CAPE TOWN—The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee of the Environment issued a report last week following its “Colloquium on Captive Lion Breeding for Hunting in South Africa: Harming or Promoting the Conservation Image of the Country” held on 21 and 22 August and tabled on 13 November 2018. In the report, the Committee calls for an end to South Africa’s captive lion breeding and asks the Minister of Environmental Affairs to submit quarterly reports to the Portfolio Committee on the progress of this policy and legislative review.
The Committee notes that captive breeding of lions for hunting has long been a blemish on South Africa’s wildlife and tourism landscape. Furthermore, the Committee quoted the economics report by the South African Institute of International Affairs, which was commissioned by HSI/Africa, confirming that South Africa’s tourism brand value could potentially be harmed if captive lion breeding and its associated industries are allowed to continue. The report states that the revenues generated by the lion cub petting and lion walking tourist attractions, while highly lucrative for these businesses, constitutes only 1.85% of South Africa’s overall tourism industry, which is one of the biggest employers in the country. The study concluded that, “the opportunity costs and negative externalities associated with the predator breeding industry may – along with other threats facing wild lion survival – undermine South Africa’s brand attractiveness as a tourism destination by up to R54.51bn over the next decade.”
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