PRESS RELEASE 8 MARCH 2013

Issued by the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa
Tel +27(0)12-667-2048; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; www.phasa.co.za

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Bangkok, Taiwan: KENYA WITHDRAWING PROPOSAL RE EXPORT OF HUNTING TROPHIES OF WHITE RHINO

The Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa welcomed the decision by Kenya to withdraw its proposal regarding the export of hunting trophies from South Africa and Swaziland until at least 2018.

Before Kenya announced the withdrawal of their proposal on 7 March, Kenya explained that the aim of the proposal was to reduce the quantity of legal rhino horn entering illegal markets and to reduce, as a result, poaching in Kenya and other rhino range states. However, Kenya had noted the opposition from some parties to the proposed annotation and outlined a number of consultations held on the proposals and its goals.  Kenya asked parties to seriously consider and support decisions contained in of the CITES working documents in this regard, to be discussed at a CITES Committee meeting later during the Conference.

The South African Government had officially noted earlier that Kenya’s proposal has violated South Africa’s sovereign rights that hunting is a sustainable form of utilization and that South Africa has implemented a number of legal instruments to regulate the hunting industry. PHASA expresses the Association’s appreciation towards the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Mrs Edna Molewa and officials of her department for their continued dialogue and deliberations with Kenya and other parties in this regard.

In a presentation done at a side event at CITES CoP16, hosted by the Minister of Environmental  Affairs, PHASA CEO Ms Adri Kitshoff, clearly differentiated between legally, legitimate hunting trophies for personal use/possession, and “Commercial Use”.    She pointed out that legally trophy hunting figures are not comparable with poaching figures, with approximately .5% of the rhino population being trophy hunted annually, predominantly on private land and not in South African national parks. 

PHASA is of the belief that only a minority group of Hunting Outfitters are involved with pseudo hunting and the Association will discuss further proposals regarding PHASA’s assistance and involvement to address this, with Government officials next week. She emphasized that PHASA is committed to address the issue of pseudo hunting and informed delegates of the leadership role taken by PHASA by means of proposals to Government and Policies adopted by the Association.  PHASA will assist the South African Government, Range States and CITES parties in combating legal horn finding its way to illegal markets.

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Issued by: (Ms) Adri Kitshoff, Chief Executive Officer, Professional Hunters’ Association of South Africa

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