LHLF Meeting held 9 September 2011

Meeting opened by Chairman, Stephen Barber.

Welcomes:
Phillip Bronkhorst
Richard Lemmer
Estie van der Merwe
Invited Guest:  Melville Du Plessis

Apologies:
Johan Bosch
Charl van Rooyen
Howard Knott
Dries Visser

Agenda Items brought forward from previous meeting:

LEOPARD DRAW:
All agreed that the system implemented in 2010 worked well and that no further discussions on this matter is needed. A letter is to be sent by Stephen to Sam recommending that the same process be followed for 2012.
Good Luck to all Safari Outfitters with this year's draw.

MEMBERSHIP FEE:
Membership numbers are to be allocated as follows: 001 to Howard Knott the first Chairman, 002 to Johan Bosch, 003 to Phillip Bronkhorst and 004 to Stephen Barber with the rest to follow on. The bank details are to be forwarded to the membership so that they can pay the R100 agreed on.

LHLF CONSTITUTION:
It appears to be a bit of a challenge to locate a copy of our Constitution.  It was suggested that a forum does not need a constitution.  The suggestion to the table was to keep this simple and keep LHLF an open forum. A proposal was to rather look at a MOU or "terms of Reference".  However the Forum does have a Constitution and this matter will need more attention from the members.

LHLF FINANCES:
Stephen informed that audited financials will be available at the AGM

LEGISLATIVE REVIEW:
The overall feeling is that our Provincial Legislation should be revised and changed where the need occurs.  The legislation as it is presently known does not make provision for the National TOPS Regulations.
It was proposed that when the legislation is revised by LEDET that the industry and schools should participate.  Stephen and Mel are to drive  this task, to move it forward.

TRAINING COMMITTEE:
No clear update could be given on this matter.  Full update should be available at our AGM.
The common feeling regarding this matter is to concentrate more on skill development programs and not just on Professional Hunting.  This matter needs more attention and discussion.

LEOPARD  STATUS REPORT:
The forum is still positively working on the challenge of having scientific evidence that our Leopard population is growing and healthy.  We have appointed Phillip and Howard to lead this sub-committee on behalf of LHLF.
We will report back with information as it becomes available.

LEOPARD WITH DOGS:
As noted on our previous notes, a loophole has been identified in the TOPS regulations.  Gavin Lipjes will be invited to address the AGM

LHLF WEBSITE:  
Everything possible will be done to have our website ready for introduction at our AGM.

New Agenda Items:

SCIENTIFIC DATA SHEET:
Richard requested that we should request the scientific data sheets from each hunting season to be made available to Hunting Outfitters.
We all agreed that this is a reasonable request with merit and the request will be made on the LHLF AGM.

HOD:
Stephen attended the meeting with PHASA and HOD to discuss issues of the industry.  He suggested a two day workshop to discuss and resolve issues pertaining to permitting.
We thought that this was a great idea and that it would have a very positive influence on the industry and our concerns about service delivery.  Dates will be given through to all members as soon as possible.

DOCUMENTATION:
It has come under our attention that LEDET is getting very strict on documentation.  We would like to urge everybody to take extra care when filling out your post safari documentation.

CITES TAGS:
There are new regulations from US Fish and Wildlife regarding Crocodile CITES tags.
US Fish and Wildlife confiscated a client's crocodile and requested a letter from our authorities explaining to them why the year of harvesting did not appear on the tag.  After numerous requests to our CITES management (provincial and national) for assistance we could not get any significant help except for being told that south Africa does not have the year of harvesting on this CITES tag because Crocodiles are not hunted on quota.  US Clearing Agents urged us not to export any Crocodiles before this matter was cleared up.  We are referring this matter to PHASA and will keep you updated.

EXPORT:
Temporary ban on the export of Dip and Pack Ostriches was implemented because of the outbreak of the H5N2 virus (In America classified as the HPA1 virus).

PH AND HO PERMITS:
The proposal was made to suggest to LEDET to open Limpopo for all other provinces' Professional Hunters and Outfitters.  This will open Limpopo to more revenue and really promote us as the ultimate hunting destination in South Africa.
Hopefully we can set the bar on this one and the other provinces will follow.  Stephen is at task to propose and move this forward; he will give us feedback.

LEDET PERMIT OFFICE:
Complains about poor service from LEDET offices always arise at meetings.  When excuses that are put forward were discussed, we came to the conclusion that it all boils down to bad management.
This issue will be discussed and hopefully resolved at the workshop with LEDET.

MOKOPANE PERMIT OFFICE:
With the previous item in mind, it is giving us great pleasure to commend everyone at the Mokopane regional office.  Your great service has been noticed by all who have worked with you in the past.  
We as an industry would like to thank you for all your hard work and dedication.

LOGO AND SLOGAN:
We decided that we need some kind of logo for our forum and would like to invite everyone to send us their ideas for slogans and logos.   
Please participate in this.

This brings us to a close for this meeting.

NEXT MEETING:
Our next scheduled AGM meeting will be held at 9:00 on the 28th October at the LEDET offices in Suid Street, Polokwane.
PHASA will attend from 12:00.

Thank you
LHLF AGM