow much more efficiently in relation to grasses, and that leads to bush encroachment," he said.

Read more about the climate of the Kruger National Park here.

Labels: climate, conservation, van schalkwyk