Improving the well-being of South African wildlife

The report argues that South Africa's legal regime for wild animal welfare is outdated and provides little protection, as it relies on a distinction between animal welfare and biodiversity conservation. It highlights a lack of consistency across national and provincial jurisdictions and calls for urgent reforms to the permit system, increased monitoring capacity, and the creation of an integrated national permit database to prevent the exploitation of provincial loopholes.

• South Africa's current legal approach to wild animal welfare is based on an outdated separation between biodiversity conservation and animal welfare, resulting in a statutory regime that is unsuited for addressing welfare and provides little actual protection for wild animals.
• The existing permit system for wild animals lacks standardization and transparency, allowing for practices where permits are obtained in one province after being refused in another due to a lack of cross-referencing.
• Immediate and short-term reforms are needed to clarify legal mandates, close systemic loopholes, and standardize permit applications through uniform forms and assessment checklists.
• There is a critical need for increased funding and capacity for trained officials to conduct regular welfare inspections and ensure consistent enforcement, suggesting that permit fees and fines could help fund these activities and the NSPCA.

APA

Wessels, C. (2018). Improving the well-being of South African wildlife. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Executive-summary.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Wessels, Corlette. Improving the well-being of South African wildlife. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2018. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Executive-summary.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wessels |first1=Corlette |title=Improving the well-being of South African wildlife |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=2018 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Executive-summary.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wessels2018improving, author = {Wessels, Corlette}, title = {{Improving the well-being of South African wildlife}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2018}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Executive-summary.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }