Executive Summary
What this report is about
This report critically examines the commercial live trade in free-ranging wildlife that operates within South Africa, and draws out implications for the development of any such future trade in Australia.

The report relates to the situation applying in South Africa in mid-2004.

Background
In Australia, landholders who wish to obtain live wild animals for commercial (or even noncommercial) purposes are often severely constrained by the current policy and legislative environment. The latter has been designed to protect wildlife, but may now be inhibiting realisation of both conservation and economic benefits that could be achieved through appropriate commercial use of wildlife.

By contrast, in South Africa, there is a well-established practice of sale of wild animals from public protected areas and private wildlife ranches that has helped to facilitate the establishment and maintenance of wildlife viewing and/or hunting enterprises on private land. South Africa provides probably the world’s prime example of large areas of private land managed for wildlife, with the commercial benefits provided by harvesting, live sales and/or tourism providing an economic incentive for that land use. A large amount of experience has accumulated in South Africa regarding the translocation of wild animals, and the management of this process. At the same time, a number of concerns have been raised relating to conservation and animal welfare impacts associated with this practice.

Objectives

1. To describe the live trade in free-ranging wildlife within South Africa, and measures in place to regulate and otherwise manage this trade.
2. To summarise the economic and conservation benefits associated with the above trade.
3. To identify potential wildlife management concerns associated with the above trade, how these have been or are being addressed in South Africa, and to briefly evaluate the current of expected success of these measures.
4. To comment on the appropriateness or otherwise of promoting live trade in free-ranging wildlife in Australia, and make recommendations on how such a system should be managed to maximise net economic and conservation benefits (drawing from the South African experience).

Methods and results
To provide context, the report introduces the general framework for commercial use of wildlife in South Africa, including the important role of wildlife property rights. It then describes the live trade in free-ranging wildlife in that country, and identifies the significant economic and conservation benefits that have been associated with this.

Next, the report reviews current management practices relating to the live trade, and key problems in implementing such practices. The various wildlife management concerns associated with translocation of wildlife as part of this live trade are then reviewed. These include economic, conservation, animal welfare and disease transmission issues. While these concerns are significant, in most cases the situation appears to have improved over time, with increased maturity and sophistication of the industry. The issue of the risk of disease transmission, however, may be an increasing concern. Also, all these concerns are compounded by a general lack of national coordination to date, and few government resources to provide support to landowners and to enforce compliance with regulations.

Current political developments relating to translocation of wildlife are then reviewed, revealing a move towards increased regulation of the industry by governments and increased industry self regulation, and increased coordination and consistency between provinces. Tensions between conservation and economic imperatives have remained significant throughout the development of the industry, although there has been a general move towards ‘finding common ground’.

The final section of the report summarises the Australian situation regarding commercial use and translocation of wildlife. It identifies key similarities and differences between South Africa and Australia in this context and, in the light of this, proposes implications of the South African system for Australia.

Conclusions
It is concluded that while the opportunities for economic benefits in Australia are probably smaller than those in South Africa, the conservation benefits that could be realised are probably comparable.

Two key steps would have to be undertaken in order for Australia to experience the kind of economic and conservation benefits that flow from the live trade in wildlife in South Africa. These are government policies and legislation that:
 

• facilitate secure individual ownership of wildlife (or legal changes that have this effect), and consequently allowing commercial benefits to be associated with that ownership
• increase the opportunities for translocation of native animals to (and from) private land.

Even if the former does not occur, attention could be given to encouraging and facilitating translocation of native animals for private landowners who wish to reintroduce these animals for ethical or tourism purposes (subject to appropriate criteria and constraints). Such interest is not reliant on private ownership, although this would almost certainly increase the level of demand.

However, if these directions are to be taken in Australia, there is a wide range of environmental, political, legal and economic issues that would have to be addressed. In particular, significant animal welfare concerns associated with translocation would have to be overcome to make this an ethically and politically viable option. The South African experience gives some useful pointers regarding desirable features for a system for commercial use of wildlife and associated translocation practices, which should be examined in more depth if Australia proceeds in this direction. In particular, in order to minimise environmental and animal welfare problems and maximise economic and conservation benefits, there would have to be:
 

• a comprehensive regulatory and policy framework
• considerable investment in research on ecological management and animal husbandry issues
• considerable government resources allocated to implementing the regulatory framework
• considerable government resources allocated to technical support for landowners.

We recommend that these issues be examined in more detail in the future, in context of developments in RIRDC’s Sustainable Wildlife Enterprises Project and future political directions relating to commercial use of wildlife in Australia.
 

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