Some 30 000 German dairy farmers are striking and pouring milk down drains to protest declining EU milk prices caused by a 2% increase in production. German farmers don’t want to sell cheap milk that’s then dumped into foreign markets, said Thomas Grupp of the German Association of Dairy Farmers (BDM).
Grupp said that the countries’ dairy industries are then pressurised into making a German problem their problem. “There are growing pains in the move towards subsidy-free dairy production, aimed for by 2015,” said Dean Kleynhans, chairperson for the Milk Producers’ Organisation (MPO) in the Western Cape, at a recent MPO meeting in Malmesbury. “We understand what they are going through, as we were there a few years ago. But destroying food as a means of price negotiation is completely out of the question for us in South Africa.” – Wouter Kriel
‘Kortbroek’s list’ is driving off foreign hunters
The Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) regulations are having an adverse financial effect on the wildlife industry and causing undue uncertainty nationally and internationally, said a statement released by Stakeholders in the Eastern Cape Safari Industry Committee (SECSICOM). A ccording to the stakeholders, who met recently in Port Elizabeth, the game industry had flourished without these “unnecessary regulations, which are causing a rift between stakeholders and government”.
The stakeholders said that while the aim of TOPS is to protect specific game species, the opposite seems to be happening. At a recent game sale in the Eastern Cape, there were no bids for black wildebeest or bontebok breeding groups, while hunts for black wildebeest trophy bulls were sold at 20% below upset price and game abattoirs have reported a 30% increase in culled black wildebeest meat.
The stakeholders concluded the incentive for ranching black wildebeest is being restricted by the complicated permit system. In addition, the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) officers don’t have the capacity to issue permits or promote game farming. ccording to SECSICOM, KZN’s has suspended enforcing TOPS regulations because of their office’s incapacity to issue permits or understand the logic behind the new legislation.
The statement said that at the Professional Hunters of South Africa’s AGM in November 2007, minister of environmental affairs Marthinus van Schalkwyk was warned that the doesn’t have the capacity to apply or enforce the TOPS regulations. The hunters warned that the industry would be negatively affected and requested that the industry be self-regulated, and able to issue the necessary permits itself, with the permits directed to the DEAT for scrutiny for seven days.
They requested a moratorium on the regulations, and allowance for amendments.
However, the minister answered that the department had enough time to prepare for the implementation of the regulations, and the moratorium was refused. N ow foreign countries are questioning the validity of the TOPS permits, while South Africa’s international hunting industry and TOPS animals are the losers.
During 2007, international hunting in South Africa decreased by 10%, while it increased by 275% in Namibia – a country with limited restrictions. The stakeholders claim that the DEAT is the weakest link in the hunting and game ranching industry, and several industry sectors are so dissatisfied that they want to negotiate incorporation into the Department of Agriculture.
They allege that most of the decision makers, the DEAT head office in Gauteng and the panel of experts who drafted the regulations had no practical experience or first-hand knowledge of the game ranching and hunting industry. problem was that the minister identified and assembled the panel of experts, who are academics and bureaucrats, to advise his department about the shooting of captive-bred lions. This panel extended the regulations’ mandate to include animals they considered threatened or protected species, including jackal, caracal, common duiker, and black wildebeest.
Further, the game industry feels they were left out of the initial stages of the drafting of the legislation, and were only given the opportunity to contribute once the draft had reached the stage of public comment. “Past experience tells us that when a draft reaches scrutiny stage, it’s 80% finalised,” said the stakeholders. “That’s why the industry demands initial input in a draft and such a draft should reach consensus within the industry before it’s opened for public input.” The DEAT argued that implementation of some of the regulations has been extended from 1 February to 1 September 2008, and that they have introduced amendments. – Roelof Bezuidenhout
