Global trade in wild animals is soaring – South Africa’s laws aren’t doing enough to prevent harm

The quantity and complexity of commercial wildlife trade laws has grown globally over the past century. A new study examines wildlife trade laws in 11 countries and finds that a country’s Global Biodiversity Index does not correlate with the extent of its legislation that addresses the trade in wildlife. The authors spoke with The Conversation Africa about their South Africa-specific findings.

How big an issue is the global trade in wild animals?

It’s expanding rapidly as businesses exploit more species for financial gain. Legal wildlife trade averaged US$220 billion per annum between 1997 and 2016. Legal wild animal exports originating from Africa are estimated to be worth US$245 million each year.

While this can bring some short-term economic benefits, unsustainable and unregulated trade also poses serious risks to biodiversity, animal welfare and public health.

Most wildlife trade laws focus on extraction and transport, neglecting the management of animals in captivity. Alarmingly, animal welfare is often overlooked, despite its effects on both animals and humans.

How much wildlife trade takes place in South Africa?

South Africa plays a significant role in the global wildlife trade. It is a source and destination for live animals and animal parts.

It is the largest exporter of species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Africa. Over 3.1 million live wild animals were legally exported for commercial purposes between 2014 and 2024. The list includes reptiles, mammals and birds.

It is also one of the leading countries for trophy hunting. The industry in South Africa is estimated to be worth US$176.1 million per year. More than 140,000 wild and captive bred animals were killed by foreign hunters in South Africa between 2018 and 2022. Asia, the US and Europe are the major export markets.

Commercial captive breeding or “wildlife farming” also contributes significantly to the trade. At least 344 captive bred species were exported from South Africa for commercial purposes over the past decade. In 2022 alone 285,000 individual animals of 170 species were exported.

How many wildlife trade laws are there in South Africa?

We wanted to explore how wildlife trade is governed in some of the world’s most biodiverse countries. So we reviewed laws on the commercial extraction, transport, captive breeding and sale of terrestrial wildlife.

Our main resource was Ecolex, a global environmental law database. We also consulted country experts and additional sources like the Animal Law Legal Centre and World Legal Information Institute to ensure our data was up to date.

For South Africa, we identified seven laws enacted since 1962. They contain 34 provisions related to wildlife extraction, trade and captive management.

Examples are the Animals Protection Act (1962) and the Animal Matters Amendment Act (1993).

These laws — like those in other megadiverse countries — focus heavily on species extraction and transport. Captive management, including practices like wildlife farming, receives far less attention. A megadiverse country refers to a collection of countries that house the majority of the world’s species as well as a large number of endemic species.

Although South Africa has a higher number of welfare related laws and provisions compared to other megadiverse countries such as Indonesia, Ecuador and Peru, challenges remain.

How effective are South Africa’s wildlife laws?

South Africa’s lion farming industry offers a revealing case study of the weaknesses in its wildlife laws.

Since the 1990s, the industry has grown rapidly. There were nearly 8,000 captive lions across 342 facilities in 2023. These lions are bred for activities like canned hunting and bone exports to Asia. Such practices raise serious ethical, conservation and legal concerns.

The government announced plans to phase out lion farming in 2021, reaffirmed by a ministerial task team report published in February 2024. However, progress remains slow. Currently, only the export of lion bones is illegal. This follows a 2019 court ruling that declared such exports unconstitutional due to animal cruelty.

A fragmented legislative framework has enabled this industry to thrive. While national laws like the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act and Threatened or Protected Species Regulations set some standards relating to captive lions, each of South Africa’s nine provinces has its own regulations.

This creates a patchwork of overlapping and inconsistent laws governing the breeding, trade, hunting and keeping of lions. Legal loopholes and weak enforcement allow harmful and irregular practices to continue. This makes effective regulation, and now the phasing out of lion farming, exceedingly difficult.

Though the country has animal welfare related legislation, it is also inadequate. The Animals Protection Act, South Africa’s main animal welfare statute, focuses on preventing cruelty rather than promoting well-being. It also falls under the Department of Agriculture, which can confuse a mandate of promoting productivity over the welfare of the animals used for commercial purposes.

A recent amendment to the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act introduced a clause and definition of animal wellbeing. But this development has been procedurally challenged by the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association. The implementation of this important amendment could be delayed as a result.

Enforcement falls primarily to the underfunded nonprofit National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in practice the only body that handles wild animal welfare complaints. Operating on minimal resources without state support, it struggles to inspect or monitor the industry effectively, leaving welfare violations unchecked.

The inadequacy of South Africa’s wildlife laws also has implications for other species held in captivity. This is true for non-native species, like tigers, which are afforded less protection. Consequently, concerns have been raised that the commercial captive lion industry will simply shift its focus to breeding other predators.

Recent research found that a total of 2,315 other predators with at least 626 tigers, 272 leopards, 484 cheetahs and 339 servals were being kept on commercial lion farms across 342 facilities in September 2023.

How can these legal shortcomings be overcome?

South Africa urgently needs to adopt a streamlined and interconnected approach to wildlife trade law at the provincial, national and international levels.

Our research highlights the need to ensure that both biodiversity conservation and animal welfare are fully considered in wildlife trade law relating to every step of the trade chain. This must be focused on the rapidly expanding commercial captive breeding industry.

As a case in point, South Africa’s wildlife economy is growing, often under the premise of “sustainable use and job creation”. The 2024 Draft National Biodiversity Economy Strategy exemplifies this push. However, concerns remain that rapid commercialisation is proceeding at pace without adequately considering the animal welfare, public health and long term biodiversity implications.

Addressing these challenges requires harmonising national and provincial legislation to eliminate loopholes. Animal wellbeing must also be prioritised in legal frameworks like the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act. Increased training for Environmental Management Inspectorates for animal welfare inspections, and increasing funding for enforcement bodies like the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is also needed. Together, these measures can support sustainable wildlife management and ethical conservation practices.