The below was published by PHASA in there 29 January 2016 Newsletter.

Pretoria, 28 January 2015 – The decision by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to withhold the issuing of hunting permits for leopards in 2016 does not amount to a ban and is intended instead as a precautionary adaptive management measure until a proper census of the leopard population health is carried out.

PHASA does not necessarily agree with it but understands the reason for the decision. PHASA also needs certainty that the hunting of leopard remains sustainable.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) had allocated 150 leopard tags to South Africa for 2016, but DEA elected not to issue leopard hunting permits this year, based on the advice of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) because of the many uncertainties over actual leopard numbers.

To remedy the paucity of data, DEA and SANBI have expressed an interest in working with the professional hunting and wildlife ranching industries to assist in obtaining more inclusive data and establish proper national coherent leopard monitoring systems.

“Hunters and land owners are urged to start collecting and compiling historic data, fixed camera-trap photographs, including time stamps and GPS-coordinates, sex, age, skull/body measurements and any other useful information that will may assist DEA and SANBI with the census.

PHASA are working with provincial hunting and liaison forums, as well as Wildlife Ranching South Africa (WRSA) to compile the necessary data for submission to DEA and SANBI. We are currently awaiting guidelines from the scientific advisors regarding the format and manner in which data must be submitted. This will be communicated with members as soon as possible.

PHASA is confident that leopard populations are healthy and not at all under thread in South Africa but we have to provide credible evidence to ensure that permits again be issued in time for the 2017 hunting season.