A. Species
Scientific name: Panthera pardus
Common name(s): Leopard
Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Vulnerable
B. Location of use
Geographic location(s):
- South Africa
Country/Region:
C. Scale of assessment
Scale of assessment: National Level
Name/Details of location: South Africa
D. Timescale of use
Start Year: 2005
End Year: 2016
E. Information about the use
How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Type of use: Extractive
Practice of use: Hunting and/or Trapping of live terrestrial and aerial animals
Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal
Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism
Purpose(s) of end use: Collection/display and Ceremony, religious, and ritual expression
Motivation of use: Income generation from trade (individual/household/community) and Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual
Is this use legal or illegal?: Some use is legal and some is illegal
F. Information about the Users
Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people and Non-local Internal
G. Information about the sustainability of use
Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Recent research suggested thathunting quotas in Limpopo, which accounted for >60% of leopards trophies hunted in South Africa, were unsustainable). Anecdotal information from North West similarly suggested that quotas were too high. A further concern was the clumping of trophy hunts, leading to increased pressure on specific populations.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined
Details of assessment carried out: CITES NDF Report
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Implicitly, given that the exploitation of the leopard population in South Africa is not sustainable, neither is any socio-economic benefit based upon leopard hunting, although a lot of the pressure on leopards was coming from illegal hunting for shembe religious purposes. The total estimated financial value of leopard trophy exports from SADC (the Southern African Development Community) over the period 2005 - 2014 was USD9 964 702 (USD1520/leopard trophy), Approximately 14% of these trophies originated in South Africa (USD1 395 058).
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable
Details of assessment carried out: CITES NDF Reprt
Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Despite the broad societal benefits of trophy hunting and Conservancies across South Africa, the lack of ecological sustainability for leopard hunting means that stakeholder interests cannot be sustainable.
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded
Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species
It is recommended that South Africa’s export quota for leopard hunting trophies and skins for personal use (Resolution Conf. 10.14 (Rev. CoP16)), as originally informed by a Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA), be retained at 150. Since the publication of a non-detriment finding (NDF) on leopard in December 2015, the government of South Africa has made concerted efforts to implement measures recommended in the NDF in order to improve the management of the species: a) The South African Leopard Monitoring Project has been established, providing for a standardised, rigorous framework using systematic camera-trap surveys for the monitoring of leopard population trends throughout South Africa. b) An adaptive app roach for the management of trophy hunting has been adopted, and population trend data generated by the South African Leopard Monitoring Project are being used to inform leopard hunting quotas on an annual basis. Hunting will be restricted to leopard hunting zones where scientifically robust data on leopard density trends indicate overall stable (or increasing) populations. c) Norms and standards for the trophy hunting of leopard in South Africa are currently under development, the general approach of which is to: 1) distribute hunting effort evenly across leopard range in South Africa; 2) limit hunting to male leopards of at least seven years of age; and 3) ensure the mandatory submission of hunt return data and trophy photographs following all leopard hunts (both successful and unsuccessful). d) An online application and submission system for the management of trophy hunting has been developed and roll out to the provinces is imminent. Hunt return data will be used to determine catch-per-unit-effort and harvest composition as indices of relative abundance, while the data capture for leopards killed as DCAs will improve monitoring of DCA off-take.
Record source
Information about the record source: scientific_pub
Date of publication/issue/production: 2018-01-01T00:00:00+0000
Source Reference(s):
[Non-detriment finding report]
Dept. of Environmental Affairs
South Africa
Date of record entry: 2023-09-15