By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick Our relationship with the wild animals on our planet, whose numbers are rapidly declining, is deeply problematic. With the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in session in Colombia this week, it’s time to take stock. There are millions...
The elephant in the room: Tourism futures in Southern Africa
By Ross Harvey - ISS Africa Substantive wildlife tourism potential should be producing rapid broad-based development in all southern African countries. Of the world’s remaining African elephants, most reside in east and southern Africa. Botswana hosts the single...
Are Politics and Profit Behind Plans to Cull Elephants?
By Adam Cruise - AllAfrica The decisions made by the Namibian and Zimbabwean governments to slaughter hundreds of elephants amid a widespread drought will do very little to address the effects of human hunger or alleviate human-elephant conflict. So why are they...
The great carbon market racket
By Adam Cruise - Daily Maverick Nature and the people living with nature are exchanged on a market so that polluters can keep polluting and speculators can profit. Carbon reduction and biodiversity protection schemes are simply a corporate money-making racket. Carbon...
Jumbo collaring effort reveals key elephant movement corridors
By Abhishyant Kidangoor - Mongabay Scientists and conservationists have collaborated to create what is possibly the largest database of GPS-collared elephants. The database contains 4 million GPS data points that were collected by collaring 300 African elephants in...
South Africa: How frightful failures and feuding set up KZN elephant herd for destruction
By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick Questions have been raised over why nine elephants including a pregnant cow and calves, were shot from a helicopter by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife authorities on Mawana Game Reserve despite there been an opportunity for non-lethal measures to...
What the welfare? When industry interest trumps wellbeing
By Ross Harvey - Business Day A disturbing challenge has been launched by trophy hunters in the Constitutional Court objecting to the definition of animal wellbeing included in the latest set of amendments to national environmental law. The South African Hunters and...
Hunters’ association fires first salvo at state law legislating ‘wellbeing’ considerations of wild animals
By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick It was only a matter of time before hunters challenged former environment minister Barbara Creecy’s new laws on the treatment of wild animals. The first salvo has just been fired in the Constitutional Court. The motion by the SA Hunters...
Conservationists decry drought-hit Namibia’s plan to cull national park wild animals for meat
By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick Namibia is planning to shoot hundreds of animals in national parks to feed drought-hit communities — but conservationists have questioned the plan’s true intentions. With grazing for cattle drying up as the Namibian drought deepens, all...
Why Is Namibia Going to Kill its Endangered Desert Elephants?
By Adam Cruise Namibia intends to "cull" 21 elephants in the dry north-west of the country where a small population of desert elephants roam In a statement issued on Monday, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) said they plan to cull 723...