2024 has been exceptionally busy and although our High Court Application has dominated a great deal of time and attention, Baboon Matters has continued to work closely with the CT2 troop, as well as spent time in the field, undertaken several troop counts, given input on community projects across the Western Cape and have put in a great deal of work on a new, and very exciting, campaign which we will hopefully we able to roll out next year!
GOING BACKWARDS
I have worked on baboon-related issues since 1990 when entire troops of baboons were killed as the accepted method in dealing with so-called problem animals. When the original Slangkop troop was killed, the community came together and we started the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group (and from there Baboon Matters); it really was the start of innovative, engaging progress to manage the baboon human interface.
I won’t detail all the history of the ins and outs and baffling routes that baboon management has taken over the years, suffice to say that it seems that recently baboon management has done a giant u-turn and is rapidly going backwards.
In the early years of what is now called the Urban Baboon Program, the work was undertaken by NGO’s with funding largely coming from communities. The educational material was funded by NGOs such as IFAW and WWF and was engaging and widely spread amongst affected communities; in fact, Dr Kansky’s booklet, Baboons on the Cape Peninsula, is still considered to be one of the most useful and comprehensive tools for residents and visitors who encounter baboons.
But in 2009 the authorities jointly decided that there needed to be a professional company with qualified staff running the baboon monitor/ranger project and so the CoCT put the contract out to tender and started an entirely new approach to managing baboons whereby aversion tactics (paintballs and bear bangers) were used to attempt to create a “landscape of fear” and baboons who failed comply with the protocols would be killed.
Our views on the implementation of this strategy in conjunction with the Protocols/Guidelines is well documented – the system could only work if all the mitigation strategies were implemented (reducing attractants through effective waste management and implementing the by-laws) as the rangers on their own would not be as effective as they could be and criminalizing baboons without the mitigation strategies in place was unacceptable.
Effective baboon-proof bins are essential as the first step of mitigation.
High Court Application and Legal Process
In 2018 Baboon Matters and Baboons of the South pushed hard for a task team to review the situation, for workshops where the authorities and role players could meet to resolve the long outstanding issues and after two successful meetings with CoCT Mayor D. Plato, we had hopes that our notion of an external task team and a collaborative workshop would be productive. Not long into the process, however, it became clear that the inter-governmental disputes were over-riding any real progress.
After the COVID lockdowns, Alderman Eddie Andrews started a process of Zoom meetings and public participation this was in response to an intervention from Minister B Creecy who directed the authorities to “sort things out”.
The authorities regrouped as the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team, known as the JTT, and in the past two years have signed the MOA and produced a Baboon Strategic Management Plan – a plan that is best described as a meaningless bureaucratic document to appease the system.
It was clear to everyone that meetings, workshops, discussions and debates were getting us nowhere; the death rate of baboons was the highest it had been in years and with no solid plan in place the situation was crumbling fast.
Against this dire backdrop Ryno Engelbrecht presented his ideas as to how we could effectively hold the authorities accountable and ensure that identified solutions were implemented.
High Court Application
Applicants are: Ryno Engelbrecht, Baboon Matters Trust, Beauty Without Cruelty, and J. Bosman.
Essentially we are applying to the High Court for a court order to hold the authorities accountable to implement solutions that they have identified as mitigation strategies needed to keep baboons from urban areas. These solutions were identified in documents such as the Brownlie Document (March 2000), the Kansky Gaynor Baboon Management Plan (2002) and almost every document since.
Although the authorities have all agreed that the mitigation strategies are essential, few of the strategies (other than the ranger program) have been implemented wholly or at all, and now, despite over 800 comments in the public participation process calling from the ranger program, the rangers have been effectively cancelled with nothing that we know about in its place.
This is a service delivery fight, the authorities should have implemented all the solutions in the toolbox – irrespective of baboon management plans and community buy-in. For example, the CoCT should have provided effective baboon-proof bins, implemented traffic calming and enforced their own by-laws, irrespective of a signed-off “baboon management plan” with its partners as those are clearly CoCT responsibilities. Likewise, Cape Nature should have insisted all mitigation was in place before providing permits for nearly 80 baboons to be killed under the debatable protocols.
SANparks and TMNP have well-established regulations to keep wild animals safely within national parks and to retrieve animals who leave national parks, yet have clearly not elected either of those routes in this case. We note that TMNP own picnic areas have broken garbage bins and the electric fences have not been working for years now.
We are interested indeed to see how the members of the JTT individually explain why they have not implemented their own solutions and are removing the only mitigation strategy that is currently in place.
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Threat of Culling Entire Troop –
Letter of Demand
In response to mounting concerns arising from community meetings where CoCT manager Mr.R MacGaffen confirmed that the JTT will consider removing entire troops of baboons as management options, our lawyers prepared a Letter of Demand which was sent to each organization represented on the JTT. The responses to the LoD simply adds to our concerns, in that the replies confirm that killing troops will be considered.
From SANParks – 18 July 2024:
One of the outcomes pertains to the sustainable management of the Chacma baboon on the Cape Peninsula, which entails the undertaking of various measures, including the investigation and implementation (where appropriate) of control measures such as euthanasia, culling and translocation of the baboons.
From the JTT – 31 July 2024
Point 8: No final decision has yet been taken to implement mitigation measures under the BSMP in respect of baboon troops – such as euthanasia or translocation – and your clients’ threat of urgent interdictory relief is premature and inappropriate. Decisions are being and will be, taken by the JTT collectively or individually by its constituent members, where applicable, in the manner prescribed by the MoA. As noted, those decisions which are required to be made by the JTT are taken by consensus between the parties.
In response to the SANparks and JTT letters we have replied with a reminder of the pending Court Action, that they are under notice and that we, therefore, must be timeously informed of any decision made to cull, relocate or kill a troop of baboons.
Four Male Baboons Killed In Terms of JTT Protocols
FUNDING SOS !
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Conclusion
ON-GOING SUPPORT
Baboon Matters is entirely dependent upon the financial support of the public and I thank you all for signing up for MySchool Card (please remember to swipe your card when you shop!) and to all of you who make contributions to the very hard work put into support other groups and always working towards the goals of better management of the baboon/human interface–and saving our baboons.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Banking Details:
Baboon Matters Trust
Standard Bank Blue Route
Account: 2700 400 80