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department of forestrylatest news & developments
Last resort: Deputy Minister Narend Singh says provinces will have to provide scientific evidence of why any of the other options are not applicable. Photo: DFFE
ANIMAL WELFARE

Elephant culling ‘last resort’ as MPs warn of crisis in reserves

Deputy environment minister insists culling will only be used with approval, but MPs and animal welfare groups say governance failures and delays in humane interventions are…

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
BIODIVERSITY ECONOMY

SA’s rhinos are ‘more valuable alive than dead’

Government unveils new plan to strengthen rhino coordination and confront poaching

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
Some electrical oils may contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) — toxic, man-made chemicals linked to cancer and a range of other health problems, the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment said on Friday.
DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Environment department warns against using transformer oil on the body over toxic PCB risks

The department has issued a public health warning after reports that transformer oil is being used for medicinal purposes in some communities

  • Sheree Bega
2 min read
Former environment minister Dion George. (Photo: Environmentza/X)
CLIMATE TALKS

Axing of former minister Dion George risks undermining SA’s climate leadership at COP30

The organisations argued that South Africa’s active participation at COP30 has always been crucial

  • Sheree Bega
3 min read
New regulations are in place in a bid to protect the critically endangered African penguin from the harms caused by shipping. Photo: John Yeld
AFRICAN PENGUIN

Saving the African penguin is a noisy affair

New regulations put in place strict rules, including seasonal restrictions and spill prevention measures, to balance penguin conservation with shipping

  • Dion George
5 min read
African penguins, endemic to Southern Africa, are one of the most threatened seabird species globally and they face the risk of extinction in the wild by 2035. Populations have shrunk by 90% in the past 70 years, dwindling to about 8 500 breeding pairs today.
AFRICAN PENGUIN

Conservationists fight for scientifically-informed fishing closures to ensure African penguin survival

The applicants argue that the forestry, fisheries and environment minister’s interim fishing closures are ‘biologically meaningless’

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Nick and Nichole Nyalungu, winners of the Mpumalanga Green Innovation Challenge. Photo courtesy Mpumalanga Department of Economic Development and Tourism
DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

Mining’s mess is just energy transition’s opportunity

Rehabilitating mines presents an opportunity for environmental restoration and economic empowerment in the energy transition

  • Thabo Molelekwa
7 min read
Protection critical: Green Point Biodiversity Park in Cape Town. South Africa is one of the world’s 17 mega-diverse countries. Photo: Chris Hitchcock/Gallo Images
BIODIVERSITY

The good, the bad and the baffling of South Africa’s draft biodiversity bill

There is a weakened mechanism for public consultation in the draft legislation

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has reluctantly decided to dehorn its rhinos after KwaZulu-Natal lost 325 rhinos since 2023, the majority of them to poaching.
AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife resorts to dehorning rhinos to limit poaching

Most of the 325 rhinos that died in KwaZulu-Natal were a result of poaching the animals for their horns

  • Umamah Bakharia
2 min read
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy
BIODIVERSITY ECONOMY

Environment department has made positive strides over the past 30 years

But its political clout is limited with regard to mining, and oil and gas exploration with resistance from the Mantashe camp around environmental authorisations This content is…

  • Sheree Bega
1 min read
South Africa’s landfill sites are in a terrible state and if drastic measures are not taken, the country will soon drown in its own waste. (Andy Mkosi)
PETER MBELENGWA

SA will soon ‘drown in its own waste’, warns landfill expert

But the environment department says it has interventions in place

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Aftermath: Sello Tshalau (above) looks at the damage caused when the Jagersfontein mine dam burst a year ago. (Photo by Gallo Images/Volksblad/Mlungisi Louw)
CONTAMINATION

Jagersfontein class action lawsuit imminent

Three people were killed and dozens injured a year ago when the tailings dam at the Jagersfontein diamond mine collapsed

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Kruger National Park
30X30

SA needs ‘Kruger Park and a bit’ annually to meet global conservation target

The country needs more than “paper parks”, says conservation NGO

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Political interference, corruption, skills shortages, supply chain inefficiencies and red tape are among the causes of the eThekwini municipality’s water and sanitation woes that have led to a breakdown of the water treatment infrastructure. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
COLESBERG REGIONAL COURT

Northern Cape municipality slapped with R10m fine for sewage pollution

Umsobomvu municipality pleads guilty, admits to receiving complaints from as far back as 2017

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Of the 448 rhinos killed for their horns last year, 124 were in the Kruger, representing a 40% decrease compared with those killed in 2021. Photo: Getty Images
BARBARA CREECY

Rhino poaching declines in Kruger, but poachers are on the rampage in KZN

Statistics confirm decline in rhino poaching losses in national parks from 451 in 2021 to 448 last year, the toll for private owners was 86

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
So far 151 vultures have been poisoned in the Zululand region in 2022. (Photo: Anel Olivier)
DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY

More than 45 vultures poisoned in KwaZulu-Natal

So far 151 vultures have been poisoned in the Zululand region in 2022

  • Eunice Masson
3 min read
There is no control programme for common mynas and popular rose-ringed parakeets because of ‘budget constraints’ . (Photo by Fatih Kurt / ANADOLU AGENCY / Anadolu Agency via AFP)
ALBI MODISE

These are SA’s four worst invasive bird species

There is no control programme for common mynas and popular rose-ringed parakeets because of ‘budget constraints’

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Offshore oil and gas development in South Africa is governed, among others, by the National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998, as amended in 2022, and the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.
ALBI MODISE

Environmental ruling on Karpowership to be made in early 2023

Karpowership says it is ‘bringing on additional specialists and resources’ in revised process

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
Dassen Island Nature Reserve, South Africa, An island in the Atalntic Ocean, 10km west of Yzerfontein, north of Cape Town (Photo by Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
AFRICAN PENGUINS

Shut-down of fishing around African penguin breeding colonies is ‘too little, too late’

Halting fishing will be of little to no benefit to the penguins and fishers believe it will be a sad Christmas

  • Sheree Bega
8 min read
A South African Park authority ranger prepares tools to open the carcass of a poached and mutilated white rhino as a South African Police Services forensic investigators collects evidences on the killing September 12, 2014 at Kruger National Park. As investigators comb a scene of a dehorned rhino in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, its horn is likely to have already been smuggled out of the country to Asia, highlighting the extent of organised poaching cartels threatening the endangered species. AFP PHOTO/MARCO LONGARI (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
ATTORNEY GENERAL ALLIANCE AFRICA

Direct jail sentences a win in fight against South Africa’s illegal wildlife trade

Collaboration between the various state agencies and specialist prosecutors are needed to break the illicit value chain of wildlife trafficking

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read