Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 4 April 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# The ministerial task team on voluntary exit options and pathways from the captive lion industry, says industry associations have long called for better enforcement. South Africa has the largest number of captive lions in the world with about seven-thousand-800 in 348 breeding facilities. The task team’s Kam Chetty says captive lion breeders will be offered incentives to exit the industry:

# South Africa has plenty of environmental laws but none that specifically oblige government officials to consider the risks and impacts of climate change when they approve new developments. This is according to research by the University of Witwatersrand’s environmental law experts Clive Vinti and Melanie Jean Murcott. The experts say the main gap is that no law specifically obliges companies establishing mines or building new developments like power stations to do a climate change assessment before they start construction.

# And finally: Rescue efforts are continuing after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Taiwan’s east coast yesterday, leaving at least nine people dead and more than a thousand injured. Rescuers are trying to reach 77 people trapped in tunnels. Over 100 buildings were damaged in the quake, which also caused landslides and 50 aftershocks. This is Taiwan’s strongest earthquake since 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake killed two-thousand-400 people.

Stay tuned for more news………….