Parliament, Monday, 12 November 2018 – The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs adopted the Report of a two-day colloquium it held on Captive Breeding of Lions for Hunting and Lion Bone Trade, from 21 - 22 August 2018. The practice of captive lion breeding both for hunting and lion bone trade has caused much local and international uproar against South Africa’s Captive Lion Breeding Industry, leading to the expulsion of certain members of the Industry by international pro-hunting organisations, such as the SAFARI International, the Dallas Safari Club and the European International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had also raised concerns about captive lion breeding for hunting, calling on the South African Government to terminate this practice.
The Report contains voices of representatives of local pro-hunting and conservation organisations as well as international organisations who spoke against the industry, raising issues of critical policy importance that the committee undertakes to see through. It is in this respect that the committee resolved, among other things, that the Department of Environmental Affairs should as a matter of urgency initiate a policy and legislative review of Captive Breeding of Lions for hunting and Lion bone trade with a view of putting an end to this practice and that the Minister of Environmental Affairs should submit quarterly reports to the committee on the progress of this policy and legislative review. Similarly, the committee would like the Department to reconsider the decision to increase the lion bone trade quota from 800 to 1 500 lion skeletons, a decision it emerged during the Colloquium; was informed by commercial considerations, as opposed to science. This reconsideration is necessary given the huge public sentiment expressed against the increase in lion bone trade quota. The committee’s position is to protect South Africa’s esteemed conservation image, but more fundamentally the Brand South Africa. The Report is ready for publication online today.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, MR PHILLEMON MAPULANE.
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