OP-ED: Civil society challenged trophy hunting quotas. Did government listen?

South Africa’s new trophy-hunting quotas provide the numbers, but little explanation of how the government arrived at them. Environment Minister David Maynier’s August 31 notice authorizes the export of 300 elephant tusks from no more than 150 elephants in each of 2026 and 2027. It also allows 11 black rhino trophies each year, plus 11 leopard trophies in 2026 and 10 in 2027.

The final Gazette does not include a published response to public comments. It also does not clearly identify the CITES Non-Detriment Findings for the three species, disclose the Scientific Authority’s recommendation, provide population models or explain how animal welfare influenced the decision. For leopards, it does not even show where the authorized hunting may occur.

That lack of information is especially troubling because the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment invited public submissions in February. Organizations including the EMS Foundation, Landmark Foundation, Biodiversity Law Centre and Born Free raised scientific, legal and ethical concerns. They questioned the ecological evidence, the validity of the CITES findings, the leopard monitoring program and the treatment of animal welfare. They also argued that unresolved uncertainty might require zero quotas under a precautionary approach.

The final decision nevertheless preserves almost all the proposed allocations. The elephant quota remains unchanged. Eight south-central black rhinos may still be hunted each year, despite specific concerns about that subspecies, while the leopard quota remains 11 in 2026 and 10 in 2027.

The government does not have to accept organizations’ opposition to trophy hunting. But the article argues that environmental decisions must be rational, lawful and transparent. Without an explanation showing how detailed submissions were considered, public consultation risks becoming little more than administrative theatre. The Landmark Foundation has therefore questioned leopard population trends, monitoring, modelling, hunting zones and the identification of animals by age and sex.