http://traveller24.news24.com/...ca-for-2017-20170116



#ShockWildlifeTruths: DEA extends ban on leopard hunting in South Africa for 2017


37 minutes ago - Louzel Lombard Steyn


Cape Town - Conservationists breathed a sigh of relief on Monday, 16 January when the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) confirmed that a zero quota for the hunting of leopard (Panthera pardus) has been extended to 2017.

But, the relief might be short-lived as the DEA says there is a "possibility of introducing a precautionary hunting quota in 2018".

For now, however, the 'zero quota' is a welcomed one.

The DEA says their decision to extend the zero quotas for leopard hunting in South Africa is "based on the review of available scientific information from SA's Scientific Authority on the status and recovery of leopard populations in South Africa".

Recovery or decline of leopard numbers?

But as the DEA sites a recovery in leopard numbers, other global wildlife authorities say leopard numbers are declining and legal hunting and trophy importing and exporting plays a major role in this decline.

A 2016 legal petition considered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Scientific Authority has asked for all leopards to be classified as “endangered” status under the Endangered Species Act.

The petition is being backed by The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Center for Biological Diversity and The Fund for Animals, and sights a loophole which has been in place since 1982, through which hundreds of leopard trophies per year are being imported into the United States without proper scrutiny by the federal government or scientific experts.



In 2014 alone, they say, hunters imported 311 leopard trophies into the United States.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the leopard population has declined by more than 30% in the past 25 years, and the species has lost 48 to 67% of its historic range in Africa.

Between 2005 and 2014, at least 10 191 individual leopards were traded internationally as hunting trophies, with the United States as the top importer (accounting for 45% of this trade).

The number of leopard trophy imports has remained over 300 per year since 1999, despite commitments from the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1982 to only allow “very few” leopard trophies into the country.

Nonetheless, the DEA, in their official release, says that SA's Scientific Authority recommended to Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa that, based on the information received and reviewed, "the possibility of introducing a precautionary hunting quota in 2018" can be reviewed in the next year.

The Scientific Authority took into account input from the Scientific Steering Committee for Leopard Monitoring comprising government institutions, NGOs, representatives of industry and academic institutions.

Also taken into account was the results of systematic camera trap surveys undertaken in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga as well as relevant data from the industry obtained using Cat Spotter, which all pointed to the "recovery of leopard populations in South Africa".

What it means

The new quota means that all Parties with leopard export quotas must now review the leopard hunting quotas and provide the scientific basis for the quota allocated.

This CITES review process will continue in 2017 to ensure that an appropriate quota is allocated for the South African leopard population.

For future years' quotas, the Scientific Authority has recommended that along with the allowance of hunting of the specie, a number of interventions should be implemented to ensure the sustainable utilisation of leopard populations in future.

This included the development of norms and standards for the management and monitoring of leopard hunting as well as the extension of particularly systematic camera trap surveys to all provinces where leopard occur, the DEA says.

The Scientific Authority is an internationally recognised established working as a custodian and monitor to the legal and illegal trade in species listed as threatened or protected by the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA), as well as CITES.

The Authority is able to assist in regulating and restricting the trade in specimens of listed threatened or protected species and species to which an international agreement regulating international trade applies.

The Department of Environmental Affairs is implementing the recommendations made by the Scientific Authority.

Like all reports on decline in species -

they state species x has declined by Y , they dont break it up into area.

If the truth was reported on theses ARA sponsored reports, it would state :

Leopard populations have declined by x in areas where no hunting is permitted and increased by X %
in areas where hunting is permitted as hunters protect and conserve wildlife.

http://citizen.co.za/news/news...pards-under-the-gun/



Leopards under the gun

Amanda Watson


Studies show the big spotted cat is in danger, even in so-called protected areas.

The Professional Hunters’ Association of SA (Phasa) has decried the department of environmental affairs’ (DEA) zero quota for leopard hunting for the second year in a row, and warned that sustainable leopard populations could be nonexistent by the time new leopard hunting legislation came into being.

The Norms and Standards for Leopard Hunting would soon be published for public comment, the DEA said earlier this month.

“To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no reliable scientific evidence to substantiate the zero quota for the second consecutive year,” Phasa CEO Tharia Unwin said in a statement.

“DEA’s statistics for 2015 show a legal off-take of only 42, 37 and 36 leopards during 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. This is far less than the approved Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) and national quotas and speaks of good selective and sustainable hunting practices,” said Unwin.

“Given the above, it is our humble submission that the total number of leopards taken is probably less than 1% of the country’s leopard populations, if the latter is very conservatively estimated at 5 000 leopards.”

However, two studies, one by the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) in 2010 and one by the Scientific Authority of SA (Sasa) in 2015 – based on the EWT report but with updated information – show the leopard (Panthera pardus) may be in more danger than previously thought.

“For the model scenarios tested (ranging from 0-150 leopard hunted), an increase in the Cites quota from 75 to 150 did not increase the risk of extinction of leopards throughout SA over the next 100 years, but did decrease the overall meta-population size from a projected 4 631 with no trophy hunting, to 3 844 with a quota of 75 to 3 196 with the 150 quota, representing a decline from 93% to 64% of the carrying capacity,” said the Sasa report.

The EWT’s Kelly Marnewick said yesterday that the Panthera organisation, which conducts research in some protected areas across SA, had shown using camera traps that the leopard population was on the decrease inside these areas.



“These are populations protected from persecution, so the assumption is that outside protected areas we have leopards being hunted as well as persecuted, so we can assume these populations are also on the decrease,” said Marnewick.

“The data has shown the leopard is in trouble and this is why there is a zero hunting quota.” Ironically, it seems that neither poaching nor hunting are the biggest threats to the big cats. Both Phasa and the EWT agree independently of each other that farmers protecting their livestock could be the biggest problem faced by the leopard.

“Without any legal offtake, there is no incentive for landowners to tolerate predators preying on small game or livestock, which results in indiscriminate poisoning, trapping and illegal shooting,” Unwin said.

Marnewick said hunters were justifiably unhappy that shooting problem animals threatened the animals’ survival.

“The only difference is that the problem animal offtake – the more shoot, shovel and shutup kind of offtake – is illegal and we can’t control that,” said Marnewick.

Drew Abrahamson of Captured in Africa said she believed hunting of leopard was taking place on a problem animal permit.

“Thing is, you very rarely get a problem leopard and I believe the zero quota is a good one due to the fact that poaching has increased regardless of the zero quota last year,” Abrahamson said.

“So, if you add habitat loss, which is a very big problem, human-wildlife conflict, poaching for parts which we know is big business and sold in the muti markets freely with not too much being done to stop it, then add hunting to the mix, even though it may be 1%, all this adds pressure and it’s not sustainable.”

– amandaw@citizen.co.za