Wildlife Care & Use

30/10/2026

⚖️ BREAKING NEWS: A MAJOR HIGH COURT VICTORY FOR SAPA AND THE RULE OF LAW! 🦁

THE COURT HAS RULED. THE MINISTER MUST ACT.

The South African Predator Association (SAPA) has secured a significant victory in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

On 29 October 2026, the Court declared the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment's failure to establish annual export quotas for captive-bred lion derivatives unlawful and invalid.

For years, lawful businesses have been left in limbo. Breeders held permits, lion derivatives were lawfully produced, stockpiles accumulated, and businesses were denied access to the export process because government failed to perform its statutory responsibilities.

The Court has now made its position clear:

⚖️ GOVERNMENT CANNOT SIMPLY IGNORE THE LAW.

The judgment confirms that the Minister has a legal duty to establish and communicate annual export quotas.

⚖️ THE FAILURE FOR 2024 AND 2025 WAS DECLARED UNLAWFUL.

The Minister has been ordered to take the necessary steps to determine the quotas for those years and annually thereafter, for as long as the statutory duty remains.

⚖️ ACCOUNTABILITY HAS CONSEQUENCES.

The Court ordered the Minister to pay the litigation costs, including the costs of the parties opposing the application.

This is about much more than lion bones. It is about the rule of law, accountable government, lawful businesses, property rights, livelihoods and the principle that government cannot use administrative inaction to achieve an outcome it has not lawfully determined.

AN IMPORTANT DISTINCTION

The Court has not prescribed a particular quota figure or automatically authorised exports. The quota must still be determined through the lawful process, taking into account scientific advice, conservation, animal welfare and other relevant considerations.

But the Minister can no longer simply refuse to make the decision.

SAPA STOOD UP. SAPA TOOK THE MATTER TO COURT. AND SAPA SECURED THE ORDER.

We acknowledge the commitment of our applicants, legal team and everyone who supported this legal challenge.

This judgment is an important milestone for South Africa's lawful wildlife economy and for every industry that believes decisions affecting livelihoods must be made in accordance with the law.

Our message is simple:

THE LAW MUST BE APPLIED. GOVERNMENT MUST BE ACCOUNTABLE. AND LAWFUL INDUSTRIES DESERVE LAWFUL ADMINISTRATION.

🦁 South African Predator Association (SAPA)

28/10/2026

Human-wildlife conflict is not only a wildlife issue. It is a human one too.

Across Africa, people and wildlife increasingly share the same landscapes and resources.

When that relationship breaks down, the consequences can be devastating (think crop losses, damaged livelihoods, injury, displacement and, sometimes, loss of human and animal life).

For Wildlife Care & Use (WCU), meaningful human-wildlife coexistence therefore begins by recognising both sides of the landscape.

We want to support communities affected by wildlife conflict while working towards practical, humane and sustainable solutions that reduce future conflict and help people and wildlife coexist.

Our approach combines:

• Immediate support where human-wildlife conflict causes hardship

• Scientific evidence and field experience

• Community engagement and conservation education

• Responsible wildlife management

• Policy and advocacy for sustainable, long-term solutions

Our Kasungu Orphans Initiative is one example of this philosophy in action where the aim was to support people directly affected by human-elephant conflict while drawing attention to the wider conservation decisions that shape their lives.

Conservation cannot be truly sustainable if the people living alongside wildlife carry the cost alone.

Protect wildlife. Support people. Restore balance.

21/10/2026

“Human–wildlife conflict” or "human-human" conflict about wildlife?

Behind many wildlife disputes are harder questions about land, resources, policy, power and who carries the costs of conservation.

The animal may be at the centre of the incident, but the disagreement is often between people with very different interests, risks and influence.

That changes the question from “How do we control the animal?” to “How do we create fair, workable conservation?”

Who should have a voice in those decisions?

14/10/2026

Wildlife raids are not a minor inconvenience.

For many rural households, crop losses can mean less food, lost income, lost seed for the next season and greater vulnerability. Human–wildlife conflict can therefore become a food-security and development issue very quickly.

Protecting wildlife and protecting livelihoods are not competing goals. Lasting conservation needs both.

If you live or work alongside wildlife, what would meaningful support look like after a serious crop loss?

Visit https://www.wildlifecareanduse.com/ for more info and ways to support.

10/10/2026

As authorities deal with the Western Cape’s urban baboon problem, which has cost tens of millions of rands, the only solution, this researcher believes, is the establishment of a secure sanctuary to protect the primates’ welfare.

07/10/2026

The damage you see is often only the beginning.

A destroyed crop or damaged home can be photographed. Fear, sleepless nights, lost income, restricted movement and the stress of living with dangerous wildlife are much harder to see.

Yet these are costs of human–wildlife conflict.

If we measure only animals, hectares or incidents, we risk missing the people living inside the conservation landscape.

What cost of living alongside wildlife do you think outsiders understand least?

02/10/2026

When you hear “human–wildlife conflict”, whose suffering do you picture first?

The human cost of human–wildlife conflict is often invisible. The animals matter, but so do the people living with the consequences.

Threats to safety, damaged crops and property, lost livelihoods, fear and disrupted daily life.

Human–wildlife conflict is not simply about what people do to wildlife. It is also about what happens when people and wildlife compete for the same space and resources.

WCU believes that if conservation is to work, we have to see the whole conflict. If we only see the wildlife, we are only seeing half the conflict.

Visit https://wildlifecareanduse.com/ for more information and what we can do together to support both sides of this challenge.

01/10/2026

As calls for trophy import bans grow in Europe, researchers say not so fast. A massive study found that so-called trophy hunting in Africa ultimately helps wildlife, habitat, and local people when done right.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/conservation/trophy-hunting-benefits/?fbclid=Iwb21leAUoBL1jbGNrBSgEa2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeIl9s-LHTsiuIQtIW0KlTZjyHbTmcwtQNe0Y9GLT-FndUaWV5oWWCIK-CarM_aem_ysfVUiKTPs5kHP425ngCCQ

01/10/2026