Internal audit and wildlife ranching: friend or foe?
Creators: name: Reilly, Yvonne
name: Van Hoven, Wouter
name: International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, Producer
Publisher: name: Mountain Scholar
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Wildlife management -- Congresses
subject: Range management -- Congresses

description: Moderator: Wouter van Hoven.
description: Presented at the 8th international congress for wildlife and livelihoods on private and communal lands: livestock, tourism, and spirit, that was held on September 7-12, 2014 in Estes Park, Colorado.
description: South Africa is unique in world terms having spawned a significant wildlife industry. This industry encompasses some 17% of the land surface area in which private and corporate landowners extensively ranch between 16 and 20 million indigenous animals, mostly ungulates. The economic value of the industry annually exceeds 1 billion USD. The enormous amount of time, money and other resources that are invested in the wildlife ranching industry of South Africa presents serious challenges for the future; if this industry wants to ensure that its current status quo remains intact. This sector fulfills a pivotal role in the economy of S.A and therefore to ensure that this role is maintained in the future, the assistance of internal auditing is crucial. This discipline developed by addressing all the needs of different stakeholders. The internal audit is defined as: An independent objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an entities operation. It assists an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness at risk management, control and governance processes (IIA2009). This paper examines the wider management issues of wildlife ranching by reviewing whether all the stated objectives are achieved effectively, efficiently and economically. The three spheres that form the extent of internal audit, that of risk management, control and governance are applied on different wildlife ranching issues. Examples of corporate governance perspective where a balance must be created between performance and conformance to achieve objectives, are applied on issues such as ethics of lion hunting, ivory trading and trophy hunting control. Risk management techniques are explored by applying various techniques on important wildlife ranching issues e.g. monitoring of wildlife. This paper further aims to ensure that wildlife ranching will in future rely on internal audits to make recommendations. It will assist them to achieve their objectives more efficiently, effectively and economically, as well as adding value in a consulting perspective as and if needed. Integrity, openness/transparency and accountability must prevail intact in the wildlife ranching industry if this industry wants to persist and grow, particularly in the light of future community potential stakeholder status and official interest in the governance within the industry. Internal audits can thus drive sustainability and add to the success of this, an important industry in a green economy worldwide, in particular the region and South Africa.