Analysis Of South Africa S Wildlife Policies And Laws

South Africa has a long history of regulation of wildlife conservation that dates as far back as 1656 when Jan van Riebeek, a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town, gave instructions to regulate hunting in the Cape. From that time, South Africa has had several wildlife and biodiversity conservation policies and laws. After the fall of apartheid, the new framework policies and laws on environment and wildlife conservation were enacted to further strengthen wildlife conservation in the country. South Africa is also a party to various international agreements that commit the country to its conservation efforts at an international level. This rapid, independent assessment of the law and policy governing wildlife crimes in South Africa reviews the Constitution and the national framework laws, focusing on those laws and policies that impose criminal liability for wildlife offences. The assessment then turns to the provinces. Provincial governments have a fairly large degree of legislative and executive jurisdiction over conservations and wildlife management issues, including enforcing compliance of criminal wildlife laws. The review sets out the offences and penalties that exist across the myriad of relevant environmental legislation and policy and looks at the power and mandate of the various enforcement bodies.

Tanzania is one of the most bio‐diverse countries on the African continent with a long history of conservation. The Tanzanian government remains committed to conserving wildlife resources and their habitats. Legislation on wildlife conservation in Tanzania dates as far back as the 1890’s and from that time, it has been transformed to address modern day challenges and changing wildlife conservation methods. Tanzania is also a party to various international instruments including CITES, UNCAC and UNCTOC. These instruments make provisions for parties to enact legislation that will enhance wildlife law enforcement. They include provisions on regulation of wildlife trade, prevention of organized crime and money laundering and addressing corruption. Tanzania has domesticated these provisions by enacting various pieces of legislation including anti‐money laundering laws, prevention of organized crime laws and anti‐corruption laws. These laws support the main wildlife legislation in providing harsher penalties for wildlife offences and addressing corruption as a driver of wildlife crimes. Despite all the policy and legislative efforts made by Tanzania to prevent wildlife crime, there has been a worrying loss of wildlife in the recent past. This has been attributed to high demand for wildlife products in Asia, poverty in Tanzania that incentivises wildlife crime, penetration of organised criminal groups into Tanzania and corruption in law enforcement. Tanzania has been working to overcome these challenges and has seen wildlife poaching and trafficking kingpins arrested and handed very hefty penalties which will hopefully deter other wildlife offenders.

Botswana has a long history of wildlife conservation dating back to 1890 when the first game protection statute was enacted. Since that time, wildlife policies and laws have been developed to address increased threats to wildlife, especially poaching and trafficking in wildlife products. Botswana now has in place various strategies and policies on wildlife conservation and management which guide the enactment of wildlife legislation. The key wildlife law is the Wildlife Conservation and National parks Act enacted in 1992. The Act sets out the institutional and administrative framework of the wildlife. There are strong provisions that strictly regulate wildlife conservation and utilization and address wildlife crime and wildlife law enforcement. Nevertheless, there are still some gaps that exist within the law that need to be sealed in order to effectively curb wildlife crime. Botswana is quite robust in adopting international standards to address wildlife crime and has enacted legislation to stop illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products and deter profiting from wildlife crime by confiscating proceeds of crime and criminalizing money laundering. Legislation to curb corruption among public officials, including those who deal with wildlife matters, is in place and its rigorous enforcement has led to Botswana being one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. The effectiveness of the wildlife legislation in Botswana cannot be accurately gauged as there is little information on the number of wildlife crimes committed and the conviction rates of wildlife offenders.

Ethiopia is committed to wildlife conservation and has in place a wildlife policy and strategy that guides the administration of the wildlife sector. This policy is translated into legislation for purposes of making its provisions enforceable. There is legislation that establishes the institutional framework of the wildlife sector and legislation that regulates the wildlife sector. The wildlife legislation has strong provisions that address wildlife crime and wildlife trafficking but it also has gaps that need to be sealed in order to successfully administer and adjudicate over wildlife cases. Ethiopia is quite strong in complying with international standards that address wildlife crime including standards on reduction of wildlife trade, fighting of organized criminal groups, curbing money laundering and fighting corruption. The effectiveness of the legislation cannot be accurately gauged as there is lack of consistent and reliable data on wildlife cases.

Mozambique has developed comprehensive policies and laws for the protection, conservation and sustainable use of wildlife resources, with engagement of a wide range of stakeholders, including local communities and the private sector. During the last 15 years the main legislation governing wildlife and conservation areas management is the Forest and Wildlife Law1 and its regulation. However, this law is inadequate to combat wildlife crimes. Offenses against iconic and protected wildlife species are punishable only by fines, which are not high enough to discourage the crime. Additionally, the enforcement of the law is constrained by limited number of enforcement agents, limited patrolling equipment, limited incentives and widespread corruption. The increasing level of organized crime is also threatening the survival of protected wildlife species. The Conservation Areas Law2 was enacted in 2014 and offers a great opportunity to combat wildlife crime as it provides for heavy fines and imprisonment of up to 12 years for offenses against protected wildlife species. However, the enforcement of this law is constrained by the lack of its regulations. Mozambique has ratified the most relevant international conventions for the conservation of wildlife and their habitats and has, to a large extent, adapted domestic legislation to incorporate the provisions of the conventions. However, weak enforcement of domestic legislation undermines the fulfilment of the obligations of the country associated with the ratification of the conventions.

Uganda has a very strong wildlife policy and the government is committed towards wildlife conservation and protection and fighting wildlife crime. Uganda is a party to various international conventions that provide for the conservation in wildlife, regulation of trade in wildlife and wildlife products, proper law enforcement and anti‐corruption initiatives. Being a party to these instruments demonstrates Uganda’s commitment to meet international standards in protection of wildlife and reduction of wildlife crime in the country. However, even with a strong policy and commitment to international standards, wildlife crime still occurs in Uganda that is a serious threat to the survival of some key iconic species in the country. One of the reasons is that the wildlife legislation and other laws do not reflect the standards set in the policy or the international requirements. Uganda is working towards review of its laws to catch up with its policies and international standards and hopefully this will address the gap and weaknesses in the wildlife legislation.