ISSUED
ON 06 NOVEMBER 2008 - South Africa today
(06 November) auctioned approximately 47
metric tons of stockpiled ivory. The sale,
approved by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES), took place in Pretoria.
12 Chinese and 22 Japanese
buyers bid for the South African stockpile.
The sale saw buyers bidding off brochures
depicting the 63 lots of ivory that the
stockpile had been divided into. Buyers
visited the stockpile in Kruger National
Park on Wednesday, 05 November during a
private viewing session.
During his opening statement
Dr David Mabunda, Chief Executive of South
African National Parks (SANParks), said:
"We fully appreciate and embrace our
responsibility to ensure that we stamp down
on poaching of any kind and so we intend
to use considerable amounts of the funds
we raise today towards increasing our anti-poaching
capacity"
The sale of the South
African stockpile fetched approximately
6, 7 million USD. The average price for
the 63 lots on auction was 142 USD per kilogram.
CITES Secretary General,
Willem W Wijnstekers attended the auction
as the CITES observer.
Wijnstekers said that
a total of 101 tons of ivory was auctioned
in the four countries and generated total
revenue of approximately 15 million USD.
For previous press releases access the links
below
http://www.environment.gov.za/HotIssues/2008/Ivorysale/ivory.html
http://www.sanparks.org <http://www.sanparks.org/>
wanda mkutshulwa (SANParks)
Roopa Singh (DEAT)
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AUTHORITIES JOIN FORCES
TO TACKLE ENVIRONMENTAL OFFENDERS
ISSUED ON 05 NOVEMBER
2008 - In order to curb the ongoing illegal
activities taking place at an animal fat
processing facility in Greylingstad, officials
from the Mpumalanga Department of Agriculture
and Land Administration (“MDALA”), the Gert
Sibande District Municipality, the South
African Police Service and the Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (“DEAT”)
have joined forces to deal with these environmental
offenders.
In addition to instituting
a criminal investigation, the Green Scorpions
issued a directive on 04 November 2008 requiring
Boiler and Energy Maintenance cc to shut
down all operations in Greylingstad until
they have obtained the necessary environmental
authorisations.
The directive comes
after several inspections undertaken since
April 2008, during which Environmental Management
Inspectors found the following:
• Operations had commenced
in the absence of any environmental authorisations;
• An unbearably offensive odour emanated
from the site;
• Closed trenches filled with animal waste
fat were present on the site; and
• Untreated animal waste fat dumped on the
ground in and around the plant.
In undertaking the activities
at the site, Boiler and Energy Maintenance
cc has contravened numerous pieces of environmental
legislation, including the Environment Conservation
Act, 1989; the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention
Act, 1965 (“APPA”); the National Environmental
Management Act, 1998 (“NEMA”) and the National
Environmental Management: Air Quality Act,
2004. This is in addition to contravening
the local town planning legislation.
A pre-directive was
issued to Boiler and Energy Maintenance
cc on 02 October 2008 requesting reasons
why a directive should not be issued. After
considering the response from the close
corporation, a decision was taken to issue
the directive and this was delivered to
the site yesterday. The directive instructed
the close corporation to:
• Cease with all operations
at the site in Greylingstad until it is
in possession of the required permits and
authorisations;
• Dispose the animal waste fat that is currently
dumped on the site to an appropriately authorised
site for proper treatment; and
• Provide this Department with safe disposal
certificates for the disposal of all animal
fat waste on site.
Boiler and Energy Maintenance
cc is required to comply with the instructions
in the directive once issued, although processes
are available in the legislation that would
allow them to appeal to the Minister. “Failure
to comply with the directive is a criminal
offence and inspectors will be closely monitoring
compliance with the instructions in the
directive, particularly the instruction
to cease with all operations at the site,”
said Deputy Director - General, Ms Joanne
Yawitch of Environmental Quality and Protection
at the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism.
To schedule media interviews contact Judith
van der Merwe
BLUE FLAG BEACHES ANNOUNCED
Immediate: 5 November
2008 - South Africa launched the eighth
season of Blue Flag today, Wednesday 5 November
2008 on Marine beach, San Lameer on the
south coast of Kwazulu-Natal. At the start
of the new season, South Africa has 35 beaches
participating in the programme. Of these
thirty-five, nineteen received official
Blue Flag accreditation for the next year.
Since the inception
of the Blue Flag programme in November 2001,
when the South African government (through
the Department of Environmental Affairs
& Tourism) and WESSA (the Wildlife &
Environment Society of South Africa) launched
the programme, Blue Flag South Africa has
grown significantly.
The success of the Blue
Flag programme in South Africa can be attributed
to the commitment of participating municipalities
to provide beach-goers and holiday-makers
with world class beaches offering safe,
clean and well-managed facilities. Research
has shown that the commitment of municipalities
to Blue Flag makes sound economic sense
with tourism. Research on Margate beach
for example, indicates that the value of
Blue Flag status at the beach could generate
income amounting to tens of millions of
rands per annum. Blue Flag, as an environmental
programme also brings significant benefits
in terms of improved environmental management
of our coastline.
South Africa was the
first country outside of Europe to implement
the Blue Flag programme and since 2001,
the programme has become a truly global
initiative with 38 countries participating
and a further seven countries undertaking
the feasibility stage.
The South African beaches
that have received Blue Flag accreditation
are:-
- Margate beach
- Ramsgate main beach
- Marina beach, Southbroom
- Hibberdene beach
- Kelly’s beach, Port Alfred
- Wells Estate, Port Elizabeth
- Humewood beach, Port Elizabeth
- King’s beach, Port Elizabeth
- Hobie beach, Port Elizabeth
- Dolphin beach, Jeffrey’s Bay
- Lappiesbaai beach, Stilbaai
- Grotto beach, Hermanus
- Hawston beach, near Hermanus
- Bikini beach, Gordon’s Bay
- Mnandi Beach, Strandfontein Cape Town
- Clifton 4th beach, Cape Town
- Camps Bay beach, Cape Town
- Muizenberg beach, Cape Town
- Strandfontein beach, Cape Town
These beaches have achieved
world-class standards during the past season
and have been adjudicated by both a South
African and an International Blue Flag Jury
to meet the standards of excellence Blue
Flag beaches must achieve.
A number of beaches
narrowly missed receiving Blue Flag accreditation
mostly as a result of the failure to meet
management issues required by the programme,
for example the sampling of water quality.
As Blue Flag beaches are monitored every
two weeks to ensure safe, healthy swimming
conditions, some municipalities encounter
problems with ensuring that regular sampling
is taken. All municipalities that missed
accreditation have decided to remain in
the programme for a further year of pilot
status, and in so doing, work towards achieving
full status accreditation for the next season.
These pilot beaches
are all committed to having full status
Blue Flag accreditation in time for the
2010 Soccer World Cup. The pilot Blue Flag
beaches for the 2008-9 season are:-
- MacDougall’s Bay, Port Nolloth (Richtersveld
Municipality)
- Yzerfontein Main beach (Yzerfontein Municipality)
- Fish Hoek (City of Cape Town)
- Big Bay beach, Bloubergstrand (City of
Cape Town)
- Kleinmond beach, near Hermanus (Overstrand
Municipality)
- Robberg 5, Plettenberg Bay (Bitou Municipality)
- Pollock beach, Port Elizabeth (Mandela
Metro)
- Boknes beach, Eastern Cape (Ndlambe Municipality)
- Cannon Rocks beach, Eastern Cape (Ndlambe
Municipality)
- Kariega Main beach, Eastern Cape (Ndlambe
Municipality)
- Gonubie beach, East London (Buffalo City
Municipality)
- Trafalgar beach (Hibiscus Coast Municipality)
- Umzumbe beach (Hibiscus Coast Municipality)
- St Michaels beach (Hibiscus Coast Municipality)
- Lucien beach, Margate (Hibiscus Coast)
- Alkantstrand, Richards Bay (Umhlatuze
Municipality)
An ongoing challenge
for many South African beaches will be the
need to manage the damages caused to infrastructure
and the coastline as a result of changing
climatic conditions. Over the past 18 months,
high seas with waves in some cases in excess
of 10m, have wreaked havoc on some Blue
Flag beaches. Notwithstanding these challenges,
participating municipalities have devoted
resources to the rehabilitation of these
beaches and the standards necessary to fly
the Blue Flag have been quickly re-established.
The Blue Flag programme
is implemented elsewhere in the world on
both beaches and marinas (or small craft
harbours). An exciting new development in
South Africa is the start of a Blue Flag
programme for marinas with interest being
shown by a number of marinas around the
coastline. This will introduce another dimension
to the growing Blue Flag programme in South
Africa.
Blue Flag South Africa,
is in the process of expanding the Blue
Flag programme into the SADC and Indian
Ocean region. It is envisaged to launch
Blue Flag on islands in the Indian Ocean
within the next year.
Blue Flag is an international
annual award given to beaches that meet
excellence in the areas of safety, amenities,
cleanliness, environmental information and
environmental management. The Blue Flag
programme is currently run in almost 40
countries globally and interest in the programme
continues to grow. There are now almost
3,500 Blue Flag beaches and marinas around
the world.
Enquiries: Carol Moses
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For immediate release
- RECREATIONAL ANGLERS AND MARINE SCIENTISTS
COOPERATE IN RESEARCH EFFORT ON SMOOTHHOUND
SHARKS
6 November 2008 - The
Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism ‘s marine and coastal management
branch and the West Coast Shore Angling
Association are cooperating in a joint venture
on Saturday 8 November 2008 to try to tag
as many smoothhound sharks as possible as
part of research into the population of
smooth hound sharks in the Langebaan Lagoon
system.
The joint venture which
is dubbed the Langebaan Lagoon Smoothound
Shark Derby 2008 is a tag and release tournament
aimed at promoting collaborative opportunities
between marine scientists and fishers to
strengthen the sustainable management of
marine resources. It will further assist
with the existing research on the smoothhound
shark population in Langebaan Lagoon.
Recent studies have
shown that the main angling target species
smoothhound shark, white stumpnose and elf
are resident in the lagoon. The tag and
recapture experiment will help to identify
the stock size of the population of these
species within the Langebaan –Saldanha bay
area and the results will inform the sustainable
management of these species.
Smoothhound sharks (Mustelus
mustelus) are commonly caught off Southern
African waters by commercial trawlers, long-lining
operations, line-fishing boats, shore based
recreational fishermen. Smoothhound sharks
are one of the most frequently caught species.
They are abundant in bays with soft substrate
such as Langebaan Lagoon, where they feed
on benthic invertebrates.
Sharks are slow growing
animals, mature late and produce small numbers
of offspring. These life-history traits
make them extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation.
The tournament will
be also be used to introduce the Green Marine
Angling program, an initiative of the South
African Shark Conservancy (SASC), in collaboration
with the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism . This program is geared towards
responsible angling where a code of handling
is introduced to minimize the effects of
poor handling practices when releasing fish.
This tournament does
not only represent an exciting angling experience
but also an opportunity a member of the
South African Shore Angling Association,for
anglers to actively participate in research
on a locally important species aimed to
assure the sustainable management of the
smoothhound shark, based on sound scientific
knowledge.
Only anglers who are
registered members of the South African
Shore Angling Association (SASAA) will be
accepted to fish in this tournament. A maximum
of 100 anglers will be allowed to participate.
The West Coast Shore Angling Association
is a member of the SAAA.
The Derby is taking place from 5:00 when
registration starts at the Langebaan Yacht
Club. Angling will be from 06:00 until 13:00.
Marine scientists from the department will
participate and provide assistance with
the tagging.
Carol Moses
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MINISTER CONFIDENT ABOUT
2010 ACCOMMODATION REQUIREMENTS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2008 - MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE OFFICE OF MARTHINUS VAN SCHALKWYK,
MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM
- Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism, said today he would
facilitate talks between South African Tourism
(SAT) and Match, the Fifa-appointed booking
agency for 2010, in order to resolve issues
relating to the uptake of accommodation
by Match for the tournament.
Van Schalkwyk said he
wanted to reiterate that South Africa has
100 000 graded rooms available on its database
for 2010, which is more than enough to fulfil
the Match-requirement of 55 000 graded rooms.
“Our tourism industry is ready for 2010
and all role-players are committed to ensuring
that visitors enjoy an unrivalled experience
in South Africa,” Van Schalkwyk said.
Match was appointed
by Fifa to arrange ticketing, transport
and accommodation for the 2010 World Cup.
Mr Moeketsi Mosola,
the CEO of SAT, said yesterday at the 7th
Annual Tourism Conference there had been
numerous complaints from the hospitality
industry about Match placing pressure on
the industry to commit rooms under unfavourable
conditions.
“I understand that all
parties involved have strong feelings about
the matter. I believe we all have a responsibility
to make sure South Africa’s hosting of 2010
is a success,” the Minister said.
Van Schalkwyk said he
had telephonic discussions about the issue
with all the parties on Tuesday morning.
“As soon as all role-players are available,
I will convene a meeting to clear the air.
I am confident that with good communication
between the parties we will be able to resolve
the matter,” the Minister said.
Enquiries: Ronel Bester
