CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY: EXIT OPTIONS REPORT PUBLISHED FOR IMPLEMENTATION

CAPTIVE LION INDUSTRY: EXIT OPTIONS REPORT PUBLISHED FOR IMPLEMENTATION

• 03 April 2024
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

Please note: On 26 April 2024, the department gazetted a notice establishing a task team to facilitate the report’s implementation. The team is expected to begin its work on 1 May 2024 and to have fulfilled its mandate by 30 November 2025.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has released a report recommending exit options for participants in the captive lion industry. Cabinet approved the report for implementation during its meeting on 27 March 2024 – in the context of a decision to adopt a ‘revised policy position on the conservation and sustainable use of the elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros’.

According to a statement issued by Forestry, Fisheries & Environment Minister Barbara Creecy, ‘key recommendations’ in the captive lion industry exit options report will be implemented in phases:

• Phase 1 will focus on finalising exit pathways and terms, in liaison with voluntary exit candidates identified earlier in the process
• Phase 2 will entail:
  • the acquisition and incineration of lion bone stockpiles, ‘contingent upon (the) sterilisation of lions and compliance with … voluntary exit principles’, and 
  • issuing a ‘short-term’ directive on permit requirements and oversight responsibilities with the intention of ensuring compliance with prescribed animal well-being standards.

It is not clear from the statement if a ban on intensive lion breeding in controlled environments ‘in the medium term’ forms part of Phase 2. Its purpose will be to ‘safeguard (the) benefits of voluntary exit’. Neither is it clear when interventions will be made to end the captive keeping of lions for commercial purposes altogether, which the report recommends.

Turning to the broader revised policy position, according to the Minister the intention is to:

• ‘phase out the intensive management and captive breeding of (the) rhinoceros for commercial purposes, and enhance wild populations’
• ‘ensure that the use of leopard is sustainable, (and that it) incentivises and enhances their conservation in the wild’
• ‘promote live export of the ... (four) species only to range states or any other appropriate and acceptable destinations with suitable habitats on the African continent’
• ‘work with range states and potential destination countries to support a proposal for international commercial trade in rhinoceros horn from protected wild rhinoceroses, for conservation purposes, when conditions become favourable’, and to
• ‘consider international commercial elephant ivory trade only when conditions become favourable’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• report
• Minister’s media statement
• Cabinet statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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