New draft guidelines promise a more orderly and humane response to animals that damage livestock and crops. But they have been stripped of legal force, ignore animal well-being and are far more reactive than preventive.

The Draft Guidelines for the Management of Damage-Causing Animals, published for public comment on 2 July, cover how wild animals may be trapped, poisoned, pursued with dogs, relocated or killed when they threaten livestock, crops, property or people. Submissions close on 2 August.

They've been presented as an interim measure. The difficulty, says wildlife legislation expert Professor Rob Slotow, is that the government has not explained what they're interim to.

They also revive a policy process that's been stalled for years. Draft national norms and standards were published in 2010 and again in 2016, but never finalised. The new document largely retains that earlier structure while changing its legal label from norms and standards to guidelines.

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For Slotow, that is the central problem: "A minimum standard is a standard," he said. "The document is written as minimum standard guidelines. So it doesn't make sense."

Norms and standards made under the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (Nemba) create clear national requirements which are enforceable. Guidelines cannot be and are not enforceable. They may influence permit officials and can become enforceable if written into permit conditions, but they don't automatically bind authorities or permit holders.

That leaves room for markedly different...