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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:18 pm
Time: 9:18 pm
Results for wildlife crimes (south africa)
2 results foundAuthor: De Greef, Kimon Title: South Africa's illicit abalone trade: An updated overview and knowledge gap analysis Summary: More than two decades of unsustainable harvesting has had damaging, and potentially irreversible, consequences for South Africa's formerly abundant stocks of the endemic abalone, Haliotis midae. Efforts to combat the illegal trade, including listing the species in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix III in 2007, conducting government-led enforcement operations, establishing designated environmental courts to deal with abalone poachers, and developing more inclusive fisheries policies have been largely unsuccessful. This has been due to a lack of adequate resources and long standing socio-political grievances between small-scale-fishermen and the post-apartheid government. In 2010, H. midae was delisted from CITES Appendix III, despite increased levels of illegal poaching, due to difficulties in implementation according to the South African government. Organized criminal syndicates have taken advantage of this socio-political dynamic mentioned above to recruit poachers from local communities who feel disenfranchised by government policy and entitled to extract the easily harvested resource. Furthermore, evidence suggests that poachers are sometimes paid for service in illegal drugs, adding another complex layer of social challenges and addiction along the coast of South Africa. Trade data analysis on abalone reveals a complex network that links poaching to syndicated trade through various countries, some of them landlocked, across southern Africa before eventually reaching Asian markets. Calls for radical governance reform have been made, but change is slow. Nevertheless, there is value in profiling the illegal trade as fully as possible, to draw lessons for dealing with poaching and other forms of wildlife crime more effectively in the future. This briefing paper is a synthesis of current knowledge about South Africa's illegal abalone fishery, drawing on both available literature and unpublished research. The briefing paper is not exhaustive, but offers a comprehensive and up to date overview of the history, drivers, impacts and modus operandi of this country's illicit abalone trade. By profiling the current situation holistically, this briefing paper aims to inform stakeholders and stimulate discussion on recommended solutions and further areas of study as described in Section 4. Details: Cambridge, UK: TRAFFIC International, 2014. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 17, 2014 at: http://www.traffic.org/storage/USAID%20W-TRAPS%20Abalone%20Briefing%20Paper_Final.pdf Year: 2014 Country: South Africa URL: http://www.traffic.org/storage/USAID%20W-TRAPS%20Abalone%20Briefing%20Paper_Final.pdf Shelf Number: 133738 Keywords: AbaloneAnimal PoachingEndangered SpeciesFishing Illegal TradeOrganized CrimeWildlife Crimes (South Africa) |
Author: De Greef, Kimon Title: The booming illegal abalone fishery in Hangberg: Tough lessons for small-scale fisheries governance in South Africa Summary: Marine capture fisheries around the world are widely perceived to be in a state of crisis, with growing recognition that conventional resource-centred management strategies are insufficient to counter ongoing problems of over-exploitation. This is considered particularly true in the small‐scale sector, which employs the overwhelming majority of the world's fishers but has historically been overlooked. To manage marine resources more sustainably, new approaches to fisheries governance have been sought that recognise the complex nature of fisheries systems, paying attention to the social dimensions of fisheries management in addition to important ecological processes. In South Africa, many of these new approaches have been embraced in a recently adopted policy for the small-scale sector. Attempts to reform marine fisheries have been ongoing in the country since the end of apartheid (a system of legalised racial segregation and white supremacy that ruled for almost 50 years) but have largely failed to bring meaningful change to impoverished fishing communities. Frustration at ineffective reform has contributed to widespread non-compliance - most notably in the abalone fishery, which has collapsed in the face of rampant poaching, driven by a lucrative, illegal export market to the Far East. Although the new small-scale fisheries (SSF) policy has been hailed as a progressive shift in thinking, questions remain about how it is to be implemented. One major challenge will be dealing with illegal fishing. The purpose of this study, was to profile the human dimensions of abalone poaching in the Cape Town fishing community of Hangberg and to draw lessons for implementing the new SSF policy. A qualitative multi-method research approach, based mainly on unstructured interviews and participant observation, was used to access the clandestine fishery and investigate its historical development, current structure, scale and methods of operation and main socio-economic drivers and impacts. It was found that abalone poaching has become deeply embedded in Hangberg, having evolved into a highly organized boat-based fishery in a period of less than 15 years. At least five local poaching groups - representing some 250 individuals in total - currently used dedicated high-powered vessels to access reefs around the Cape Peninsula. Profits earned from poaching are substantial but vary, with poachers operating according to a loose hierarchy and performing a range of different tasks in the fishery. This variation notwithstanding, the illegal fishery appears to have become a mainstay of the impoverished local economy, funding poachers' expensive lifestyles, in addition to contributing more meaningfully to the livelihoods of an estimated 1000 residents. Details: Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 2013. 117p Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 6, 2017 at: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/9187 Year: 2013 Country: South Africa URL: https://open.uct.ac.za/handle/11427/9187 Shelf Number: 145344 Keywords: AbaloneAnimal PoachingEndangered SpeciesIllegal Fishing Illegal TradeOrganized CrimeOverfishingWildlife Crimes (South Africa) |