Kruger Park News Archive
The publication of the draft norms and standards intended to regulate canned hunting and the multi-billion Rand hunting industry throughout South Africa has resulted in about 180 written comments being delivered to the department of environmental affairs from private individuals and conservation, hunting and animal welfare organisations. The public participation process has also elicited a large number of petitions, some carrying in excess of 2,000 signatures.
These comments are currently being assessed and incorporated into a composite document. According to Dr Pieter Botha, acting director of regulatory and monitoring services, the comments will then be discussed and evaluated together with provincial environmental authorities, Sanparks and Sanbi. This evaluation is expected to take place in September, after which the revised draft norms will be circulated to political role players in the provinces before being given a thorough going-over by the state lawyers.
Dr Botha said that the provisions relating to damage-causing animals are an aspect of the regulations that have been commented on by many of the interested parties. Some of these comments also link into the list of protected species that was published alongside the draft norms, as some animals considered to be common damage-causing animals are listed as protected species. These comments are currently being assessed and incorporated into a composite document. According to Dr Pieter Botha, acting director of regulatory and monitoring services, the comments will then be discussed and evaluated together with provincial environmental authorities, Sanparks and Sanbi.
The list of protected species was compiled in a previous public participation process, and was published "for information purposes only" along with the hunting regulations. The new laws, that will for the first time govern hunting across the entire country, are expected to be promulgated by environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk next March. When the draft regulations were published, the minister promised that as soon as the regulations became law the Green Scorpions would be instructed to "apply with vigour" the fines and prison sentences that anyone breaking the new laws face.
