On 25 February 2022, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment announced that South Africa will allow for the hunting of 10 vulnerable leopard, 150 endangered elephant and 10 critically endangered black rhino in 2022!

The Department says trophy hunting is “an important conservation tool in South Africa”, however, Humane Society International (HSI) Africa’s latest Trophy Hunting by the Numbers Report contradicts the Department’s argument. The HSI Africa’s Report confirms that 83% of trophies exported from South Africa are from captive-bred animals, non-native species or species that are not subject to scientific-based management plans such as caracal, baboons and honey badgers. Also, only 25% of native-species trophies exported are species managed with a national conservation plan!

It is terribly disappointing that the Department is failing in its duty to protect our threatened and endangered wildlife species, and is failing to provide information to justify the reasoning behind their chosen quota. It is unacceptable that South Africa allows people to hunt endangered and critically endangered animals for the purpose of collecting their remains as trophies.

For that reason we call on the Department to:

• provide the public with evidence of the conservation justification for the hunting of 10 vulnerable leopard, 150 endangered elephant and 10 critically endangered black rhino this year, in 2022. This would include:
  
  • scientific evidence of the animals’ conservation status and definitive numbers in South Africa; and scientific proof that this specific quota fulfils a wildlife population management function - given that the selected species are all either vulnerable or endangered; and
  • a forecast of the economic contribution of the hunting (per the quota), and the manner in which such contribution will be used to develop and uplift specific rural communities (including plans to build infrastructure in those communities); and
• retract/revoke the quota in its entirety if the Department cannot provide evidence showing that there is a reasonable conservation justification for the quota.