Department of environment reduces lion bone export quota to zero

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has announced it will not permit the quota of lion bones and derivatives. It has reduced the quota to zero. This has been a bone of contention with lion breeders for many years, and the finding might, as usual, end up in court.

Breeders claim to have stockpiles worth millions of dollars if sales could go ahead. They say it is their legal right to sell products they produce.

The zero quota is a victory for conservationists who have campaigned for many years to have the lion breeding industry shut down.

Lion skeletons are used in Asia in fake tiger bone wine. Between 2010 and 2019, more than 7,400 lion skeletons were exported, with 98% destined for Southeast Asia.

For years, government policy permitted — and even encouraged — this trade. The Department of Environmental Affairs set quotas as high as 1,500 skeletons annually, despite internal dissent and international outrage.

Investigations by NGOs such as the EMS Foundation and Ban Animal Trading revealed that the trade was not simply a byproduct of trophy hunting, as officials claimed, but rather an industrial system in which lions were commercially bred and slaughtered specifically for their bones.

The 2019 judgment by Judge Jody Kollapen in the Gauteng Division of the High Court marked a turning point. The court declared that the quotas set in 2017 and 2018 were unlawful and constitutionally invalid, stressing that the welfare of captive lions could not be divorced from decisions about their exploitation. It was, the court ruled, “inconceivable” that the state could ignore welfare considerations in setting quotas.

Read more: Lion bones back in the crossfire after breeders challenge sales ban

Civil society pressure and public image

Animal welfare and conservation groups have long argued that the lion bone trade harms South Africa’s reputation and undermines its tourism economy. In February 2025, the EMS Foundation and Ban Animal Trading issued a strongly worded joint statement warning that attempts to reopen the trade were a “major ethical, legal, and administrative embarrassment” that would “stimulate the market for their bones and ignore welfare considerations.”

The groups also highlighted the industry’s alleged links to organised crime networks, its potential to launder poached big cat parts into the legal market, and the risk of spreading zoonotic diseases through poorly regulated slaughter operations.

“Permitting trade in lion parts creates a market, stimulates demand and removes the stigma associated with the possession of wild animals or their derivatives,” they warned.

Tourism operators have joined the call, noting that canned hunting and bone trading cast a shadow over Brand South Africa.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs has consistently argued that the captive lion industry offers no conservation value and called for its phased closure. In 2021, a high-level panel of experts recommended that South Africa should not keep lions in captivity or use them or their derivatives commercially.

The industry’s pushback

Despite this momentum, industry groups have fought to keep the trade alive. The South African Predator Association and 10 other applicants recently brought a high court action seeking to force the minister to set a quota, citing their constitutional right to trade. Together, they claimed to hold more than 1,530 lion skeletons in stockpiles — worth an estimated R70-million if sold legally.

Their case rested on the economic argument that banning exports harmed their businesses and constituted an infringement of their rights. But conservationists argue that these stockpiles themselves are part of the problem: retaining them encourages speculative breeding and maintains demand in Asian markets.

Many have called for the government to destroy the skeleton stockpiles, as is done with confiscated ivory, to send a clear signal that lions are not commodities.

Read more: Hand over your lion bone stockpiles for destruction, minister tells breeders

Welfare is the issue

The recent gazette announcement appears to embrace that argument. The zero quota decision reinforces the principle — established in Judge Kollapen’s judgment — that environmental management must take animal welfare into account. It also reflects the 2023 amendment to the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, which explicitly included the well-being of wild animals in its scope.

Previous DFFE minister Barbara Creecy stated that government policy must serve the public interest rather than the economic interests of a few operators. By maintaining a zero quota, the DFFE has effectively removed the financial incentive to breed lions for bones, striking at the heart of the industry’s business model.

Bones enter crime networks

The announcement also represents an effort to close a chapter marred by scandal. Past reports revealed that South Africa was issuing Cites export permits to known wildlife traffickers, including members of the notorious  Xaysavang Network — one of the world’s most wanted wildlife crime syndicates.

Forensic investigations found that some exporters were shipping skeletons that exceeded the legal weight limits, suggesting they were slipping extra skeletons into consignments and exceeding quotas unchecked.

Meanwhile, whistleblowers exposed the existence of lion slaughterhouses in the Free State, where hundreds of lions were killed annually to feed the trade. Images of emaciated lions languishing in breeding facilities sparked public outrage both locally and internationally.

Mixed signals

While conservationists have welcomed the zero-quota decision, they warn that implementation will be key. In 2019, despite the absence of a legal quota, at least 194 lion skeletons and carcasses were exported to Vietnam under provincial permits, suggesting enforcement gaps. Closing these loopholes will be critical to ensuring that the ban is meaningful.

The government is also expected to publish a timeline for phasing out captive lion breeding altogether, following the high-level panel’s recommendations. Such a process would involve complex negotiations with breeders, many of whom have invested heavily in their facilities, as well as the development of transition strategies for the thousands of lions currently in captivity. DM