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Tuesday, 09 September 2008 |
The Landmark Foundation staged a public and symbolic burning of gin traps in the Baviaanskloof (Eastern Cape) this week. This is a culmination of a 4 year effort to rid the area of these barbaric predator control mechanisms; namely gin traps, indiscriminate poisons and hunting dog packs. These "tools" have seen the known numbers of leopards killed in the area rise to 25. These barbaric and ecologically damaging production tools are causing havoc and immeasurable damage to our biodiversity countrywide, as literally thousands of animals are being indiscriminately wiped out through these practices in the interest of agricultural profits. Furthermore, retailers are knowingly sourcing their products from such production methods, and we as consumers are knowingly or ignorantly supporting these practices through buying these products.
Four leopards were killed in 2006 by these traps in the Baviaanskloof valley alone. This led to dramatic and public conflict between the Landmark Foundation and local farmers who had used this method of predator control for generations. But from the start of 2007 the farming community decided to formally forgo the use of these much derided methods of predator control. The Landmark Foundation then developed an integrated project to convert the entire valley (about 50 000 hectares) to non-lethal, ecologically acceptable and ethical control methods (our other efforts are scattered across the landscape from Mossel Bay to Graaff Reinet to Grahamstown). The Baviaanskloof became an important focus and pilot area where we have been able to demonstrate and prove the dramatic success of the non-lethal control methods on an area-wide basis with cooperating neighbouring farmers. These methods include Anatolian dogs, protective sheep collars, alpacas, herding techniques and limited compensation schemes. It is currently being applied to about 13 000 small livestock animals in this valley and in the 12 months that these methods have been applied less than 10 livestock losses attributed to predators have been reported. This seems to emphatically counter the nay-saying in the agricultural sector and agricultural media about these methods, and dramatic and unexpected early successes in an area plagued by heavy losses at the time of using lethal controls!
Our current effort has seen the entire Baviaanskloof valley, on the western entrance to the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve near Willowmore, participate in the eradication of these barbaric and cruel production methods. More than a year ago the farmers agreed to stop using gin traps, poisons (which were not really used in the area) and hunting dog packs. This week, the farmers and the local community formally rid their entire valley of these tools by destroying 160 of these traps in their valley. This follows the confidence they have developed in the non-lethal control methods. Robert Leggat, a world renowned bronze wildlife sculptor will be melting down these traps and shape a memorial sculpture from the remains of the traps to both celebrate these magnificent creatures , the leopards, but also (to use his own words) to "capture and honour the collective suffering caused by these barbaric traps and devices".
In the wider area we have been able to rescue 17 leopards from certain deaths at the hands of these methods.
The Gin Trap Debate: The Landmark Foundation lives under no illusion that this is merely our first great collective breakthrough and that this battle will continue to tax us. We will need to continue our mission from valley to valley to clear our country of this barbarism, as the formal government structures and commercial and retail players have done little or nothing to assist in our efforts. It is tragic and inexcusable that government has remained largely silent on this matter, and that they continue to allow these methods in their regulations and legislation. Gin traps are legally allowed in South Africa in the use of predator control. How ridiculous, as these tools have been banned in more than 90 countries, but not in South Africa! In fact, the agricultural sector promotes it, and is fighting to retain its use. Appeals to meet the Minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on the matter have gone unanswered. Furthermore, some government conservation agencies and conservation NGOs (like the Cape Leopard Trust) are actively going around promoting the use of rather sickeningly called "soft" gin traps (sometimes called rubber jaw or soft jaw traps).
Example of a so-called "soft" gin trap
The traps are barbaric, and the attempt to rebrand them with rather euphemistic names is a mere "green washing" effort and a sellout to strong lobbies to continue the use of these barbaric devices! They continue to fracture limbs, cause blood supply cut off and gangrene and thus the death of the animal; they tear ligaments and tissues, and cause dehydration and stressful deaths. The animals still chew off their limbs and break their teeth trying to free themselves from these devices. Using "soft" as a prefix to a barbaric device does not remove the barbarism! There have even been attempts to bribe the Landmark Foundation in May this year to "soften" our language on gin traps!!!! Has the world gone mad?!
All this while there seems to be little or no support from the regulatory authorities, if not active undermining of efforts to remove this scourge of gin traps/leg-hold traps from the country side, and while all our retail chains continue to profit and source products through this production method.
We have a situation where thousands of these traps are added to the landscape on a monthly basis. With a ban on these traps, significant pressure will come to bear on the retail sector not to source their produce from illegal production methods! Thus even in the absence of enforcement capacity of the government entities, the market could enforce this ban through the power of the retailers to ensure compliance with legislation by their suppliers. A government ban is essential to rid our country of these barbaric practices, and the retailers have a moral obligation to urge for this. Failing their support we must mobilise consumers to force them into it. It is our belief that the gin trap will do to our meat and animal fibre products and exports what the meulsing debate did to the Australian wool industry - we will certainly campaign for this and we are taking our campaign to Europe and focusing our efforts on the Wool and Mohair industry to start. Our green labeled brand of Fair Game™ will provide the incentive to farmers to conserve the biodiversity on their farms, and thus reward those that conserve our biodiversity through premiums for their products.
The Source of the Traps in South Africa: The Landmark Foundation discovered that a factory in Prince Albert, in the Western Cape, is "quietly going about its business" of manufacturing as many as 1200 gin traps each month - two hundred of these are leopard traps - and this while it is expressly illegal to use these devices on protected species! The factory owner, Mr Peter Schneekluth, boasts that he has 3000 farmers on his books. That means that between 12 000 and 15 000 of these traps enter the system each year! These traps can very easily be used for the next 20 years. The next time you visit the town of Prince Albert, amongst the many other beautiful tourist attractions, do go and visit Mr Schneekluth in Magrieta Prinsloo Street, in the wooden factory in the industrial area.
WHAT IS THE CUMULATIVE EFFECT OF THIS DAMAGE TO OUR BIODIVERSITY?!
Yet, our government allows this, and statutory and conservation agents promote the use of these and so-called "soft" options of this form of barbarism.
In our understanding there is no such thing as soft barbarism!!!!
We suggest that you write to the following people to protest about the situation, if you support our efforts:
* Mr Peter Schneekluth - the owner of the gin trap factory in Prince Albert to object to the barbarism that he is promoting and the barbaric tools he is manufacturing; Tel 023 541 1360 Fax 023 541 1255 Email:
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* The Tourism Association in Prince Albert to voice your disquiet that this factory blights the image of the town; Email:
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* Prince Albert Mayor, Mrs Gay van Hasselt should hear how the origin of such barbarism stems from her town, Email:
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* Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of DEAT whose legislation still allows this barbarism and who has not responded to request to meet him on this matter; Email:
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or
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or
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* Mr Quinton Martins, Project Manager of the Cape Leopard Trust who is going around promoting barbaric "soft" gin traps as acceptable conservation tools. Email:
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; and
* The retailers that continue to source and sell produce that are manufactured using these barbaric tools. Contact the CEOs of Shoprite Checkers, Pick 'n Pay, Spar and Woolworths and ask them to explain why they source produce using such barbarism in production! - Between them they are responsible for between 55 - 70% of all meat sales in South Africa!
Source: Landmark Foundation Newsletter No. 3
Dr Bool Smuts, Director Landmark Foundation
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| www.landmarkfoundation.org.za | +27 (0)83 324 3344
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Sunday, 07 September 2008 |
"We're still on Pink Alert". Get involved and make a difference today. A group of experts appointed by the Tanzanian Government met to review the findings of a study on the development of Lake Natron for soda ash extraction and make recommendations on the next steps to the Minister of the Environment of Tanzania on 2 November 2007.
BirdLife International sent detailed objections to the proposed development plans. We asked people to relay their concerns to the authorities in Tanzania. Thanks to your help the experts have recommended to the Minister of the Environment that further study is required on the environmental and social impacts on Lake Natron.
The BirdLife International Partnership will monitor closely the ongoing review and seek to provide more information on the development plans.
You can support BirdLife's Think Pink campaign.
1. Send a letter or fax: Express your opposition to the proposed salt ash development on Tanzania's Lake Natron by sending a letter or fax. Either, alongside thousands of others, will make an enormous difference.
Write to the Tanzania Minister of Environment, asking him to reject the proposal on grounds of severe environmental impact. Please send your letter to: Rt Hon Mark Mwandosya, Minister for Environment, Vice President's Office, PO Box 5380, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA. Fax no. +255 22 2128749
Please copy correspondence to:
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, PO Box 9372, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Fax +255 22 2123158
The Director General (Ag) National Environment Management Council (NEMC), Tencot House (3rd floor), Sokoine Drive, PO Box 63154, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Fax +255 22 2111579
The CEO/Co-ordinator, Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, PO Box 70919, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Fax +255 22 2124572
Hazell Shokellu Thompson, Head of BirdLife's Africa Division, BirdLife Africa, PO Box 3502, 00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya. Fax +254 (20) 856 2246
Mr Homi Khusrokhan, Managing Director , TATA Chemicals Limited, Bombay House, 24 Homi Mody Street, Mumbai 400 001, India. Fax +91 22 6665 8143 / 44
2. Find your BirdLife Partner: It may be that the BirdLife Partner that exists in your country or territory is already involved in BirdLife's Think Pink campaign by collecting signatures, or petitioning on your behalf. To find out more about the organisations within BirdLife's global Partnership click here.
3. If you would like to contribute to our work on saving Africa's flamingos you can donate securely online today, please use our Justgiving service: http://www.justgiving.com/think_pink
http://www.birdlife.org/action/campaigns/lake_natron_flamingos/get_involved.html
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Monday, 28 July 2008 |
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Thank You all for taking the time and energy to read this: South Africa's baboons are being killed on a mass scale and urgently need your help to stop the killing.
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
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Let the Kenyan government know destroying ecosystems for toxic
sugar monocultures is unethical, and ask them to please follow
their own environmental laws by permanently cancelling the
project.
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Friday, 27 June 2008 |
Your assistance is urgently required. Kamfers Dam, which is located just north of Kimberley, South Africa, is under threat from deteriorating water quality due to a badly managed sewerage works.
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
Declaration for the Protection of Cape Fur Seals of Southern Africa Under the United Nations World Charter for Nature. We the citizens of the world, are authorized and legally empowered to request the government's of South Africa, Namibia and Angola to accept their obligation to promote and protect the Cape fur seals. A marine mammal wildlife species, who under common international law is defined as rus nullius, belonging to nobody, and which is found nowhere else on earth.
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Friday, 30 May 2008 |
SanWild urgently needs your help to get a mining permit issued to Maranda Mine overturned asap. The permit was issued to do open cast mining in the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary and currently we are in a legal battle to prevent any mining taking place in the reserve. Maranda had been granted a court interdict to commence open cast mining immediately, but we have managed to get a right to appeal this decision and effectively it has halted all mining activities in the reserve for possible 18-24 months.
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
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The Tanoé Swamps Forest, the very last remaining forest block in the
south-eastern corner of Côte d’Ivoire must be considered a top priority
site for the conservation of Primates in West Africa. This forest is one
of the latest refuges on earth for the most threatened three primate
species in West Africa: the Miss Waldron red colobus (Piliocolobus
badius waldronae), the diana roloway (Cercopithecus diana roloway) and
the white-napped mangabey (Cercocebus atys lunulatus). This High Value
Forest housing additionally several endemic plant species is poorly
known and has no protection status. Since February 2008, an important
Palm Oil Company has started the complete destruction and replacement of
the Tanoé Swamps Forest, the ecological and socio-economic importance of
which is indubitable.
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Monday, 14 April 2008 |
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Tropical forests are disappearing at an excessive speed and with them the last populations of great apes. All specialists are unanimous: if we do nothing gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos will have disappeared by the middle of the 21st century. The situation of orangoutans is even more dramatic; in 20 years time, they might only exist in zoos. Today, it is important to become active in order to stop this Ecocide! We, citizens of the Earth, ask our governments and international authorities to accept as their superior duty to save and protect primates.
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
South African Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk announced on the 25th of February that the National Norms and Standards for Elephant Management Elephant will contain culling in it's toolbox.
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Action Alerts 
