South Africa has published for public comment a new proposed management structure of the more than 300 estuaries along the country’s 3,200 kilometer coastline as the government moves to protect nursery areas for numerous estuarine fish species and other productive marine ecosystems.
The Department of Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries (DEFF), on 13 July, published a notice intending to shift the management of estuaries from under a protocol to an Integrated Coastal Management Act after a 2016 Supreme Court ruling found the current estuaries’ management structure inconsistent with South Africa’s Constitution.
The public has until 26 July to submit written comments to the Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries minister.
Currently, the management of the estuaries – which are estimated to contribute more than ZAR 4.2 billion (USD 250 million, EUR 220 million) annually to South Africa’s economy – has been assigned to municipalities under a protocol.
However, the South African Supreme Court, in a May 2016 ruling, said the management of the estuaries should be done “in terms of Integrated Control Management Act and not a protocol.”
Environment, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy said on 13 July she has drafted amendments to the National Estuarine Management Protocol to “address certain implementation issues and the impact of the Supreme Court of Appeal judgement in Abbott v Overstrand Municipality (99/2015) [2016] ZASCA 68, which found that the assignment of functions to municipalities in the existing Protocol presented Constitutional challenges as the assignment should have been done in terms of Integrated Coastal Management Act, and not the Protocol.”
The case involved David Abbott, who sued the Overstrand Municipality, DEFF, and the Klein River Estuary Forum for failing to protect his house from flooding by the Klein River.
However, the Supreme Court observed there “is no legislation (whether national or provincial) which has assigned to the municipality the power or the duty to manage the estuary and to take measures to protect riparian properties.”
Management of estuaries and protection of riparian properties has been assigned to the national and provincial governments according to the court ruling.
“Any powers which the municipality may wish to exercise with regard to the estuary have to be assigned to it by national or provincial legislation,” the court said.
Creecy said the draft amendment “sets the standards to ensure effective integrated management of the unique environmental, economic and social aspects of each estuary.”
The draft also “includes the co-operative management of these coastal zones through all spheres of government.”
South Africa has more than 160 estuarine fish species with 80 of them being utilized in commercial and recreational fisheries.
According to South Africa’s Marine Protected Areas, safeguarding the estuaries is important because “many species, including economically important and delicious species such as fish and prawns, depend on estuaries to complete their life cycles.”
There have been concerns the South African estuaries are under pressure from diverse activities including fishing, freshwater flow reduction, coastal maritime infrastructure development, pollution, and climate change.
Photo courtesy of Abraham Badenhorst/Shutterstock
