Big donation boost for fake fur project
NEARLY 6 000 fake leopard skins have been donated to members of the Shembe Church as part of a conservation project to protect the increasingly threatened leopard population in South Africa.
The big cat conservation group, Panthera, and the Peace Parks Foundation hope that working with the Nazareth Baptist “Shembe” Church and respecting it’s cultural traditions will help to encourage church members to switch over to wearing fake skins that have been designed to closely resemble the real thing.
The two organisations said 5 800 fake skins had been donated to church members so far in a project known as Furs for Life.
With new sponsorship from the French watchmaking and jewellery group, Cartier, they aim to deliver as many as 18 000 fake furs to Shembe members by the end of 2017.
Leopards – once distributed widely through Africa, Asia and parts of Europe – are classified as “near-threatened” on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
It is estimated that there are fewer than 10 000 leopard breeding pairs in South Africa, although some researchers believe this figure overestimates the true picture.
These cats are notoriously difficult to count because of their elusive habits, but recent leopard population estimates by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife suggest that the provincial population could have declined to just 500 animals.
South Africa still allows scores of leopard-skin trophies to be exported legally every year, but many more are hunted or killed illegally.
Adding to the pressure is the growing demand for leopard-skin pelts for traditional regalia.
Luke Hunter, the president of Panthera, said: “The Furs for Life project has provided a highly innovative solution to one of the gravest threats facing leopards in southern Africa.
“Panthera identified this emerging threat through research in KwaZulu-Natal and, within just a few years, we have come up with a real solution which could actually save the regional leopard population.”