29 JUNE 2007 - The Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT)
will be hosting a national stakeholder roundtable
from 3-4 July 2007 in Port Alfred, Eastern
Cape to discuss a revised draft marine aquaculture
policy before gazetting it. The roundtable
follows the publishing of the second draft
of a marine aquaculture policy for a further
30-day public comment period from today,
Friday 29 June 2007 to Tuesday 31 July 2007.
The purpose of the national roundtable
is to provide an opportunity for further
engagement between the Department and stakeholders
towards the finalisation of the marine aquaculture
policy. Following the publishing of the
first draft for public comment in September
2006, stakeholder inputs led to the revision
of the policy. International experience
and review of aquaculture policies of six
(6) countries which are Australia, Chile,
China, Ireland, Norway and Vietnam will
further the revised draft. A discussion
paper based on the review and analysis of
these countries’ policies will form the
basis for deliberations at the roundtable.
The roundtable will also provide an opportunity
for the Department to initiate discussions
on strategies that will form the basis of
the Marine Aquaculture Policy Implementation
Plan to be drafted and finalised once the
policy is approved and will further afford
an opportunity for networking and will help
to improve the co-operative governance and
relations between various stakeholders in
this sector.
The stakeholders participating at the roundtable
will include legislators (members of parliament),
government departments (all spheres), the
aquaculture and fishing industry, fishing
communities, labour representantives, NGOs,
research, and academic institutions.
Topics to be covered include an aquaculture
international case studies of 6 countries,
community, industry, labour and economic
perspectives, research and technological
needs, environmental protection, training
and skills development, funding for small
medium, and micro enterprises and fish health
issues.
Comments on the 2nd draft policy must reach
the department on or before 31 July 2007
and can be sent to the following address:
The draft policy is available from our
website www.deat.gov.za or www.mcm-deat.gov.za.
For further information contact Mava Scott
on or Carol Moses
Issued by the Department of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism
+ More
STATEMENT BY THE OFFICE OF MARTHINUS VAN
SCHALKWYK, MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS
AND TOURISM, THURSDAY 28 JUNE 2007
SOUTH AFRICA GETS 8TH WORLD HERITAGE SITE
“I am proud to announce that yesterday,
at the 31st session of the World Heritage
Committee that is being held in Christchurch,
New Zealand, the Richtersveld Cultural and
Botanical Landscape was inscribed on the
UNESCO World Heritage List as the eighth
South African World Heritage Site. This
site joins the Isimangaliso Wetlands Park
(Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park), uKhahlamba-Drakensberg
Park, Robben Island, Cape Floral Region
Protected Areas, Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape,
Vredefort Dome and the Fossil Hominid-bearing
Sites of South Africa (i.e., Cradle of Humankind,
Makapan Valley and Taung Skull Fossil Sites)
as places of outstanding universal value,
the Minister said”
In support of this achievement, the Minister
will proclaim the Richtersveld Cultural
and Botanical Landscape as a World Heritage
Site in terms of a provision of the World
Heritage Convention Act (Act No. 49 of 1999).
The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical
Landscape covers an area of 160,000 hectares
of dramatic mountainous desert in the north-west
part of South Africa. Communally owned and
managed harsh, dry landscape, with extremes
of temperature, affords a semi-nomadic pastoral
livelihood for the Nama people, reflecting
seasonal patterns that may have persisted
for as much as two millennia in Southern
Africa. It is the only area where the Nama
still construct portable rush-covered, domed
houses, |haru oms.
Thus, when listing the Richtersveld Cultural
and Botanical Landscape as a World Heritage
Site, the World Heritage Committee had this
to say about the area: “The extensive communal
grazed lands are a testimony to land management
processes which have ensured the protection
of the succulent Karoo vegetation and thus
demonstrates a harmonious interaction between
people and nature. Furthermore, the seasonal
migrations of graziers between stockposts
with traditional demountable mat-roofed
houses, |haru oms, reflect a practice that
was once much more widespread over Southern
Africa, and which has persisted for at least
two millennia; the Nama are now its last
practitioners.”
The Nama people are descendants of the
Khoi-Khoi people who once occupied lands
across southern Namibia and most of the
present-day Western and Northern Cape Provinces
of South Africa. Over a century or more,
those in the south were pushed north by
the spread of farms north from the Cape.
Today, the Nama live in three small villages,
established as mission settlements, outside
the proclaimed area: Kuboes to the north,
Lekkersing to the south-west and Eksteenfontein
to the south.
The proclaimed Richtersveld Cultural and
Botanical Landscape is ‘buffered’ by the
following protected areas: the Richtersveld
National Park to the north, Nababiep Provincial
Nature Reserve to the east, and designated
communal grazing areas to the south and
west owned by the Sida !hub Community Property
Association: Richtersveld ‘Coloured’ Reserve,
Korridor 21 consisting of the former farm
units and Korridor Wes 2 consisting of nine
former farm units.
The Richtersveld is an area that was a
few years ago returned to the ownership
of the people under the national programme
of land restitution. One of its unique features,
both in South African and international
terms is that a community has not only chosen
to dedicate such a vast area of land to
conservation, but it is a World Heritage
Site that is managed and run by a community
that until a few years ago had little to
call its own. It is remarkable that within
a few short years this community has not
only aspired to management of its cultural
and environmental assets to the highest
international standards, but that it has
through acquiring World Heritage status
succeeded in achieving the highest level
of recognition for this. It is testimony
to the success of the land restitution programme.
It is hoped that other communities will
emulate what is a truly South African success
story.
INQUIRIES: MAVA SCOTT / RIAAN AUCAMP
