Background

Image: Lula in Africa

Our relationship with the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA)

SATSA is a non-profit, member-driven association representing the Southern Africa region’s tourism in-bound private sector. It has over 1000 members across the spectrum of in-bound travel and hospitality services.

WildChoices is an independent and private initiative and has no affiliation with SATSA.

The SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines and Decision Tool

At SATSA’s annual conference in August 2017, members raised concerns about:

  • the proliferation of captive wildlife attractions and activities in South Africa, and
  • the negative impact that unethical facilities might have on tourism and brand South Africa.

In 2018 SATSA established a Board Committee on Animal Interactions and commissioned BDO South Africa, an independent consulting firm, to:

  1. Define the types of entities that fall within the ambit of captive wildlife interactions including standardising definitions and terminology.
  2. Develop an ethical framework to evaluate operations that involve captive wildlife interactions to underpin the debate and establish the principles upon which the ethicalness of animal interaction operations may objectively be evaluated.
  3. Develop a set of guidelines for the self-regulation of captive wildlife tourism experiences.

As members of the SATSA Board Committee, Brett and Gavin were instrumental in the development of the industry standards that followed, and in 2019 SATSA adopted and published the SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines and Decision. This was followed by an Animal Interactions Charter which attracted 83 signatories from the tourism industry. In 2021 SATSA updated their MOI making adherence to the Guidelines a requirement for membership. At the SATSA AGM 2022 they reiterated details of the membership requirement and Charter.

The Elephant In The Room

Since the publication of the SATSA Captive Wildlife Attractions & Activities Guidelines and Decision Tool in November 2019, we have witnessed only limited progress in improving the captive wildlife tourism industry and South Africa’s reputation as an ethical captive wildlife tourism destination.

A Sisyphean Cycle

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to roll a boulder up a steep hill in the underworld for eternity: Every time he reaches the top, the boulder rolls back down to the bottom, forcing him to start the cycle all over again.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

As an industry we have a choice: we can either passively stand by and watch the boulder roll back down the hill, or we can choose to actively support better choices.

At WildChoices we remain fully committed to advancing this conversation and working closely with like-minded individuals to bring about positive change. Our work includes:

  • Encouraging public support of captive wildlife tourism facilities that adhere to industry standards of ethics and good practices.
  • Encouraging tour operators to make responsible choices.
  • Holding membership organisations accountable to their own stated policies, and to their ability to influence positive change.
  • Advancing the 2019 line in the sand towards strengthening industry standards.
  • Encouraging and working closely with captive wildlife tourism facilities to improve their practices.