Stefaans BrUmmer
IT took the humble platanna frog — well, perhaps a=20 million or more of them — to point out the urgent need=20 for uniform and strong national legislation protecting=20 wildlife resources.
While legislation dealing with the ivory and rhino horn=20 trade were jacked up after elephants and rhino became=20 the causes celebre of the animal kingdom, revelations=20 about the illegal trade in platanna have prompted=20 Traffic, the world’s largest wildlife trade monitoring=20 body, to call for a review of legislation.
It started in April, when a Cape Town man, Robert=20 Jacobs, was convicted for the illegal collection,=20 possession, transport and export of platanna frogs. He=20 had been caught by Cape Nature Conservation in=20 possession of 13 000 of them.
Further investigation showed that about 1 185 000=20 platannas had been sent from South Africa to a single=20 United States dealer between 1992 and early 1994,=20 apparently to be sold as pets. Of these, only 3 000 had=20 been exported with valid permits.
Common platannas sell in the US for $2,00 each –=20 totalling an estimated street value of more than R8- million for the contraband frogs.
Cape Nature Conservation said in a statement that the=20 sentence imposed on Jacobs — R7 500 or 11 months,=20 partly suspended — was “encouraging, as it reflects=20 the serious light in which the courts view these=20
Not so, countered Ashish Bodasing of Traffic. A fine of=20 a few thousand rand is hardly a deterrent where=20 millions are at stake. “Fines imposed on illegal=20 wildlife dealers are far too low and there is an urgent=20 need for uniform national legislation to effectively=20 protect wildlife resources in all the nine provinces of=20 South Africa.”
Current legislation, which differs from province to=20 province, is toothless to control the trade in frogs,=20 beetles, succulent plants, tortoises and other species,=20 Bodasing said. The rare stag beetle, for example, which=20 sells for as much as $14 000 in the US or Europe, is=20 not a protected species in the Free State, while it is=20 in the Cape.
For Traffic, it is not just an issue of environmental=20 protection, but also of sustainable management of=20 resources where a potentially large benefit to the=20 economy can be harnessed through more effective=20
Examples where uncontrolled and mostly illegal export=20 can result in losses to the local economy include the=20 sometimes 1 500 percent mark-up where succulents are=20 sold abroad, or the case of tortoises, bought in South=20 Africa for a mere R50 each, which are resold in Western=20 countries for up to $600 each.
“It’s about a source of income that’s been left in the=20 hands of an elitist group of people because of=20 mismanagement,” Bodasing said.
Cape Nature Conservation liaison officer Dieter=20 Odendaal acknowledged this week: “It will not be a bad=20 idea if national principles can be laid down to make=20 things uniform for the provinces to control trade and=20