Conservation’s Mariana Trench: Report on wildlife trade a seminal moment in South Africa’s history Peter Borchert
Peter Borchert is the founder and publisher of Africa Geographic magazine, and has authored five natural history books, and published and edited in excess of 500 magazines and books. He is the honorary chairperson and editor-in-chief of the
Mid-morning on Sunday, 2 May 2021, I sat glued to my computer screen, and I certainly wasn’t alone, for the day was to prove a seminal moment in South Africa’s long and mostly illustrious wildlife conservation history. The occasion was the public release of Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy’s long-awaited review of the policies, laws and practices around the breeding, hunting, management, trade and handling of four iconic species – elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards.
Mid-morning on Sunday, 2 May 2021, I sat glued to my computer screen, and I certainly wasn’t alone, for the day was to prove a seminal moment in South Africa’s long and mostly illustrious wildlife conservation history. The occasion was the public release of Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Barbara Creecy’s long-awaited review of the policies, laws and practices around the breeding, hunting, management, trade and handling of four iconic species – elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards.
It didn’t disappoint. As Don Pinnock writing in
Daily Maverick aptly observed: “In a seismic shift that will send shock waves through many areas of SA’s wildlife industry, the Cabinet has endorsed a report calling for the end of lion farming, captive lion hunting, cub-petting and the commercial farming of rhinos.”
weekly newspaper.
Secrecy, according to the 19th-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, is an instrument of conspiracy and ought never to be the system of regular government. Yet bureaucracy always seeks the path of least disclosure.
That path is well tramped by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (Deff). Transparent they are not.
Because it’s their legal duty to provide information requested of them, they’ve become masters of diversion and diffusion. It’s not that they’re uncommunicative, but that they lead you on a merry dance just to get the facts that you’d expect to be freely available to the public in a functioning democracy.
Shooting leopard Hukumuri was last resort lowvelder.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lowvelder.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.