Restrictions on international trade have been lifted from South Africa’s endemic bontebok, a once-imperilled antelope that has rebounded from the brink of extinction. The decision to delete the species from Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) was adopted by consensus at last week’sCoP20 meetingin Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where more than 150 Parties had gathered. The bontebok has recovered from just 17 surviving animals in the 1930s to between 9 800 and 11 000 today, South Africa argued, submitting thesuccessful proposal.
Yet fewer than 2 500 live within the species’ natural range in the Western Cape, where habitat loss, fragmentation and shrinking renosterveld and fynbos landscapes continue to restrict growth. More than 70% now occur outside this range, mainly on private land in the Eastern Cape, Free State and Northern Cape. These populations make a meaningful contribution to the subspecies’ conservation, the proposal said.
International trade has been both low-risk and tightly regulated, it noted. Between 2010 and 2023, international clients hunted about 1 994 bontebok, while Cites records show that roughly 2 090 trophies and 35 live animals were exported during that period, with no evidence of illegal trade. Bontebok auction priceshave plummeted from about $5 000 in 2017 to roughly $300 today.
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Higher prices, it said, will encourage more landowners to keep bontebok, expand available habitat, and strengthen the species’ conservation status. “Deletion from the Appendices will incentivise more private landowners to conserve bontebok,” the proposal stated, stressing that competing land uses, especially agriculture and urban expansion, are eroding habitat within the natural range. While the Western Cape population remains small, the government maintains that over-regulation itself is hampering further recovery, particularly if conservation assessments discount the 7 200 to 8 500 animals now thriving on private land outside the natural range. The proposal outlined how key management measures are already in place, including translocations and genetic monitoring.
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