Hunting suspension extended to 2024
MBABANE – Hunting expeditions in Eswatini remain suspended. The Big Game Parks (BGP) has issued a general notice to all wildlife stakeholders about the suspension of all hunting, culling, harvesting and export of game that it remains in place for 2023 as it applied in 2022. BGP in a statement dated April 11, 2023, clearly states that the notice may be revised during the course of 2024. Meanwhile, BGP also disclosed they would share any developments on the matter. “BGP sincerely apologises for any inconvenience and hardship that may be caused by this and we stand ready to assist where we are able to do so,” reads the statement.
The statement from BGP also stated that the Committee of the Eswatini Game Ranches Association was engaged in the suspension of hunting in Eswatini. BGP also shared their appreciation from stakeholders for observing the notice. BGP further implored stakeholders to abide by the new notice, BGP through their statement called for stakeholders to collectively abide by the directive promising that the situation would be normalised.
Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora met in Geneva, on September 9, 2022. There was a list of 52 proposals to amend Appendices I and II to be considered at the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP19), Panama City, 2022, which was communicated to the Parties through Notification to the Parties No. 2022/052 of July 8, 2022.
Provisional assessment by the secretariat CITES background the entire rhinoceros family, rhinocerotidae, was included in Appendix I at CoP1 (1977). In 2005, the population of Eswatini was transferred to Appendix II with the same annotation, which remains in place today.
At CoP16 (2013) a proposal was made to amend the annotation relating to the listing of the populations of C.s. simum in Eswatini and South Africa in Appendix II by adding the words ‘Hunting trophies from South Africa and Swaziland (now Eswatini) shall be subject to a zero export quota until at least CoP18’. However, after introducing the proposal, the proponents announced that following a discussion with South Africa, Eswatini, the Standing Committee Working Group on rhinoceroses and member States of the European Union, it was being withdrawn.
At CoP17 (2016), Parties considered a proposal from Eswatini to amend the existing annotation on the Appendix II listing of its white rhinoceros’ population, so as to permit a limited and regulated trade in rhinoceros’ horn, which had been collected in the past from natural deaths, or recovered from poached rhinoceroses, as well as horn to be harvested in a non-lethal way in the future, from a limited number of white rhinoceroses in Eswatini.
Eswatini sets out a Rhino Horn Trade Protocol for the international trade, which it wishes to engage in, involving the establishment of a Central Selling Organisation, managed by professional traders, that would sell to a licenced cartel of retailers in the Far East.