The Wildlife and Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) advocates for a different approach to the proposed permanent containment of the Waterfall and Syferth baboon herds in the Khogelfontein Urban Wildlife Centre.
WAPFSA has sent a letter to the City of Cape Town, CapeNature, SANParks, and the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Group to present its constructive proposal for coexistence.
The organization asserts that the proposed alternative would allow the baboon herds to remain in their natural habitat instead of being permanently confined to the suggested wildlife center.
According to WAPFSA, the alternative plan is based on installing a specially designed and strategically located fence that would be resistant to baboons. Furthermore, the organization insists on the necessity of effective waste management, constant monitoring, and utilizing valuable local community knowledge about baboons.
WAPFSA emphasizes that these measures should become part of a strategy aimed at supporting the cohabitation of humans and wildlife.
This proposal is put forward against the backdrop of the organization's urgent call to relevant authorities to consider an option other than capturing the Waterfall and Syferth herds and placing them in permanent containment at Khogelfontein.
WAPFSA is a national network of 30 South African organizations established in 2017 to engage with the government on issues of conservation and protection of wildlife and their natural habitats. Members of this network work in areas such as animal welfare, nature conservation, environmental justice, law, management, climate justice, and public support.
The organization states that its positions are based on scientific research, constitutional and environmental legislation, ethical and humane methods of nature conservation, as well as a commitment to humane coexistence between humans and wildlife. Among the organizations belonging to WAPFSA is Rhinos in Africa.
WAPFSA's activity focuses on the question of whether measures such as fencing, waste management, monitoring, and community knowledge can offer a different way to regulate the relationship between humans and baboon herds. Currently, the organization is asking the City of Cape Town, CapeNature, SANParks, and the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Group to consider this proposal as discussions about the future of the Waterfall and Syferth herds continue. This dispute places wildlife management and coexistence at the center of the discussion, with WAPFSA advocating for an approach that, in their view, could prevent permanent confinement.