The government’s new policy to introduce trophy hunting in national parks would be destructive to biodiversity, a report from the Xwe African Wild Life Investigation and Research Centre in Johannesburg has found.
”If the SA government introduces trophy and other forms of hunting within certain zones in the Kruger National Park (KNP) it would mean slicing up this extremely important single unit of protected area, thereby destroying its uniqueness and harming biological diversity,” a statement from the centre said on Sunday.
The report said it was important to protect and preserve rapidly disappearing wild lands and wildlife, which were the cornerstones of biodiversity and of ecosystems, habitats and species.
The centre also criticised the lack of attention paid to conservation issues saying that the 1998 Kumleben Report had highlighted serious shortcomings in the administration of South Africa’s protected areas, but the problems had still not been addressed and in many cases had worsened.
”There appears to be no political will, either nationally or in the provinces, to address these pressing issues… So money at any price, disrespect for nature and short-sightedness are the key components of the government’s policies with regard to protected areas.”
The report said that since 1997 commercialisation has taken precedence over environmental and conservation issues and had led to accelerated privatisation which promoted unsustainable, short-term tourism.
”The gravest threat to KNP’s preservation of biodiversity is not elephants but their very own wildlife management and commercialisation programmes. KNP’s management of over two million hectares of wilderness has proved to be intensely flawed, problematic and damaging to biodiversity, animals and nature.” – Sapa