SA Hunters Conservation

06/06/2026

🌍🌿Today, on , we celebrate more than nature itself — we celebrate the people who work every day to protect it right here in South Africa. 🇿🇦

Across our beautiful country, SA Hunters members contribute directly to biodiversity conservation through habitat restoration, anti-poaching support, wildlife monitoring, water security projects, alien vegetation control, and countless other hands-on conservation actions.
Healthy wildlife populations depend on healthy ecosystems. That is why science-based wildlife management, sustainable utilization, and active habitat conservation go hand in hand.

As discussions continue on national biodiversity targets and environmental policies, South Africa’s hunters stand ready to contribute their knowledge, experience, and commitment on the ground. Conservation is not only about policies and targets — it is about delivering real results for our heritage and nature.

📢 Make a difference where you hunt! We challenge every member to actively contribute to the environment during their next trip:
🌵Identify and clear alien vegetation that threaten local flora and water sources - even if its one declared invasive.
💧 Assist landowners in maintaining solar pumps, clearing silted water holes, or fixing leaking troughs.
🐆 Log rare species on the Sightings App.
👐Remove snares, litter, old wire, and debris that could harm wildlife.
🫆Leave a positive mark: show respect, hunt responsibly, small fires, reusable material, re-load.
👆Let us know how you make a difference!!
🌱🦒🦓🌿

03/06/2026

⚖️ SA HUNTERS TAKES "ANIMAL WELL-BEING" LAW TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT!

On 26 May 2026, SA Hunters (SAHGCA) appeared before the Constitutional Court to challenge a vague, unworkable new definition of animal “well-being" in the Biodiversity Act (NEMBA).

This is not an attack on animal welfare. SA Hunters has a track record in addressing animal welfare. The case is a challenge against poor lawmaking that puts ordinary South Africans at legal risk and threatens our economy.

🚨 The Problem?
Parliament changed the definition for animal “well-being” without consulting experts in animal health and behaviour, affected communities and sectors such as wildlife managers, farmers, fishers, hunters, or rural communities.

SA Hunters supports the original, clear definition of animal well-being based on objective factors of an animals living conditions such as food, water, and shelter that are captured in welfare standards. We cannot support the new definition that requires anyone interacting with wildlife to account for individual animals’ "mental health" and "holistic circumstances" in conservation, management or utilisation.

🧠 How do you measure a locust's mental health?
There is no scientific way to measure “mental health” for individual animals of all wild species (insects, fishes, reptiles, birds and mammals) under all conditions (captive and in the wild). Under this vague law, routine and legal activities could be legally challenged, without any clear measure to determine compliance:
• Catching fish or harvesting mopani worms for food
• Wildlife-based tourism practices
• Game management and population control
• Wildlife translocations
• Using tracking collars for scientific research
• Protecting crops from pests and devastating locust swarms
• Legal, regulated hunting

💰 What is at stake?
This impractical definition opens the door for regulatory officials to either stall decisions out of fear of prosecution or make entirely arbitrary ones, both of which violate the constitutional right to fair and predictable administrative action. Everyday legal practices can now be challenged:
• Food security - inland and sea fisheries harvesting wild fish
• 418,000+ jobs in the biodiversity sector
• R44 billion generated annually by legal regulated local and international hunting
• R27 billion generated by wildlife-based tourism
• 20 million hectares wildlife habitat managed by wildlife ranches, supporting 4.7–7.3 million herbivores, including several threatened species
• 46% of Critical Biodiversity Areas that overlaps with wildlife ranches

SA Hunters supports the original, clear definition of animal well-being, but asked the Court to declare this new definition unconstitutional. Laws must be clear, rational, and possible to follow!

👇 Read the full details of the Concourt case below. https://sahunters.co.za/sahgca-the-facts-on-animal-wellbeing/

Click here to read the press release.

03/06/2026

SUSTAINABLE HARVEST OF WILD RESOURCES

🐛Reference to sustainable use in our Constitution and biodiversity legislation includes the ability of communities to harvest mopani worms or insects from nature as livelihoods.

🐝This article explores how this value of wildlife can contribute to conservation while improving peoples livelihoods. Researchers and entrepreneurs across southern and east Africa are exploring ways for rural communities to generate income from sustainably harvested wild resources.

👆The sad truth is however that despite the dependance of many communities on wildlife like this, they have not been engaged in the proses of parliament to include a new definition of animal wellbeing in NEMBA, that also requires communities to consider the "mental health" of the individual animals harvested.

# animalwellbeing # wildlifeeconomy

Can conservation pay for itself and create meaningful livelihoods beyond fenced protected areas? Researchers and entrepreneurs across southern and east Africa are exploring ways for rural communities …

31/05/2026

30/05/2026

👆Die verwikkelinge rondom loodammunisie in Europa.
Hierdie plasing is deur FACE, die grootste konfederasie van jagters in Europa wat miljoene jagters verteenwoordig.

🐃SAJWV President, Gerhan Archer het FACE onlangs besoek en ons beplan grooter samewerking in die toekoms.

🌿In SA is daar geen sprake van 'n verbod op die stadium nie. SA Jagters werk saam met ander organisasies en die regering aan sinvolle oplossing vir risikos geassosieerd met die gebruik van loodammunisie.

👍🏼Wat kan jy doen? Wees verantwoordelik in die veld en laat geen bloederig vleis of afval in die veld agter as dit loodpartikels kan bevat nie of maak die skuif na alternatiewe nie-lood ammunisie.

Kontak die bewaringskantoor of jagsake by Nyathipark vir enige navrae. [email protected]

🎯 Lead ammunition restrictions are coming — but how should Europe manage the transition?
In this clip from the latest episode of We, The Hunters, FACE Secretary General Dr David Scallan discusses one of the biggest challenges facing European hunters today: the proposed EU-wide restrictions on lead ammunition.
The debate is no longer about if change is coming, but how it can be implemented in a fair, proportionate and practical way.
Across Europe, hunters face very different realities. In some countries, fi****ms, infrastructure and access to alternatives make the transition easier. In others, adapting will take significantly more time and investment.
A successful transition requires more than legislation. It means testing equipment, ensuring firearm compatibility, providing training, and giving hunters the time needed to adapt safely and effectively.
Watch the full discussion in the latest episode of We, The Hunters:
👉 https://youtu.be/xvbH6gbutxI
****ms

30/05/2026

🌿The more transformed the landscape is, the higher the impact on wildlife and the effort needed to conserve.

🦔Have you considered how your choice of food impacts landscapes and biodiversity?

🦓If you did, you should have realized that respobsible hunting for free range protein where habitats stay intact, has a much lower impact on wildlide than clearing the natural vegetation to plant soya for a vegetarian diet?

🐛Everybody has an impact, consider yours truthfully.

22/05/2026

🌿 Internasionale Dag vir Biodiversiteitsbewaring: Jagters is Deel van die Oplossing 🌿

Vandag vier ons die rykdom van die natuur wat ons omring! 🌍
Biodiversiteit is onder groot druk, en die bewaring van die natuur kort meer as net goeie bedoelings — dit kort aksie op die grond.

Regoor Suuid-Afrika dra jagters elke dag aktief by tot bewaring deur:
🦆 Wildbevolkings te monitor
🌾 Habitatte te restoreer en te bestuur
🦌 Spesiebewaringsprojekte te ondersteun
🚁 Wild te red van strikke en die in nood
📊 Data in te samel vir wetenskaplike navorsing

Lees meer oor SA Jagters se bewaringswerk op: https://sahunters.co.za/conservation/

21/05/2026

🌍 The Wildlife Economy is the Unsung Hero in Sustainable Conservation Finance.

🌿At the recent NBSAP consultative forum, Lizanne Nel (Conservation Manager of SA Hunters) conveyed a powerful truth: the wildlife economy is a major sustainable funding model that is currently not receiving the necessary attention in the Biodiversity Finance Initiative reports. 📊

Here is why it matters:

🌿20 Million Hectares: Most biodiversity occur outside protected areas, with the wildlife sector and local communities as biodiversity custodians.

🌿Self-Funded Conservation Action: These custodians use their own money for habitat rehabilitation, fighting alien species, erosion control and species conservation as demonstrated through the Sustainable Wildlife Economy Project.

🌿R44 Billion Boost: Regulated hunting contributes R44 billion to the economy annually—mostly driven by local citizen hunters that pay to hunt for free range protein on these wildlife areas, serving as a sustainable funding source for these wildlife areas.

🌍Legal, regulated sustainable use is actively funding South Africa's biodiversity goals! 🇿🇦🌱

21/05/2026

A sustainable future requires a whole-of-society effort! 🤝🇿🇦

🌍Today is the second day of the South African NBSAP National Consultative Conference at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.

🌿SA Hunters together with communities, NGO's, state agencies and government contributed towards mapping the future interventions to secure biodiversity. Discussions included amongst others:
✨ Restoring ecosystems
✨ Enhancing ecological infrastructure
✨ Balancing sustainable resource use
✨ Improving human-wildlife coexistence
✨Sustainable financing

20/05/2026

SA Hunters is engaging in the two day public discussion session on the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for SA.
🌱Our key message is that conservation is a landuse issue. If those managing the land and biodiversity do not see and experience the value of biodiversity, the landuse will be changed to other landuses that may not be compatible with conservation.
🌱 The wildlife sector is key to these discussions.