LION CAPTURE AND RELATED ACTIVITIES: THE END OF THE LINE?

LION CAPTURE AND RELATED ACTIVITIES: THE END OF THE LINE?

• 29 September 2023
• Environmental Law
• SA Legal Academy

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries & the Environment has called for input by 29 October 2023 on draft regulations that, once in force, will prohibit establishing and registering new facilities involving the capture and containment of live African lions in various forms of controlled environment.

According to the Government Gazette notice announcing this, the ban on new facilities is proposed in the context of plans for phasing out the captive lion industry, in keeping with national policy articulated in the White Paper on the conservation and ‘sustainable use’ of South Africa’s biodiversity.

Reference is also made to the 2021 report on the trade in and management, breeding, hunting and handling of elephant, leopard, lion and rhino. Policy proposals for their conservation and ‘sustainable use’ were recently gazetted for public comment, as SA Legal Academy reported at the time.

Against that backdrop, it is envisaged that the prohibition would apply to establishing and registering new facilities for:

• captive lion breeding
• the commercial exhibition of live lions
• their rehabilitation, and also providing
• lion sanctuaries.

It is intended that the proposed prohibition should also apply to possessing or exercising control over a live African lion in any other circumstances.

• draft regulations
• media statement
• draft policy
• 2021 report
• White Paper

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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