Renosterstorie

[PWV]

PRESS RELEASE 8 MARCH 2013

Issued by the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa
Tel +27(0)12-667-2048; info@phasa.co.za / ceo@phasa.co.za; www.phasa.co.za

________________________________________________________________________________

Bangkok, Taiwan: KENYA WITHDRAWING PROPOSAL RE EXPORT OF HUNTING TROPHIES OF WHITE RHINO



The Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa welcomed the decision by Kenya to withdraw its proposal regarding the export of hunting trophies from South Africa and Swaziland until at least 2018.



Before Kenya announced the withdrawal of their proposal on 7 March, Kenya explained that the aim of the proposal was to reduce the quantity of legal rhino horn entering illegal markets and to reduce, as a result, poaching in Kenya and other rhino range states. However, Kenya had noted the opposition from some parties to the proposed annotation and outlined a number of consultations held on the proposals and its goals. Kenya asked parties to seriously consider and support decisions contained in of the CITES working documents in this regard, to be discussed at a CITES Committee meeting later during the Conference.



The South African Government had officially noted earlier that Kenya’s proposal has violated South Africa’s sovereign rights that hunting is a sustainable form of utilization and that South Africa has implemented a number of legal instruments to regulate the hunting industry. PHASA expresses the Association’s appreciation towards the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa and officials of her department for their continued dialogue and deliberations with Kenya and other parties in this regard.



In a presentation done at a side event at CITES CoP16, hosted by the Minister of Environmental Affairs, PHASA CEO Ms Adri Kitshoff, clearly differentiated between legally, legitimate hunting trophies for personal use/possession, and “Commercial Use”. She pointed out that legally trophy hunting figures are not comparable with poaching figures, with approximately .5% of the rhino population being trophy hunted annually, predominantly on private land and not in South African national parks.

PHASA is of the belief that only a minority group of Hunting Outfitters are involved with pseudo hunting and the Association will discuss further proposals regarding PHASA’s assistance and involvement to address this, with Government officials next week. She emphasized that PHASA is committed to address the issue of pseudo hunting and informed delegates of the leadership role taken by PHASA by means of proposals to Government and Policies adopted by the Association. PHASA will assist the South African Government, Range States and CITES parties in combating legal horn finding its way to illegal markets.



_____________________________________________________________________________________


Issued by: (Ms) Adri Kitshoff, Chief Executive Officer, Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa

Contact details: +27 (0)12-667-2048; +27 (0)83-650-0442; ceo@phasa.co.za

[Piet Pompies]

http://www.causes.com/actions/1749588-m ... 7mLle1uC1P

Minister calls for shoot to kill policy in Botswana

The Deputy Speaker of the Botswana Parliament, Pono Moatlhodi, has called for the immediate introduction of a shoot to kill policy to tackle poachers targeting rhino and elephants in the country. His call for a new tougher stance against the poachers comes just days after Mozambique declared that the Limpopo National Park lost its last 15 rhino to the poachers.With the rising demand for rhino horn and elephant ivory from China and Vietnam there is the real fear that the loss of rhino from the Limpopo National Park could just be the first in a line of national parks that will lose their populations.

Moatlhodi said that introducing the shoot-to-kill policy is essential to protect both the rhinos and the tourist trade of the country. Protecting the wildlife that the tourists come to see is essential if the country is to widen the strength of the economy and move beyond just being a diamond producing nation.He said that there are particular concerns for the rhinos and elephants of the Kasane region in the north of Botswana which is particularly popular with tourists.While the Botswana army has been deployed to patrol areas with high incidents of poaching particularly along the borders with Zambia and Namibia, Moatlhodi believes that giving permission to rangers, soldiers and police to shoot to kill while out on duty they will be much more effective at tackling the poachers.Saving the high profile species of elephants, rhino and gorillas will ensure that the growing tourism industry in the country has a long-term future.

Wildlifenews.co.uk

Posted by Kevin Heath on April 27th, 2013 at 2: 19 pm and last updated on April 28th, 2013 at 7: 57 amfenews .co.uk