Day: June 27, 2022

Cabinet approves South Africa’s first draft game meat strategy for public comment

Cabinet has approved the South Africa’s first draft Game Meat Strategy for public comment.

South Africa, renowned internationally for its abundant wildlife provides market opportunities that could derive from the harvesting of game meat and related value-added products.

“The strategy and implementation plan are aimed at creating a formalised, thriving and transformed game meat industry in South Africa that contributes to food security and sustainable socio-economic growth,” said Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy.

The aim is to attract investment in this game meat sector, and to open local, regional and international market opportunities. This requires transformation of the industry to ensure future growth in this sector.

The game meat industry, currently mainly a by-product of hunting, is predominately an informal industry that operates in a fragmented manner. The game meat industry is largely untransformed, and there is a very low participation rate of previously disadvantaged individuals. In addition, there are large areas of community owned land that is suitable for plains game, and which provides opportunity for community based enterprises to drive rural socio-economic development. There are also high barriers to entry, which would need to be addressed.

The aim of this strategy will, thus, be to create a formalised game meat industry based on achieving the economies of scale necessary for commercial ventures based primarily on game meat production, harvesting, processing, distribution, and marketing. There is a need to ensure that the potential of game meat as a driver of rural socio-economic development, founded on biodiversity-based land-use, is leveraged to create wealth, jobs, and climate friendly and resilient meat-based food security. Game meat enterprises, complimenting other biodiversity economy activities, needs to be commercially and socially viable, and ecologically sustainable, and the Strategy sets out to achieve this.

Some of the key strategic outcomes encapsulated within the Strategy include shifting from an informal sector where game meat production and harvesting is secondary to hunting, to formal commercial ventures focused on game meat production and the associated full value chain, as well as a reconfigured industry model that promotes economies of scale necessary for substantial and sustainable growth of the sector.

Commercialised harvesting and processing enterprises will add value in larger game production systems that can consistently meet increased consumer demand, and widespread and consistent marketing of game meat will increase demand, driving sustainable scaled up production and processing. Importantly, the strategy seeks to achieve meaningful ownership of commercial game meat based ventures by previously disadvantaged individuals, and the repurposing of some community owned land for large-scale commercial game meat production.

The strategy acknowledges the significant contribution that is being made by current wildlife businesses and the various associations that drive critical elements of the value chain. Key to taking the new strategy forward will be to harness their experience and expertise. New Private Sector investments will be needed, and partnerships and collaborations will be essential, and will need to be meaningful, and with buy-in from all stakeholders. The Department will continue to engage strongly with current and potential industry participants, including through the Wildlife Forum, in order to capitalise on the collective energy that went into developing the draft Game Meat Strategy, and to create the momentum for its successful implementation.

“The need to create new value, open up new opportunities, generate new growth, and deliver new efficiencies are all key to transformation, and will necessitate change along the entire Game Meat value chain,” said Minister Creecy.

The draft Strategy will be published for public comment in the second quarter of the 2022/23 financial year,

For media queries contact Albi Modise on 083 490 2871

Source: Government of South Africa

The World Drug Report 2022 also details the environmental consequences of the illicit drugs trade, the expansion of synthetic drugs to new markets, and an all-time high in cocaine production.

“Numbers for the manufacturing and seizures of many illicit drugs are hitting record highs, even as global emergencies are deepening vulnerabilities,” said UNODC chief Ghada Waly.

“At the same time, misperceptions regarding the magnitude of the problem and the associated harms, are depriving people of care and treatment and driving young people towards harmful behaviours”.

Global overview

The report outlined that some 284 million 15 to 64-year-olds used drugs in 2020, indicating a 26 per cent increase during the course of a decade.

Globally, 11.2 million people were estimated to inject drugs, around half of whom were living with hepatitis C; 1.4 million with HIV, and 1.2 million with both.

In Africa and Latin America, those under 35 represent most of the people being treated for drug use disorders.

Repercussions of cannabis legalization

In North America, legalized cannabis on a state level – especially new potent products containing elevated levels of high-inducing THC – appears to have increased daily usage, particularly among young adults.

In addition to increasing tax revenues, it has also caused a reported surge among people with psychiatric disorders, increased suicides and hospitalizations while generally reducing possession arrests.

Cocaine, meth and opium

In 2020, global cocaine manufacturing grew 11 per cent from the previous year to 1,982 tons and, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, seizures increased to a record 1,424 tons.

Nearly 90 per cent of cocaine seized last year was trafficked via land and/or sea, reaching regions beyond the regular markets of North America and Europe.

Methamphetamine (or meth) trafficking continued to expand geographically, with 117 countries reporting seizures between 2016 and 2020, versus 84 from 2006?2010, with volume growing an astonishing five-fold, between 2010 and 2020.

While the global area being used for opium poppy cultivation fell globally by 16 per cent to 246,800 hectares between 2020 and 2021, increased Afghan production triggered a seven per cent jump to 7,930 tons during that period.

Key drug trends

Most people in drug rehabilitation throughout Africa and South and Central America are primarily being treated for cannabis abuse while those in eastern and south-eastern Europe and central Asia, most often require help for the misuse of opioids.

In the United States and Canada, overdose deaths, predominantly driven by an epidemic of the non-medical use of fentanyl – which can be fatal in tiny doses, and is commonly used to ‘cut’ other drugs such as street cocaine – continue to break records.

Estimates in the US point to more than 107,000 drug overdoses last year, up from nearly 92,000 in 2020.

Conflict zone magnets

Meanwhile, the report reveals data from the Middle East and Southeast Asia suggesting that conflict can act as magnets for synthetic drug manufacturing, which may increase if the violence is close to large consumer markets.

Historically, parties to conflict have often used illegal drug profits to finance war.

Conflicts may also disrupt and shift drug trafficking routes, as has happened in the Balkans and most recently in Ukraine, since Russia annexed Crimea and separatists took control of areas of the east in 2014.

Reported clandestine laboratories in Ukraine have skyrocketed from 17 dismantled in 2019, to 79 in 2020 – 67 of which were producing amphetamines – the highest number of disassembled labs reported in any given country, in 2020.

Environmental impacts

The carbon footprint of indoor cannabis is between 16 and 100 times greater, than for outdoor cannabis, on average, according to the report – due to the intensive energy demands of artificial cultivation. And it is 30 times greater for lab-produced cocaine, than that for cocoa bean production.

Other environmental impacts include substantial deforestation associated with illicit coca cultivation; waste generated during synthetic drug manufacturing, which can be 5-30 times the volume of the end product; and dumping other waste that can affect soil, water and air directly.

Other organisms, animals and the overall food chain, suffer indirectly, said UNODC.

Gender treatment gap

Although women remain in the minority of drug users globally, their consumption rate increases more rapidly than men on average, said the report, and fewer get treatment.

They use an estimated 45-49 per cent of amphetamine and non-medical pharmaceutical stimulants, pharmaceutical opioids, sedatives, and tranquilizers.

And although women represent almost one in two amphetamines users, they constitute only one in five people in treatment for amphetamine use.

Moreover, they play a range of roles in the global cocaine economy, from cultivating coca to transporting small quantities and selling to consumers.

“We need to devote the necessary resources and attention to addressing every aspect of the world drug problem, including the provision of evidence-based care to all who need it, and we need to improve the knowledge base on how illicit drugs relate to other urgent challenges, such as conflicts and environmental degradation,” said UNODC chief Ghada Waly.

Source: United Nations