If Minister Barbara Creecy loses her position as the minister of forestry, fisheries and the environment after the elections, commercial wildlife breeders will cheer. But many conservation organisations will deeply regret her departure.

She has done far more with her Biodiversity Bill for wild creatures than ever imagined possible when she took office in 2019. The Biodiversity Bill and White Paper on Biodiversity will be her legacy. If they become law, they will change the face of conservation in South Africa.

There is power in definitions, and in the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Bill (Nemba), just released for public comment, definitions are game-changing. They will spark controversy and possibly lead to legal challenges. 

It’s been a bumpy ride to get to where we are, best viewed through the lens of these definitions. 

“Sustainable use” has been a term mainly recycled by wildlife ranchers and hunters to justify the commercial use of wildlife through intensive breeding, selling, cub petting, trophy hunting and the sale of lion bones for tiger-bone wine. 

The latest version of Nemba nails this down tightly, and adds another controversial definition: “well-being”. This is defined by Minister Barbara Creecy as “the holistic circumstances and conditions of an animal or population of animals which are conducive to their physical, physiological and mental health and quality of life, including their ability to cope with their environment.

“Using” a wild creature will require ensuring that its well-being is primary and that it is undertaken in a way that is: 

• Ecologically, economically and socially sustainable.
• Does not contribute to its decline in the wild or disrupt the genetic integrity of the population or the integrity of the ecosystem in which it lives.
• Ensures that it can be enjoyed by present and future generations.

The definition requires a duty of care towards all components of biodiversity to ensure that both people and nature thrive.

It will be very difficult to squeeze commercial wildlife farming or trophy hunting into this cloak of protection and it’s hard to imagine that these industries will not immediately litigate to block the limitations.

End lion farming

The Bill comes on the back of a Cabinet agreement to end the intensive captive breeding of lions and “canned” lion hunts.

Cabinet also agreed to the proposal by Barbara Creecy’s department to phase out intensive management and captive breeding of rhinos and to enhance the conservation of wild leopards. 

It gave the nod to limit the live export of lions, elephants, leopards and rhinos to habitats within Africa. This in effect curbed the growing Asian demand for live zoo specimens.

According to a statement by the department, the policy would “transform practices within the wildlife industry that are not conducive to animal well-being and promote conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in general, and these species in particular.” 

This, it said, would enhance South Africa’s position as a megadiverse country and leader in the conservation and sustainable use of these iconic species.

A decade of negotiations

The new Nemba Bill, which is now out for public discussion, is the result of nearly a decade of inquiries, reports, a parliamentary colloquium, and increasing local and international abhorrence of “canned” lion hunting which was highlighted in a shocking film flighted in 2015 called Blood Lions.

These inquiries include the Rhino Committee of Inquiry (2015); the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Lion Colloquium on lion breeding (2018); the High-Level Panel Report on lions, rhinos, elephants and leopards (2021); and the White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity (2023). 

More recently, the collapse of rhino farmer John Hume’s breeding programme left the fate of around 2,000 rhinos at risk, until it was saved through a purchase by the NGO Africa Parks which has begun relocating them to safe havens across the continent. 

The acceptance of the Policy Position coincided with the release for discussion by the environmental department of a Biodiversity Economy Strategy.

This proposes to grow areas under conservation — called mega-living conservation landscapes — from 20 million hectares to 34 million hectares by 2040, an area equal to the Kruger National Park times seven.

Barbara Creecy has also shepherded through the Climate Change Bill, which now awaits Presidential assent. It marks a new step into a greener future for the country. 

It’s the first law to collectively tackle the impact of climate change. 

She has also tried, with less success, to untangle the mess she inherited in the fishing industry.

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