In releasing its Policy Position on inter alia lion conservation, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has ventured into terrain that is riddled with competing interests, power dynamics, and human values. This is a wicked political problem and we are not sure that the department has fully grasped the challenge they have ahead in juggling social values.
Lindsay Mandy is a political conservationist, researcher, tour guide and naturalist. Dr Derica Lambrechts is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conference was held in Marseille from 3 to 11 September 2021. Before the opening of the meeting, IUCN chief Bruno Oberle highlighted that challenges to the environment are all linked to each other and these challenges are linked to human behaviour.
On this…