I am very pleased to attend the 57th Annual General Meeting of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research. Your activities combine all my interests: finance, education and conservation!
Someone once said that “telling a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar.” To translate that in marine terms, “telling a child (or an adult) to pick up a piece of plastic on the beach is as valuable to the human nation as it is to the ocean.” To me this is the essence of the invaluable work that South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR) has been doing for 59 years: connecting our actions today with the consequences for ourselves tomorrow.
We have made global decisions for centuries ignoring the rules that govern biodiversity and ecosystems. Oblivious of nature’s free services to humankind: food, freshwater, timber, protection from natural hazards, erosion, pharmaceutical ingredients and recreation.
We have been paying dearly for our short sightedness. Approximately 60 percent of the earth’s recognised ecosystem services have been degraded in the last 50 years. We have lost over 50 percent of our wetlands since 1900; the global forest area has shrunk by 40 percent over the last 300 years; and the estimated rate of species extinction is thought to be up to 1 000 times more rapid than the natural extinction rate. Annual economic losses due to deforestation and land degradation alone were estimated at US$2 to US$4.5 trillion, the equivalent of between 3.3 percent and 7.5 percent of global GDP in 2008.
It makes infinite sense to attach the real value provided by these free services from nature. If we were to replace them by human-made structures, what would the monetary value be? As a keen diver I am very familiar with the rich biodiversity of the East-Coast’s sub-tropical reefs that are located primarily in KwaZulu-Natal. Besides the economic benefits to local communities from tourism, coral reefs also provide food and medicine and protect our shores from the impact of waves and from storms. I cannot even begin to imagine how much it would cost us to replace and repair public assets, such as roads, rivers and water storages, should the coral reef die as a result of pollution. Then there would also be the loss of income in fishing, tourism and bio-active natural products!
Some services are irreplaceable as our SAAMBR experts can testify. Can we replace the filtering systems that our lost wetlands offered? What would the cost be? I have been told that some estimates place the value of environmental goods and services from our KwaZulu-Natal coast at R67 billion annually.
Some positive changes in the South African political context has resulted in the inclusion of environmental rights in the South African Constitution, the development of a plethora of new environmental management policies committed to sustainable development, and a marked increase in donor funding for environmental management. We have moved from traditional conservation to people-centred sustainability management. It can never be people or nature. Only when people and nature can be sustained, will we have sustainable development and growth.
Ensuring environmental sustainability – Millennium Development Goal 7 – underpins the achievement of the majority of the other seven goals. If the environment is not preserved there will be no sustainable development and poverty alleviation.
Current indications suggest that the timetable for implementing the indicators of MDG 7 will not all be met in South Africa. Protecting our terrestrial and marine areas is a critical conservation and economic concern. While the proportion of total area protected has increased from 4.91 percent to 6.22 percent, there is cause for concern about the overexploitation of fish stocks. An agreement made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 included undertakings of restoring the world’s depleted fisheries by 2015 and implementing an ecosystem approach in management.
Research and monitoring is key to environmental sustainability and according to the 2010 MDG Country Report more funding and targeted technical support must be made available to implement multilateral environmental agreements and conventions.
We are fortunate to have such a dedicated marine research facility, like the Oceanographic Research Institute based in our province. It has place KwaZulu-Natal at the forefront of many coastal and marine issues and solutions over the years, ranging from shad and linefish protection to decision-support in the case of beach vehicles. Without scientifically supported research government cannot take wise decisions about sustainable coastal development, marine related recreation and tourism and resource use.
This informative scientifically-based approach marvellously displayed at interesting nooks and crannies and in interactive activities must have provided great pleasure to the more than 700 000 foreign and domestic tourists who visited uShaka Sea World in the 2009/10 financial year.
We are also impressed with the Institute’s training role in marine science for post-graduate students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As Madiba has said, “Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world.”
The more than 95 000 schools learners who visited Sea World in the year under review will certainly be more informed. And the learners and educators who attended the uShaka Sea World courses and NPC sponsored outreach workshops even more so. When a child tells you not to order kingklip at a restaurant because it is not on SASSI’s “green list” there is hope for our planet!
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Treasury
