Analysis of South Africa's Wildlife Policies and Laws

Book excerpt: 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.