Wildlife Crime Impact Statements: Advocating for Nature in Southern Africa’s Courtrooms
The growing use of Wildlife Crime Impact Statements marks a pivotal shift in how justice systems address environmental crimes. As Southern Africa battles illegal wildlife trade – from rhino horn poaching to reptile smuggling (EMS Foundation Report) – these documents give voiceless victims (endangered species and ecosystems) representation during trials.
Why Impact Statements Matter
- Bridge the legal gap: Animals/plants lack “victim” status despite ecological value (IUCN Report)
- Highlight cascading harm: Show how crimes affect entire ecosystems
- Inform sentencing: Used successfully in Scotland (Government Report) and Hong Kong (SVIS)
EWT’s USAID-Funded Initiative
The Endangered Wildlife Trust now coordinates Wildlife Crime Impact Statements that:
- Detail species’ ecological roles
- Document population threats
- Are authored by scientists/NGOs/government experts
- Reference precedents like India’s Lakshmi Kumari case (Scroll.in)
Addressing All Victims
While rhinos dominate headlines, lesser-known species suffer equally:
- Leopard tortoises smuggled in shoeboxes
- Endangered plants illegally harvested
- Marine species caught as bycatch
As research in the Southern African Journal of Criminal Justice notes (DOI), holistic approaches are vital for effective prosecution.
The Path Forward
These statements help courts:
- Recognise wildlife’s intrinsic value
- Impose deterrent sentences (T&F Study)
- Align with global conservation goals (USAID)
“We’re ensuring magistrates hear both the legal facts and ecological consequences,” says Carina Bruwer, EWT’s Wildlife and Law Project Officer.
A WORD FROM THE CEO
Women’s Month – a month of Gold
Yolan Friedmann, EWT CEO
yolanf@ewt.org.za What better way to kick off Women’s Month in South Africa than with outstanding performances of our lady Olympians Tatjana Schoenmaker (swimming) and Bianca Buitendag (surfing), who racked up the first South African medals of the Games, with Tatjana setting a new world record! The Olympics provide a unique and magical platform where the world comes together to recognise and celebrate extraordinary feats of human brilliance, underpinned by unfathomable dedication, commitment, hard work, and unwavering vision. And in a world shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Tokyo Olympic Games also symbolise hope, triumph, and perseverance for millions of people around the globe. To add to the inspiration offered by any athlete on the start line is the number of athletes this year that are mothers, with Canadian basketball player Kim Boucher even having her three months old infant with her at the Games whom she is still breastfeeding. With 49% of the athletes in this year’s Games being women, the Tokyo Olympics claims to be the most gender-balanced Games of all times, and features nine more mixed events than at Rio 2016, raising the overall number to 18. Progress of gender equity and the rights of women in many respects.
Back home, South Africa has a very long way to go before women can not only feel equal to men in our society (in terms of pay, equity in the workplace, a voice in the media, and more) but can feel safe and free, in our country and our homes. We wish that days and months dedicated to empowering women and raising the profile of the challenges they face would not be necessary but, given that they are, that they will result in immediate, measurable, and impactful change, not just rhetoric clever campaigns. The EWT is a gender-balanced organisation with a ratio of 50:50 men to women and is one of the few in our sector that is female lead. We believe firmly in the role that women play in building not only a resilient, nurturing and compassionate society, but we also embrace and hold dear the value of the female of the species in bringing all these qualities and more to the EWT and conservation in general. The EWT’s ladies are mothers, academics, scientists, field workers, caregivers, teachers, wives, daughters, and leaders, often all in one. Importantly, we are also blessed to work with men who give high regard to the role of the ladies in their personal and professional lives and who are fundamental to creating a society that is empowering and respectful of women.
This Women’s Month, I wish that all the ladies in the EWT know how valued they are, how much they contribute, and how much impact they have on conservation, the EWT, their families, and society. It is equally my wish that all the men in the EWT also know how important they are, how invaluable is their contribution and how irreplaceable their roles as fathers, brothers, colleagues, and friends are. From all at the EWT, may you spend this Women’s month celebrating each and every woman in your life, and the many good men too, and make the changes that are necessary for a long lasting impact to come from this August that will empower and keep safe ALL the ladies in our country. May we all work this month and every month to create an equitable, safe, just and celebratory society of the gold that exists in all of us.
LATEST STORIES
Herpetological Surveys Limpopo Province: The Quest for ‘Extinct’ Reptiles
Recent herpetological surveys Limpopo Province conducted by the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Conservation Science Unit have shed new light on the Woodbush region’s remarkable reptile and amphibian diversity. While the team’s primary goal – rediscovering the officially extinct Eastwood’s Long-tailed Seps (Tetradactylus eastwoodae) – remains unfulfilled, the expedition yielded significant findings that reshape our understanding of this ecological hotspot.
Expedition Highlights
- 50 species recorded (10 amphibians, 40 reptiles)
- Valuable DNA samples collected for 7 taxonomically uncertain species
- 208 new distribution records for the region
- Key species documented:
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Vulnerable Methuen’s Dwarf Gecko (Lygodactylus methueni)
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Near Threatened Woodbush Legless Skink (Acontias rieppeli)
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Northern Forest Rain Frog
Innovative Survey Methods
The team employed specialised trapping systems featuring:
- Drift fencing (30m per trap)
- Pitfall traps (5 per array)
- Funnel traps (6 per array)
- Daily monitoring following strict ethical protocols
“While we didn’t find our ‘Holy Grail’,” notes Dr Oliver Cowan, “we’ve significantly advanced knowledge of this understudied region and identified critical conservation priorities.”
Herpetological Surveys Limpopo Province: Conservation Implications
The surveys revealed:
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New population data for threatened species
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Potential cryptic species awaiting genetic confirmation
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Habitat requirements for endemic herpetofauna
Supported by Rand Merchant Bank Foundation, this work underscores the importance of continued herpetological surveys to protect its unique biodiversity.
Carbon Offset Projects
Dr Damian Walters, EWT’s African Crane Conservation Programme, DamianW@ewt.org.za
Gasses that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases (GHG) and include carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Greenhouse gases resulting from human activities are the most significant drivers of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. The Carbon Tax Act (15) was promulgated in May 2019 to give effect to the “polluter-pays-principle”, whereby large emitters of greenhouse gasses GHGs are penalised through taxation for their emissions. The advent of the South African Carbon Tax Act (15 of 2019) has created a significant opportunity for biodiversity conservation and improved catchment management. Apart from the obvious benefits of encouraging reduced carbon emissions, the Act has created a market for those able to sequester (lock) carbon.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust works with landowners, predominantly in the Grassland biome, to develop carbon projects on their properties to sequester carbon. A carbon project entails managing the landscape (e.g., a farm) in a manner that allows for the verifiable sequestration of carbon through a tangible improvement in veld condition. The carbon is typically locked in the soil through improved grazing and fire management of grasslands and wetlands, wetland rehabilitation, and improved management of agricultural lands through reduced tillage and careful fertiliser management. The verified carbon sequestered during such projects can be converted into carbon credits that can be purchased by liable entities, usually big carbon emitters, to reduce their tax liability, thus creating a revenue stream for those who develop carbon projects.
The EWT considers carbon project development and the revenue that the projects will generate as an important tool to enhance biodiversity protection, improve catchment management, and increase water security by providing financial incentives for landowners to improve their land management practices. The EWT has committed decades of extension work to build partnerships with landowners and these trust relationships enable us to develop carbon projects by assisting them with long-term land management plans and associated ongoing extension support to improve the management of their grasslands, wetlands, and agricultural lands to better sequester precious carbon and ultimately curb the effects of global climate change. The ambitious, but achievable, goal is to create landscapes of sustainably managed grasslands, savannas, thickets and forests that not only provide agricultural and other essential products, but also provide critical ecosystem services and support the rich biodiversity that we, as South Africans, are so blessed to enjoy as fellow inhabitants of our thriving landscapes.
GUEST ARTICLE: EVERY ANIMAL MATTERS
Fraser Shilling, Director Road Ecology Centre, University of California, Davis fmshilling@ucdavis.edu
In the 90s, I used to drive long distances to see my girlfriend in Southern California. I would see dead wildlife on my drive, and for many species, it was the first time I had seen them in the wild. Years later, as a landscape ecologist at UC Davis, I started to connect the real wildlife losses along roads with the habitat fragmentation I studied in geographic information systems on computers. In many ways, this transformed my research trajectory and brought my science closer to my concern for the Earth. Many scientists shy away from saying they are environmentalists or want to fight to protect the Earth, but that’s silly and is like being a ship’s engineer and not caring if it sinks.
My name is Fraser Shilling, and I am the director of the Road Ecology Centre at the University of California, Davis. My centre is affiliated with the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), both the firsts of their kind. ITS is well-known for investigating non-motorised travel, alternative fuels, and other revolutions in transportation needed to prevent climate change and improve human quality of life. My centre is best known for studying conflicts between transportation and nature, many of which can be measured as impacts on wildlife. We aren’t shy about our position that nature and wildlife matter, and we use our studies across scales from whole continents to individual animals to make this case.
This concern for wildlife and especially those needlessly killed on roads brought me into contact with the EWT and in particular, the extraordinary Wendy Collinson. We have begun an incredible project together, bringing together the “transportation ecologists” from around the world into one Congress to discuss the outstanding issues in our field. The brainchild of Wendy, the Global Congress on Linear Infrastructure and Environment (GCLIE), will have its first meeting this year, preceding the conference I organise, the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation. GCLIE will kick off with experts from around the world sharing their perspectives and include open discussions about how road, rail, canal, powerline, and fence infrastructure break habitat up into pieces, kill wildlife, and exacerbate human impacts on Nature. If you are reading this, you are welcome to join the discussion. Go to https://gclie.org for more information.
To learn more about the Road Ecology Centre, go to https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu.
LATEST STORIES
CONSERVATION CHAMPION
A very big thanks to PwC and the Ford Wildlife Foundation for covering the costs of capturing ten Cheetahs for relocation to the Zambezi Delta, Mozambique. This mammoth effort entailed two weeks of capture effort and 9,634 km of driving through riots, lockdown, and Springbok rugby matches. All ten Cheetahs were successfully relocated, and an additional 900,000 hectares of safe space, an area half the size of Kruger National Park, has become available for wild Cheetah conservation.
LEAVING A LEGACY OF LIFE – IN MEMORY OF PHIL ROBERTS
Oldrich van Schalkwyk
We met Phil and Sue Roberts in 2012 when they came to the Soutpansberg on an Earthwatch Expedition, and it was immediately apparent that they had a great love for nature, in particular, big cats like Leopards, and a great love for South Africa – Sue has family in South Africa, an aunt and uncle who they used to visit, they also had a great love for people. We visited some local schools where Phil entertained the small kids by shaking a pencil up and down, so it looks like it was made out of rubber, and they just loved that. One night we got talking around a campfire about conservation and the plight of the Leopards on the mountain, and it was quite apparent that they were concerned and looking for solutions to stop the decline in large predator numbers, and to protect the mountain. We stayed in contact and shortly after that they asked us to start searching for land because they were excited about the prospect of putting some money together so that we could conserve large conservation areas in the Soutpansberg, and so we became great friends. On their subsequent visits to the mountain, their lust for life and their care for the environment and people was incredibly infectious, and through their tenacity to get more people to contribute towards the conservation of the mountain, they became the catalyst of what is now known as the Soutpansberg Protected Area. We were incredibly blessed to have met them and privileged to know them. Judy and I will sorely miss Phil – he was such an inspiration to us all with his energy and love for life. Phil’s contribution to catalysing the Soutpansberg Protected Area will be a lasting and living legacy and the people and wildlife reliant on this unique and beautiful landscape and who call it home are forever in his debt.
IN MEMORY OF BRIAN BRADFORD GOODALL
On Sunday 27th June 2021, Brian Goodall, Chair of the Lewis Foundation, loving husband to Lesley, father to Tiffany, Andrew and Peter-John and an adoring grandfather, passed away at the age of 78.
Brian was born on March 27th, 1944. He matriculated from Jeppe High School for Boys with a first-class pass. His leadership skills were already apparent as Head Prefect, Captain of the Rowing, House Athletics and Cricket with a basket of leadership and academic prizes. He attended three universities, graduating with a BA from the University of Natal, a first-class Honours from Wits and an MA from UNISA. He was a life-long learner and always willing to share and teach.
Brian joined Standard Bank in 1966, where his passion for finance and investment was kindled. He moved from there to ESE Financial Services and in 1970, Brian and two colleagues formed their own economics and financial consultancy company. Five years later they sold out to join Syfrets Trust. Alongside his passion for finance and investment, Brian was developing a career in politics. His charm and people skills, combined with an intense aversion to the apartheid regime resulted in him winning the Edenvale Parliamentary seat for the Progressive Federal Party in 1979. This was the first Parliamentary by-election defeat for the National Party. He resigned from Syfrets to pursue a full-time political career and held the seat till 1987 when he lost to Joan Hunter. Undeterred he retook the seat in 1989 and held it until he was elected to the Provincial Parliament of Gauteng as Leader of the DA Caucus and spokesperson on Economic Affairs.
His interest and love for finance could not be ignored however and in 1985 Brian founded Investment Management Services (IMS). Alongside this he wrote and published several articles on investments and tax. He was the author of textbooks on investment planning and co-author of the “Momentum Tax and Investment Easiguide” and the “South African Financial Planning Handbook.”
Brian remained actively involved in his company and his writing until his death. Andrew, his son, joined the company a few years ago and will continue to grow and build on his father’s impressive legacy.
Brian was a man of many facets. He loved wildlife and the bush and would spend time with his family and friends at his game lodge whenever his schedule allowed. So, when the opportunity arose in 2002 to join the Lewis Foundation as a Trustee, he was delighted. He shaped the Foundation’s investment policies resulting in significant growth of the endowment. He took the helm as Chair in 2010, bringing his insight, creativity and lateral thinking to the table and broadened the outlook of the Foundation. His greatest contribution was himself. He was passionate, enthusiastic, positive, forward-thinking, empathetic and committed. No matter what the organisation or the Foundation had to face, with Brian at the helm, we knew he would see the silver lining and there would be a way through, a plan and a strategy to overcome. He served the Lewis Foundation for 20 years and will be sorely missed. But his legacy will live on through the programmes and projects of the Foundation and the many young people it has funded and nurtured. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Lesley and the Goodall Family.
The Conservation sector has lost a great champion but his legacy will continue.
Dr Pete Zacharias – Trustee and Chair
Dr Shafika Isaacs – Trustee
Derek Engelbrecht – Trustee
Lindy Rowell van Hasselt – Relationship Director
Wildlife Conservation Success Stories: Remarkable Species Recovery Efforts
These Wildlife Conservation Success Stories highlight groundbreaking efforts to protect Africa’s most vulnerable species. From rediscovering “lost” golden moles to rewilding endangered predators, conservationists are achieving remarkable results against the odds.
Key Conservation Breakthroughs
- De Winton’s Golden Mole Rediscovery
- Species unseen by science for 85 years
- Potential rediscovery in South Africa
- Read the full story
- African Wild Dog Conservation
- Successful translocations across Southern Africa
- “An incredible feeling to finally have the dogs here safely” – Cole du Plessis
- Ongoing range expansion projects
- Cheetah Protection Initiatives
How You Can Help
Fascinating Science Saturday Posts
Discover more wildlife research and recovery stories through our regular science features.
Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part One – From Skepticism to Success
The story of Dinokeng’s Cheetahs: Part One begins with an improbable vision – reintroducing Africa’s most endangered big cat just 30 minutes from Pretoria. What started as a seemingly unrealistic dream in 2007 has blossomed into one of South Africa’s most remarkable conservation successes, with Dinokeng Game Reserve now supporting 25 wild cheetahs across its 19,000 hectares.
Against All Odds
When Vincent van der Merwe first surveyed the area in 2008, the landscape told a story of agricultural transformation:
- Rusted farm equipment littering the veld
- Endless fence lines fragmenting the land
- Skepticism from conservationists about urban wildlife potential
Yet through unprecedented collaboration between 126 landowners and government, Dinokeng became:
- Gauteng’s first Big Five reserve
- A vital cheetah metapopulation stronghold
- Proof that wildlife and urban areas can coexist
The First Cheetah Pioneers
The initial 2012 reintroduction faced challenges:
- The Darlington Male: A notorious escape artist with a 6-month, 34-goat rampage across the Eastern Cape
- The Karongwe Female: A lion-savvy survivor from the Lowveld
- Early successes (3 cubs born in 2013) followed by heartbreaking losses
Despite setbacks, these pioneers proved Dinokeng’s potential, with their genetics still contributing to metapopulations as far as Malawi today.
A Conservation Laboratory
Dinokeng’s unique urban-edge location has provided invaluable insights:
- How cheetahs adapt to mixed prey densities
- The importance of “soft reserves” like Rietvlei for founder populations
- The resilience of cheetahs in human-modified landscapes
“What seemed impossible fifteen years ago has rewritten the rules of urban-edge conservation,” reflects van der Merwe.
Stay tuned for Part Two, where we reveal how the unlikely Rietvlei female defied expectations and helped establish Dinokeng’s thriving cheetah population.
Contact the EWT Carnivore Conservation Programme: vincentv@ewt.org.za
