Question NW2222 to the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment

Reply:

1)

• 1. The Kruger National Park (KNP) no longer conducts culling operations to control animal population numbers to a predetermined stable state, as was done historically with many species including elephants, hippo and buffalo.
  2. The following table provides a list of animals that were lethally managed in the KNP in the past three years. It must be noted that the table below excludes offtake numbers that were processed through the Skukuza Abattoir. These animals are euthanised for a range of reasons such as for bait, being alien species or the animal being injured. The carcases are either left in the veld or used for research and scientific purposes.

Table 1: Lethal Animal Management numbers in the KNP from 2019-2021, excluding offtakes that were processed through the Skukuza GPP

	2019	2020	2021
Alien species	33	45	8
Bait for predator capture	7	23	25
Animal Welfare	30	56	14
Problem Animals	310	329	127
Self Defence	23	22	8
Internal events eg Anti- poaching success, long-service,	30	5	4
TOTAL	433	480	186

• 1. SANParks does not use the “landscape of fear” as a management concept.

2)

1. Our management decisions are based on the carrying capacity of land in different biomes and related animal censuses to ensure sustainable species conservation.

1. The following species and numbers were processed through the Skukuza Game Processing Plant (GPP) for the past three years:

Table 2. Animals Processed through the Skukuza GPP (2019-2021)

	2019 offtake	2020 offtake	2021 offtake
Warthog	56	0	0
Impala	236	888	0
Elephant	7	3	8
Buffalo	90	0	0
Hippo	0	13	0

It is important to note that the elephants in the table were euthanised because they were classified as damage causing or problem animals who regularly caused damage to infrastructure and showed signs of aggressive behaviour which posed a danger to human life. In line with SANParks Wildlife Management Policy, lethal management was recommended in order to mitigate risk to human life.

3)

1. To offset costs, some animal products were sold to staff, 90% of which come from the neighbouring communities adjacent to the KNP.

1. Animal products that become available as a result of animal offtakes in the KNP include meat, hides and bones. Of these, a portion of the meat is donated to communities living adjacent to the KNP. This is done in the spirit of sharing the benefits of biodiversity within the context of moral obligation, historical redress, relationship building and in the longer term, building protected area relevance – an important component of overall sustainability. However, it is important to acknowledge that meat donations are merely one of many tools in the large benefit sharing basket.

• 1. Beneficiaries from meat products vary, but broadly include the following:
     • Local schools (there are more than 400 local schools adjacent to the KNP);
     • Local traditional council community events (Ummemo days, chief inaugurations and certain annual meetings);
     • Issue-based community campaigns (such as those linked to rhino anti-poaching); and
     • Community forum meetings (there are seven community forums adjacent to the KNP, namely the Nkomazi Forum, Lubambiswano Forum, Ntirhisano Forum, Mahlamba Ndlopfu Forum, BaPhalaborwa Forum, Hlanganani Forum and the Makuya Forum. Each forum represents in the region of between 20 and 50 villages, each with at least one school, but in some cases more than four schools per village).

Donations to local schools form the bulk of the donations. SANParks utilises the existing government feeding schemes as a vehicle to implement the donations as there are already structured setups at the schools to handle the safe cooking and serving of the protein.

• 1. The schools are primarily selected by the relevant community forums, where possible, together with the social outreach officers from the KNP. This is done on a rotational basis with the objective that no school receives a “second” donation until all other schools in the forum have received their first donation. Records of these donations are kept, including the names of the recipients, the amount of the donations and details of the contact persons in each case. This is done specifically to ensure fairness, transparency and to enable an adaptive management approach to the strategy.

Owing to legislative prescriptions, such as the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (Act No. 4 of 2013) on privacy, SANParks is not at liberty to share personal details of the individuals who receive these donations, as consent will have to be requested from individuals.

Regards

MS B D CREECY, MP
MINISTER OF FORESTRY, FISHERIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT
DATE: 23 September 2021