Month: June 2017

Cape Town – The issue of canned lion hunting has never received as much attention than before the death of Cecil the lion or the controversial SA based-documentary Blood Lions.

And while many strides have been made over the last two years against the unethical practices of canned lion hunting – questions have remained around what the future would be for SA’s estimated 7 000 lion in captivity if the practice was banned outright.

Lions in South Africa are listed under Appendix II which means their products can be traded internationally but only “if the trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild.” The numbers of African free-range lions have declined alarmingly over the last few decades with only 20 000 remaining today, down from 30 000 just two decades ago.

Criticism has been leveraged against the sale, saying it would imperil wild lions as it is feeding demand within the market – as well as raising ethical concerns around the canned lion industry and the perpetuation of other industries associated with it.

Lion bone trade promotes canned lion hunting

According to a Conservation Action Trust report, in 2016, according to Panthera, 90% of lion carcasses found in the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique all had their skulls, teeth, and claws removed while rates of poisoning lions specifically for bones increased dramatically in Niassa National Reserve in northern Mozambique. In Namibia, 42% of lions killed in the Caprivi had their skeletons removed.

According to wildlife investigator, Karl Amann, the trade is fueling the demand in Asia. The south-east Asian country now dominates the lion-bone market.

Amann says the CITES trade data base shows that  between 2009 and 2015 Laos has bought over 2000 complete lion skeletons from South Africa. This excludes the 2 300 bones and 40 skulls sold separately as incomplete skeletons”

Lion bones arrive in Laos but are then illegally exported to Vietnam without the requisite CITES export permits. Here they are boiled down, compacted into a cake bar and sold at a price of around US$1000 (currently R12 830 – R12.83/$) to consumers who add it to rice wine.

“The DEA’s move is widely regarded as open support for the controversial practice of canned lion hunting. A captive lion breeder – one of 300 in South Africa – can be paid anywhere from US$5000 (R64 150) to US$25 000 (R320 750) for each lion permitted to be shot. Now they can add an additional $1500 (R19 245) per skeleton permitted to be sold to Laotian buyers.”

So how is the quota determined and what impact assessments were done? 

A zero quota on the export of bones derived from wild lion specimens was taken at the Parties to CITES at COP17 in Johannesburg in 2016, says the DEA.

Further to this the DEA put a stop to lion bone and other derivative exports at the beginning of 2017, until a quota had been set and the management process thereof had been determined, which it now has. It says the quota will be managed at a national level, with applications still dealt with and assessed via the provincial nature conservation authorities level.

“The South African population of Panthera leo (African lion) is included in Appendix II of CITES. In terms of Article IV of the Convention, an export permit shall only be granted for an Appendix II species when a Scientific Authority of the State of export has advised that such export will not be detrimental to the survival of that species, says Molewa.

During COP17 the CITES listing for lion was amended to include the following annotation, which SA agreed to as a risk-averse intervention.

“For Panthera leo (African populations): a zero annual export quota is established for specimens of bones, bone pieces, bone products, claws, skeletons, skulls and teeth removed from the wild and traded for commercial purposes. Annual export quotas for trade in bones, bone pieces, bone products, claws, skeletons, skulls and teeth for commercial purposes, derived from captive breeding operations in South Africa, will be established and communicated annually to the CITES Secretariat.”

Added to this, the DEA says a 2015 study commissioned by TRAFFIC raised concerns around the shift in lion and tiger bone trade; namely that when the trade in tiger bone was banned; the trade shifted and bones were sourced from South Africa, available as a by-product of the hunting of captive bred lions.

“A well-regulated trade will enable the department to monitor a number of issues relating to the trade, including the possible impact on the wild populations,” says Molewa.

Quota allocations going forward?

The DEA says the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) will conduct a 3-year-long study aimed at increasing the understanding of the lion bone trade in South Africa and the captive lion breeding industry – as well as inform the Scientific Authority on a sustainable annual quota.

“It will investigate how the trade in captive produced lion bone under a quota system affects wild lion populations, and will further strengthen the evidence base for the annual review of the quota in order to ensure it is sustainable and not detrimental to wild populations.

“The decision on the annual export quota was reached following an extensive stakeholder consultation process during which the Department considered all variables, including scientific best practice. It cannot be said, therefore that this determination was made arbitrarily or in a non-transparent manner,” says Molewa.

The decision continues to spark international condemnation from conservationists and local stakeholders alike.

“It is irresponsible to establish policy that could further imperil wild lions,” says Dr Paul Funston, Senior Director of Panthera’s Lion Programme earlier this year when the DEA first proposed its plans.

Those who included their voice of concern include Singita together with other prominent safari operators &Beyond and Great Plains Conservation, warning how it was damaging the safari industry.

Panthera also called it “irresponsible to establish policy that could further imperil wild lions—already in precipitous decline throughout much of Africa—when the facts are clear; South Africa’s lion breeding industry makes absolutely no positive contribution to conserving lions and, indeed, further imperils them.”

But the DEA insists they are acting within the environmental law, and says a “well-regulated trade will enable the Department to monitor a number of issues relating to the trade, including the possible impact on the wild populations”.

Panthera has warned legalisation of a trade in lion bones will stimulate the market and endanger both captive and wild lion populations.

“There is significant evidence that South Africa’s legal trade in captive-bred lion trophies is accelerating the slaughter of wild lions for their parts in neighbouring countries and is, in fact, increasing demand for wild lion parts in Asia — a market that did not exist before South Africa started exporting lion bones in 2007.”

Johannesburg – The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is poised to officially announce a government-approved annual export quota of 800 lion bone skeletons.

IT must have been a dead easy kill. Two former Colombian circus lions — one with brain damage — which, even if they were abused by humans, were also used to them, butchered in the sanctuary where they were supposed to live out their days in peace.

Their heads, paws and tails were cut off and their carcasses left behind, suggesting that the kill was the work of local muti hunters rather than poachers hoping to sell the bones to the lucrative Asian medicinal market for use as a substitute in tiger-bone wine.

The recent killings have up stirred up the bitter controversy over the breeding and hunting of captive lions.

There is a scene in Blood Lions, Ian Michler’s shocking documentary about canned hunting and lion-breeding farms, in which cameraman Nick Chevallier is threatened by a lion farmer.

“I’ll kill you. Don’t take a photo of me. I’ll fucking kill you … Shut your fucking mouth … Nothing’s happened, it’s what will happen.”

It is an ugly moment that does South Africa’s private lion farmers no favours. And watching Blood Lions, it is difficult to feel sympathy for the 200 or so farmers who between them own an estimated 8 000 lions, and whose businesses are now threatened by a US import ban on lion trophies.

The film and the illegal killing in 2015 of Cecil the lion at the edge of Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe fuelled lasting public outrage. In March 2015, Australia banned all imports of lion trophies in a stated attempt to crack down on canned lion hunting. In October last year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service followed suit with a ban on imports of trophies taken from captive-bred lions.

Since South Africa is the only country in the world where lions are farmed for hunting, the US ban will hit the industry — driven mostly by US hunters to the tune of about R100 million a year — hard.

There are, of course, complications. Because the US ban covers only captive-bred lions, anecdotal evidence suggests that some farmers may be looking for ways to present their lions to would-be hunters as wild.

There is another issue. The trade in lion bones — used to make a medicinal “tiger-bone wine” — is legal and demand has soared since China banned the use of actual tiger bones in 1993.

It is very likely, say some conservationists, that South Africa’s captive lions might in fact be a buffer against poaching.

“South Africa is the only country that has lion farming but it is also the only country where all wild lion populations are increasing,” said independent environmental economist Michael ‘t SasRolfes. “We need to understand why this is happening.”

The knife-edge on which activists and conservationists are walking is what a blanket ban on the trade in lion parts would do to wild lion populations.

“If the supply is suddenly cut off, it might well precipitate a lionpoaching crisis,” said ‘t SasRolfes. And the biggest likely loser would be the wild lion.

Africa has lost 43% of its wild lions in the past 20 years, according to a survey led by big-cat research organisation Panthera. The population is estimated at 20 000 throughout Africa, with just six countries harbouring more than 1 000 individuals each.

The decline — from more than 800 000 a century ago — has been driven by habitat loss and human conflict, specifically with cattle herders and ranchers.

“Contrary to popular belief, trophy hunting is a small factor in the fate of the African lion,” says the report.

But African herders killing lions in revenge for losing cattle do not make headlines; a rich American dentist shooting a big black-maned male lured from a national park does.

That rich hunters from the West are willing to pay eyewatering fees to shoot lions is not in doubt. Prices for a male lion range from around $16 000 R205 000 to $32 000.

While breeding lions just to shoot them is highly questionable on moral grounds, there is a case to be made for ethical hunting.

“I approve 100% of hunting,” said conservationist and former park warden Paul Dutton. “Every single protected area in South Africa was created by a hunter.”

Ethical hunters follow the principles of “fair chase” — the pursuit of a free-ranging animal living in a wild, sustainable population and which has the instincts and ability to escape from the hunter.

“I would prefer,” said Dutton of those pressed-for-time foreign hunters who want to bag their lions in a matter of days, “that these big, fat arses go and hunt [the lions] on foot in the bush. Then we’ll see who wins.”

South Africa’s lion farmers are confronting a crisis. Part of it is self-inflicted, with some rogue farmers and unethical breeders tarnishing the industry.

“Of course there are atrocities and these need to be stopped,” said ‘t SasRolfes.

For the others, what happens is largely out of their hands. Trade policy and decisions will be made in faraway corridors of power by people who may have little grasp of the realities on the ground. More transparency and some serious self-regulation could help swing public opinion in their favour.

And the wild lion might see out this century.

Whilst a palace revolution is taking place in the industry and a huge split within the ranks of its membership, President of the Professional Hunting Association of South Africa [Phasa], Stan Burger announced his resignation and will be replaced by Dries Van Coller.

Retha Van Reenen, spokesperson for Phasa told the media “many members decided not to sign an affidavit sent out last year that they would not support or promote captive lion hunting or captive lion breeding activities,” which is said to be the reason for the split.

None more so than the fallout after the 2015 announcement that it had adopted a resolution at its annual general meeting to distance itself from the captive lion breeding and captive lion hunting industries which led to several court cases. At the time. Burger said his organisation stood by its resolution to distance itself from captivebred lion hunting and would defend its resolution in court.

Andrew Venter CEO of Wildlands Trust and executive producer of the documentary film Blood Lions, told News 24, “It would be tragic for the South African hunting and tourism industries if Phasa were to backtrack on its commitment to stop the hunting of captive bred lions in South Africa. “Stan Burger has led the charge to clean up the hunting industry in this regard, something I can attest to that there is little doubt.”

He said Phasa had, for the past 18 months, been under significant pressure from the “unethical hunting fraternity in South Africa”. “It’s unfortunate that it appears that this faction may be prevailing. The fallout from the local and global outrage will further damage the industry and South Africa’s conservation reputation,” Venter said.