The government has also revoked upcoming laws concerning the management of elephants and the hunting of leopards in addition to withdrawing legislation designed to increase the number of species protected by stricter restrictions.
South Africa is home to most of the world’s remaining rhinos and has key populations of elephants, lions and leopards. Hunting of all these animals is permitted under strict controls and generates about R5 billion annually for the country as it attracts sport hunters mainly from the US, according to a paper released by researchers at South Africa’s North-West University in 2018.
The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment stated in a statement on Wednesday that the decision followed a court challenge by Wildlife Ranching South Africa and the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa, the terms of which have not been released.
Dries van Coller, CEO of PHASA, issued a statement saying, “We simply had no knowledge what information the minister relied upon when she made the new regulations. Uncertainty exists around “what data and research motivated her to include some of the country’s most abundant game species, such as the blesbok,” on a list of protected species.”
According to the statement, “the department is still committed to reforming the legal framework with regard to the threatened or protected terrestrial and freshwater species.”
In the past, South Africa encouraged a boom in the game farming sector by allowing farmers to keep the wild animals that lived on their property. The government is currently attempting to strengthen legislation to safeguard the nation’s tourism sector from damage brought on by practices like lion husbandry, the trading in their bones, and rhino poaching.