Molewa's Stakeholder Meeting: Utter Joke, or is She Winning?

Earlier this week (07/17/2015) Edna Molewa, South Africa's Minister of Environmental Affairs, held what is being called a "ground breaking" stakeholder engagement to discuss lion management in SA; more specifically, the breeding & hunting of lions.

Whilst the engagement -- which was meant to discuss the growing public concern surrounding the state of canned lion hunting in SA -- detailed the thoughts and opinions from hunting and breeding associations regarding the use of lions, there were no South African based NGOs or organizations to be found at the meeting. In fact, the engagement was littered with pro-hunting associations such as the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA), the South African Predators Assocation (SAPA) and the Confederation of Hunters Association of South Africa (CHASA). This is of course deeply concerning, considering the lack of opposing voices at this engagement which could have spoken on behalf of the lions being exploited by such associations as the pro-hunting ones mentioned above.

Molewa -- who has been known to sweep the issue of canned lion hunting under the rug, and who frequently embarrasses herself via social media platforms (such as Twitter) with claims that canned lion hunting is illegal in South Africa -- stated that the meeting was a direct reflection of how seriously the South African government takes the allegations of criminilatiy and illegal hunting. Apparently, these illegalities take place at "the fringe of the legal, well-regulated breeding and hunting industries" and South Africa is supposedly world-renowned for its lion conservation successes; supposedly so much so, in fact, that Molewa mentioned the huge pat on the back that SA received from the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). Considering, however, that some members or people at the IUCN are in the pockets of hunters & breeders, Molewa has little to brag about. Nevertheless, Edna may have gained the upper hand with this one, considering the complete & utter lack of opposing voices present at the stakeholder meeting.

Point 1 for Edna - 0 for us

As per the DEA's statement from the meeting: "The organsations present agreed that the illegal hunting of lion was damaging the legal industry. They further also noted that negative publicity fuelled by misconceptions that ‘canned hunting’ took place in South Africa, was resulting in substantial financial losses for the local legal hunting industry." What is interesting to note here, is the part where the occurrences of canned hunting are apparently just "misconceptions" of the public. Ummm, since when? Canned hunting has, on more than one occasion, been filmed, documented, written about, reported on, viewed, participated in, etc. for years now, and is not simply the result of public "misconceptions." Perhaps if canned hunting were disallowed, the legal hunting industry in South Africa would not suffer. But then again, it is the SA government which turns a blind eye to canned hunting and perpetuates the practice whilst their wallets grow fat & heavy with profit; so the fault lays entirely on SA's shoulders for the bad rep that legal hunting industries in the country receive. One could almost say, "Duh, Molewa."

Further, according to the statement from the DEA, "provincial authorities (such as in the North West province) are considering developing norms and standards to further ensure compliance on lion hunts." Where have these "norms and standards" been this whole time, then? It appears that the plan to act in accordance with such new compliances of norms & standards is a relatively new concept for SA, despite the fact that the general public -- as well as NGOs, orgs, conservationists and the like -- have quite literally been working to abolish this ill-treatment of lions for decades. What is now being called "compliances" with new "norms & standards" could be better and more easily translated into, "we're covering our a** to save our already crap reputation." Nice try, Molewa. But we're not buying it.

In April 2015, the DEA (Department of Environmental Affairs) in South Africa released a draft for a Biodiversity Management Plan for Lion which was open for public comment. According to the statement from Molewa's recent stakeholder meeting, the DEA will be reviewing the comments left on the BMP "to ensure that all gaps that exist in the lion breeding and hunting industries are closed" and further stipulated that the "stakeholder engagement, the first of many, will assist us, as the Department, in addressing areas of concern." The BMP however is a joke, if that, as it stipulates in turn that lions in South Africa should be downgraded on the IUCN's Red List from "vulnerable" to "least concern," due to the rise in lion populations in South Africa within recent years. But guess what? Those aren't wild lion populations on the rise.

According to the BMP, the rise in lion populations in SA can be attributed to the fact that most of the lions are housed within fenced areas adequately large enough and with sufficient enough resources that the lions are under no threat. Of course, they are under threat...of wildlife trade, canned hunting, trophy, lion-bone trade, and more. Not to mention, most of the lions fenced in such enclosures are cubs or adolescents being used-and-abused in the tourism industries of cub-petting & lion walking until they're old/large enough to be shot for trophy, thus providing lots and lots of profit for hunters and breeders alike.

The apparent lack of relevant threats to the "booming" population rise of lions in South Africa is as such because, as stated above, these are captive lions, not wild ones. The BMP draft states that there are approx 2,300 wild lions existing in national parks in SA, yet that number is at best a guestimation based on data from more than a decade ago. Pieter Kat, in an interview with Adam Cruise for his piece in Africa Geographic, mentioned that South Africa has no idea how many wild lions really exist there, as the last survey of such data was taken in the Kruger in 2005/2006.

Moreover, the lion-bone trade -- which plays a large role in supplementing the Asian market with large-cat bone due to the drop in Tiger numbers -- puts lions at additional risk of harm, as breeders will be able to fetch even more profits from the skeletons and other subsequent body parts of each lion which they sell for hunts. It is no secret that Asia has been quickly and surely taking over Africa in recent decades, which adds another facet of worry and concern which we must have for the wildlife of Africa. Just look at the baby elephants being tossed around from Zimbabwe to China (thanks, Mugabe). With the increase in demand for lion-bone, yet another threat is added to the others quickly piling up against lions. As Cruise stated, "The BMP views a legal trade in lion bones as an economically viable avenue and hopes to “promote sustainable legal trade in lions and lion products” using a regulated permit system." So basically, South Africa doesn't give a damn. Cool.

As is evident by the stakeholder engagement, the concerns being addressed by the South African government are not ones directly related to lions. They are the concerns of the hunting and breeding industries, which are forever crying their own "boo-hoo" story and consistently looking for ways to tear down any efforts made whatsoever which actually help to conserve, protect and save lions (and other African species) from complete and total decimation. Few critics of the Molewa, the SA government and the hunting/breeding industries actually believe that the DEA or any sort of BMP will help or contribute to conservation. After all, the SA govn't isn't about to turn a new leaf and suddenly show up to abolish industries which turn them a pretty penny, even at the expense of the country's wildlife.

Conclusion? Both the stakeholder engagement and the BMP which took place/were released this year, are a joke. They have yet to do any real work at proactively saving lions, and it is unclear as to whether the SA government will actually step up and turn a new leaf. Okay, who are we kidding here? They won't. But so long as pro-hunting lobbies are given the opportunity to gain the upper hand in South Africa at such meetings whilst SA based orgs (and the like) remain quiet and in the background, the points on the scoreboard will continue to mount in the government's, and hunters', favor.

Read the DEA's statement here: Molewa tries - and fails - to cover SA's butt

Read a summation of the stakeholder engagement here: Unsavoury practices in canned hunting industry prompt government concern