What if we had a programme where humans granted baboons a safe, natural and sacred habitat where these primates could candidly forage, free from human aggression? What if there were corridors allowing them to move safely, explore and live as they are meant to? Imagine these spaces protected from serial arsonists, poachers, illegal hunters, their harmful tools and the negligence of law enforcement that allows it all. What if these were the mountains adjoining Table Mountain National Park, cascading into pristine coastal areas and leading directly to natural beaches and rocky shores teeming with the molluscs baboons love to forage on? And what if the humans who chose to live nearby simply respected local bylaws, refrained from polluting these areas, and took responsibility for their waste?
This has already been accomplished. The Rooi-Els community in the Overstrand, along with other successful locally driven initiatives, primarily in the Overstrand, has shown the way. Rooi-Els developed a clear roadmap: don’t feed baboons, manage waste responsibly, protect the baboons, educate the public, foster respect, and appreciate. As a result, baboons and humans coexisted harmoniously, with both enjoying a better quality of life.
Other communities launched similar local projects with promising and valid outcomes. These important efforts are irrationally undermined by formal management, when it intervenes with paintball tactics, disrupting the baboons’ behaviour, fuelling violence and dividing the community as a result.
At least two community-driven projects are currently under way on the Cape Peninsula, one of which is in Simon’s Town. The Civil Coexistence Baboon Monitoring Project is a holistic initiative that engages residents in shared responsibilities to protect the environment. For more than a year, community-funded monitors have steadily worked to support the Simonsberg troop, facilitating a safe reconnection with their natural habitat. This encompasses both mountainous and coastal areas and the short corridors that minimise exposure to human waste and other dangers. The project has implemented a waste recycling initiative and has closely monitored the baboons’ behaviour and the progress of this healthy, peaceful and thriving troop.
It integrates multiple aspects, including indigenous and customary knowledge, with nature as a stakeholder, ethics, social justice and intuitive interspecies communication. Importantly, it implements a caring approach to conservation that emphasises respect, reciprocity and the common good, therefore aligning with the philosophy of Ubuntu.
Interestingly, the White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity, published in June 2023, underscores the responsibility of humans to “adopt and integrate conservation approaches that align with the principles of Ubuntu”. This entails recognising the importance of interdependent and respectful relationships among humans, as well as with natural and spiritual elements. Objective 2 of the document also emphasises “dignity, compassion and social cooperation” and affirms the intrinsic value of animals. Additionally, this comprehensive framework, which took the government four years to develop and should inform all national policies and legislation, highlights a “duty of care” in management practices aimed at “avoiding, minimising or remedying adverse impacts on biodiversity” while “considering the interests of the animal” and its “well-being”.
Rather than conforming with national legislation and policy, why does the same outdated baboon management framework persist, despite ongoing controversies and with no evident efforts to adapt to recent legal requirements?
Read more: A fence too far — the unintended consequences of current Cape Peninsula baboon management
Notably, the amendments to the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004 (NEM:BA), which came into effect in June 2023 alongside the White Paper, define animal well-being as a key objective of the Act. According to Section 2 of NEM:BA, animal well-being is defined as “the ability to cope with the environment and a state that supports the animal’s physical, physiological and mental health, and overall quality of life”. This objective must now be thoroughly considered and integrated into all management and conservation procedures. Consequently, outdated plans, guidelines and tools that neglect this priority, focusing solely on human needs, imposed boundaries and violent deterrents, are no longer acceptable under the Act. Paintballing baboons and killing healthy alpha males are methods of the past. A deeper analysis of contexts and species-specific needs, along with meaningful, integrative and compassionate solutions to achieve well-being, is now legally mandated. Where are these advancements?
In addition, the current approach to baboon management and public engagement lacks basic democratic principles. We have seen engagements often resorting to manipulating dissenting parties and their input. For instance, this year, when community “workshops” were organised in the Peninsula, predetermined speakers dominated 90% of the time, aiming to convey a specific pre-established message to the audience, with only brief, controlled opportunities for questions. These lectures included presentations aimed at convincing sceptical residents that a massive fence across a pristine habitat is what you need. This was repeated over and over, even if there is, to date, no environmental impact assessment justifying such a structure.
A foraging young female from the Simonsberg troop, known as Kabili. (Photo: Green Group)
The peninsula has even used a mediator. The prerogative for mediation, though, is having an impartial outsider, tasked to objectively analyse conflicting key issues and find the parties’ common ground. Curiously, the mediator, in this case, was not an impartial outsider but a resident with a clear stance on the issue, to the point of personally engaging with the media and sharing his personal views on TV segments.
Despite authorities acknowledging the need for a holistic approach that engages communities and solves human-caused problems, this outdated framework continues to operate under a few rigid parameters: a predetermined, single-sourced and narrow agenda, manipulation of public opinion, selected exclusion, and even intimidation and victimisation of dissenting affected parties.
More concerningly, locally driven projects are ignored and dismissed. In October 2024, the City of Cape Town issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for service, but at the meeting to present such a request only a few selected were invited. Instead, government bodies, including municipalities, are obligated to tender and formally invite service proposals through a process that is fair, transparent and in line with the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act No 5 of 2000, among other regulations. This requires proper advertising and reasonable timeframes to ensure an equitable process. While the government can bypass the tender process in certain extreme circumstances, the motivation, in this case, seems unclear.
Read more: SPCA seeks Kommetjie resident who pepper-sprayed baboon amid rising tensions
It has been 18 months since the City announced the end of the agreement with its service provider, yet the process has been prolonged and is now being treated as an emergency. This raises questions about the reasons for the delay and whether it may limit opportunities for other organisations and communities. Additionally, the credibility of the process may be undermined by potential transparency and fairness flaws.
Given these concerns, the “transitioning period” promoted by the City should focus on shifting from outdated practices to modern and legally compliant approaches. These should prioritise democratic, community-driven and locally led initiatives. SANParks, the City and CapeNature could fulfil their responsibilities to protect the environment, enforce bylaws and support holistic conservation efforts that prioritise animal well-being, and reciprocity, in line with Ubuntu. Local organisations could lead NEM:BA-compliant projects, ensuring community-centric and compassionate solutions. This shift would hopefully pave the way for a more equitable, effective and sustainable management framework, benefiting both communities and wildlife. DM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REeWvTRUpMk