BLOOD LIONS LATEST NEWS
Blood Lions Statement on the appointment of Willem Aucamp as Minister of Environment
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the appointment of Willem Aucamp as the new Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) and removed Dr Dion George from the portfolio on Wednesday late evening 12 November 2025.
The announcement was made while George was still in Brazil heading South Africa’s team at the Convention on Climate Change (COP30) and shortly before the CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP20) which will take place in Uzbekistan later this month.
Blood Lions and many other organisations have campaigned incessantly to close the exploitative commercial captive lion industry and together with global pressure this led to among others the Parliamentary Colloquium in 2018 (see below).
Under the direction of former Environmental Ministers Creecy and George, we have made great strides to phase out South Africa’s commercial captive lion industry. Significant steps have been taken towards democratic policy change, including:
- The resolution from the Parliamentary Colloquium on captive lions in August 2018, to end the practice of captive lion breeding for hunting and the lion bone trade, which was adopted by Parliament that same year.
- The High-Level Panel (HLP), comprising a diverse panel of experts including several wildlife industry members, making recommendations to close the captive lion industry, among others. Their nearly 600-page report was approved by Cabinet in April 2021.
- This was followed by the development and implementation of the White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity in June 2023 and the Policy Position On The Conservation And Sustainable Use Of Elephant, Lion, Leopard And Rhinoceros in April 2024.
- Noting in particular the inclusion of one of its objectives – to end the captive keeping of lions for commercial purposes and close captive lion facilities, put a halt to the intensive breeding of lions in controlled environments, and end the commercial exploitation of captive and captive-bred lions.
- The Ministerial Task Team (MTT) was appointed in 2023 to develop voluntary exit options and pathways from the commercial captive lion industry. They produced a report with various recommendations on voluntary exit as well as on the wider phase out of the commercial captive lion industry, which were adopted by Cabinet in March 2024.
- This led to the creation of a draft prohibition notice for new captive lion facilities and the voluntary exit from lion breeding and keeping, and the voluntary surrender of lion bone stockpiles under the auspices of Dion George. The prohibition notice has been through public participation twice and is in its final stages of being promulgated.
- Most recently the setting of a zero CITES annual lion bone export quota that Minister George gazetted for public participation on 22 September 2025.
This democratic process is supported by a growing body of science-based and peer-reviewed evidence, such as
- the risk of zoonotic disease transmission;
- the unregulated nature of the commercial captive predator industry in South Africa;
- the welfare implication of the commercial captive predator industry;
- the behaviour and welfare of lion cubs used tourism experiences;
- the lack of conservation benefits associated with this industry.
We trust Minister Aucamp will continue this democratic process that long precedes George’s tenure, which is not only firmly rooted in science but also is fully in line with his party’s Resolution, tabled at the DA 2023 Federal Congress to “end the captive predator breeding, captive “canned lion” hunts and lion bone export”.
We look forward to engaging with and continuing to support the Minister and his Department in achieving the goal and vision laid out in the White Paper and Policy Position and restore our tarnished conservation and eco-tourism reputation through the phase out of this exploitative industry.