SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News ... s-20200507


Advisory panel on the cards to help environment department get international funds
2020-05-07 21:24
Jan Gerber


Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy will appoint an advisory panel to look into what international resources for the environmental sector South Africa can get in the face of the financial pressure brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Creecy told the Portfolio Committee on Environment, Forestry and Fisheries about her plan on Thursday afternoon.

"The financial sector is going to face a lot of financial pressure going forward," she said.

Like several other departments, the budget and annual performance plan (APP) of her department have been tabled with Parliament before the pandemic reached South African shores.

Creecy said she was not yet in a position to put a revised budget or APP before the committee. The budget will be adjusted by National Treasury.

South African National Parks (SANParks) chief executive Fundisile Mketeni presented its APP to the committee.

He said SANParks had ambitious targets for tourism, its main source of revenue, which would now need a relook due to lockdown and restricted movement.

Mketeni added at the moment, it did not have an alternative source of income, saying it would do lots of promotions once tourism opened again.

SANParks' board chairperson, Joanne Yawitch, said at the moment it was not planning any jobs cuts because it wanted clarity from Treasury about "what is and isn't possible".

Several of its activities are taking place under the Level 4 lockdown, including wildlife management and veterinary services, anti-poaching and law enforcement as well as conservation work.


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Re: SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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They can recover stolen monies too! ..0..


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Re: SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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What an impudence! :O^

After having allowed years of state capture now they have the courage to ask to be funded by the honest Governments using the Covid-19 as an excuse 0*\


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SANParks have a gigantic investment reserve. They must suck it up like everybody else. :evil:


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The Devastating Effects of COVID-19 on Wildlife Conservation


The Devastating Effects of COVID-19 on Wildlife Conservation

The question is, how do we salvage the threat to our biodiversity?

May 18, 2020 | By Dr Duncan MacFadyen, Head of Research and Conservation at Oppenheimer Generations

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In Africa, the wildlife conservation industry has dealt with many a challenge, from political, economic, social, impacts of urbanization and even disease outbreaks. However, most of these challenges, have been contained to parts of the continent. Whereas with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we have experienced unprecedented challenges the world over… writes Dr Duncan MacFadyen, Head of Research and Conservation at Oppenheimer Generations

The global pandemic has wreaked havoc to our very existence as a species and has demanded a change in the way we function in the economy and our daily survival. The world is a different place to what it was just a few months ago, and the veil of not knowing torments our society.

…ALTERNATIVES NEED TO BE DEVELOPED TO ENSURE THE MANY ENDANGERED SPECIES… DO NOT BECOME EXTINCT DURING THIS GLOBAL PANDEMIC

Regarding wildlife conservation, we have experienced revenue streams and resources, worth years of ongoing research, development and contribution, dry up in a matter of weeks. The very existence of some of our most prominent conservation agencies and protected areas are at risk of closing their doors, and with them, our ability to protect the myriad of species, as well as the areas they inhabit. How do we protect conservation and wildlife resources when we battle to protect our own existence?

Like all the other industries, we are compelled to explore alternative options as we fight for not only the survival of our industry, but also the work ploughed into preserving our wildlife and ecosystems whilst sustaining efforts for our communities. Innovative and unique alternatives need to be developed to ensure the many endangered species, which we have fought so hard to conserve, do not become extinct during this global pandemic. Those species reliant on human conservation efforts and upkeep of their habitat are at greatest risk. Projects funded to remove alien vegetation, one of the major causes of biodiversity loss, as well as water purification plants, are expected to be impacted, further compromising the health of our environment.

The wildlife economy plays a primary economic role to rural communities

According to an article published in the United Development Programme, the travel and tourism sector accounted for 10.3 percent of global GDP and created one in four new jobs in 2019. Wildlife tourism supported 21.8 million jobs across the world, or 6.8 percent of total travel and tourism jobs. In Africa, where wildlife tourism is a drawcard to the sector, the percentage was much higher, at 36.3 percent. The wildlife economy is therefore key not only to the conservation of wildlife and their habitats but the very existence of many of the people living in the vast communities adjacent to conservation areas.

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“As a result of job losses, no income and threatened livelihoods, there has been a further increase in poaching and exploitation of the environment…”

Many of the people employed in this sector live in rural areas where they only have the wildlife economy to depend on for their livelihood. The shutting down of borders, grounding of flights and restriction on movement has left the tourism sector hard hit and people without incomes. Many National Parks in Africa, as well as the many private reserves have closed their doors to both local and international tourists. Without the funding received from guests, the operations of these properties are seriously compromised.

NO “LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL” AT THIS STAGE

The fear is that there does not appear to be a “light at the end of the tunnel” at this stage. The restrictions on travel, especially across provincial borders and internationally, may continue for months, and even when the restrictions are ultimately lifted, the tourism sector will need to deal with the impacts of perceptions while it endeavours to once again entice the return of visitors to the country.

The tourism industry battled in South Africa due to Ebola breaking out in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 2014–2016 epidemic, thus the will to resume traveling may further be compromised due to travellers fearing leaving the safety of their homes. This all has unimaginable impacts on conservation of these wild areas. Important conservation meetings and conferences tackling the usual threats to conservation are also either being postponed or cancelled, which in turn has an indirect impact on how we manage our wildlife.

Since lockdown, there has been a decrease in financial and surveillance resources

Most of the funding in the conservation industry comes from the tourism sector. With the global lockdown halting most tourism sector activities, there simply is no cashflow from incoming tourists. The tourism industry, for lack of a better word, is dead. Even donor funding has slowed as businesses and individuals reassess their own cashflow and attempt to support their staff in an environment where funding is not coming in. This leaves many protected areas without an operational budget for anti-poaching surveillance and other activities.

THE TOURISM INDUSTRY, FOR LACK OF A BETTER WORD, IS DEAD.

This surveillance extends to communities living close to wildlife by keeping animals from raiding crops, attacking domestic stock, even killing people. It is expected that there will be an increase in human-wildlife conflict as reserve staff are unable to attend to problem animals.

Increases in poaching

As a result of job losses, no income and threatened livelihoods, there has been a further increase in poaching and exploitation of the environment. Communities are struggling to survive under lockdown and have resorted to living off the land. This is expected to get worse as our economic environment declines.

As the government and private landowners are further stressed by the pandemic, their willingness and ability to fund anti-poaching units, reserve management and conservation offices will be reduced considerably. This, coupled with the fact that communities are under stress financially, paints a grim picture for poaching, as they inevitably turn to subsistence poaching, in order to maintain livelihoods in often rural areas.

Poaching for the pot is bad enough for wildlife, however the real risk is felt when poaching for greed through sophisticated and specialized syndicates take the opportunity to poach.

THERE ARE RUMOURS THAT THE PRICE ON RHINO HORNS HAS DROPPED A LOT. IT IS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.

To quote LW van der Merwe, security manager at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, “My current thoughts are that the poachers are extremely busy. They are recruiting now. The lockdown and ‘lay off’ of staff have created the ‘perfect world’ for the poachers to build new networks of informants, and this is unpreventable. My predictions are that we will experience the ‘perfect storm’ once they find a way around the restrictions. There are rumours that the price on Rhino horns has dropped a lot. It is a double-edged sword. The poachers will need to kill more animals to be able to pay their debt or get money to put bread on their tables.”

Unfortunately, the reserves are sitting with their hands tied behind their backs, and this wasted time is not set to good effect. Security operations are focussing on “essential training for essential services”. It’s important for anti-poaching operations to gain a better understanding of the modus operandi of poaching syndicates during the pandemic.

These incidents do not only threaten wildlife, fauna and flora but the very efforts of conservation research, policies, regulation as well as determination to maintain and increase biodiversity.

It further raises alarms for potential future outbreaks as seen in the case of COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which were the result of animal to human pathogen infection. An increase in unregulated or illegal trade may result in a different pandemic altogether.

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Pangolin poaching for their scales has far surpassed that of rhino horn, and photos of bags and bags of scales from hundreds of dead pangolins are a regular event. There is however hope that pressure will be placed on informal markets to cease the sale of animals which could transmit animal to human viruses.

It is widely recognised that Covid-19 comes from fruit bats, and that the consumption of a secondary host, possibly a pangolin could have transmitted the virus to humans. An important environmental impact is therefore public perception of new infectious diseases. It is thought that 75% of all new infectious diseases come from consuming animals.

IT IS THOUGHT THAT 75% OF ALL NEW INFECTIOUS DISEASES COME FROM CONSUMING ANIMALS.

Less air pollution

Of course, the coronavirus pandemic is an even greater threat to livelihoods than climate change but in this regard, there has been a positive upside. There has been a dramatic reduction of air pollution as industrial activity has been reduced, flights were grounded, and fewer vehicles were on the roads, revealing rare and beautiful images of wildlife in urban areas. With traffic reduced, a lower roadkill of wildlife has been reported by vehicles.

In South Africa, sightings of a kudu in Pretoria, penguins waddling in the streets of Simon’s Town, and hippo sightings in areas previously not recorded, are but a few of new reported occurrences.

Carbon emissions fall as human activity decreases and nature appears to be able to breathe more easily than before the pandemic. All this is an unexpected upside of the coronavirus crisis that has proved global air quality can be dramatically improved – and fast. Apparently environmental changes due to covid-19 of the planet are visible from space. Less air pollution could also be a contributor to better recovery rates of the respiratory illness the pandemic causes. Success in this regard will help us consider how things can be done differently after the pandemic, to hold on to temporary improvements in air quality.

However, if nothing is done to safeguard wildlife conservation efforts, it won’t be long before human destitution will result in further damage to biodiversity.

While these wins are no doubt short term, we ultimately need systemic change in our energy infrastructure, failing which such emissions will revert. The planet has been neglected over the years and this has ultimately put our own survival at risk. At the end of the day, post covid-19, the survival of our wildlife conservation industry will depend on public and political pressure to lobby for things such as cleaner energy, to survive.

The hope is, that with the new ‘normal’, the environment will be better off from an industrial perspective. In the future, there may be fewer aeroplanes in the air, less industrial pollutants and ultimately a greater environmentally conscious global population. It is in the short to medium term that the wildlife conservation industry is expected to suffer as a result of the pandemic.

How does the wildlife conservation industry continue?

We know that our economy and our people cannot survive indefinite periods of lockdown or paralysis on productivity. We also know that the pre-covid-19 way of going about our business and industry is over. There will be a new ‘normal’ which we will all have to adapt to. At this stage, nobody knows what the new ‘normal will be, however no doubt the wildlife industry will have to adapt to survive. We will need to be innovative, not only in how we use resources, but how we use technology.

The use of technology in wildlife conservation will become more important than ever before. We will need to rely on partnerships more now than ever before, in particular, partnerships between government, business and the public. The big question remains, how do we prepare for the massive fight that lies ahead to rebuild our nation and economy, whilst not allowing the demise of our important and lucrative tourism and wildlife conservation industry?

This pandemic is showing us, that there is an opportunity to reform our industry infrastructure

At the annual Oppenheimer Research Conference (ORC) still scheduled for later this year, we are going to have robust discussions regarding wildlife conservation and what the long-term consequences could be in a post-pandemic world. It will present an opportunity to table new learnings, technologies that may assist our efforts. It may require discussion on new funding and operational models. It will certainly create an opportunity to keep our communities safe whilst maintaining the balance in our biodiversity efforts.

The ORC is a leading academic research conference that uniquely offers a diverse and multi-disciplinary programme, currently in its 11th year, hosted by Oppenheimer Generations. The conference provides a platform that brings together researchers, scholars, and stakeholders across multiple specialisation areas, within natural sciences and conservation, to share and present their experiences. It creates opportunity to discuss learnings, trends and provides a platform to discuss solutions to some very grave challenges.


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There are very few sectors which will not suffer from the Covid-19 :-(


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Re: SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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https://www.devex.com/news/opinion-coll ... hard-97252

Opinion: Collapse of Africa’s tourism industry hits rural communities and wildlife hard
By Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya // 21 May 2020


One of the leading economic casualties of the COVID-19 outbreak is tourism. The impacts in Africa from a decimated tourism industry will have ripple effects into rural communities and wildlife conservation across the continent. While Africa’s leaders grapple with how to best protect and save lives while avoiding financial ruin, one of the continent’s leading industries is carrying the most onerous economic, social, and environmental burden.

The United Nations World Tourism Organisation predicts that in 2020, global international tourist arrivals could decline by 20-30%. Meanwhile, tourism in Africa was the second-fastest-growing industry pre-COVID-19, with projected growth of 55% between 2017 and 2027.

Much of this growth was expected to benefit the wildlife economy, paying for park management, community conservation, and jobs for 23 million Africans — many of whom live in wildlife rich rural areas.

Revenue streams of many of the agencies managing protected areas — the backbone of biodiversity conservation — have been significantly eroded by COVID-19.

South African National Parks authority, for example, closed tourism facilities in support of the lockdown and future bookings are being canceled. Zimbabwe’s Parks Authority is entirely dependent on tourism revenues for its operations, money that has disappeared with the closing of iconic sites like the Victoria Falls. Poverty rates are already spiking in rural communities dependent on wildlife for their livelihoods.

These impacts compound hardships stemming from locust infestations in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia, as well as a series of severe weather events and floods and droughts linked to a changing climate.

The hole in the budgets for people and parks is coming at a time when we need conservation efforts more than ever. Experts agree that healthy ecosystems are essential to mitigating risks of spillovers of novel infectious diseases like COVID-19. Rich and healthy biodiversity and ecosystems provide us with food, medicines, wood energy, and one of the scarcest resources of all, clean water.

“Supporting wildlife tourism means supporting healthy economies and individual livelihoods designed to thrive and respect planetary and environmental boundaries.”

Most African parks and conservancies rely on revenues from tourism and other wildlife economies to run their operations. The African Wildlife Foundation is convening protected areas directors from across the continent to better understand the current difficulties they are facing and strengthen the response to the current crisis and enhance management capacities across the board.

These conservation leaders are highlighting the precarious situation brought about by COVID-19, with most directors confirming that the frequency of patrols have decreased due to limited resources available following national lockdown measures. Some managers have reported that they only have three months’ worth of funding reserves, after which they might have to cut some programs for protected areas entirely.

Conservation in Africa also receives important funding from external sources such as public sector giving and private donations, which helps to fill the gap between the required budgets for conservation management and income generated from tourism. Conservation may be cushioned for a time if there are government reserves, but these are likely to be very limited, and will not last long.

Yet with unprecedented demands on government resources to tackle more immediate and pressing health concerns, there is apprehension that resources for biodiversity conservation may be constrained. As the tourism industry faces an uncertain future, political and financial support targeted at the sector is going to be particularly needed.

In South Africa, the Department of Tourism is offering eligible small-, micro- and medium-sized enterprises to apply for a share of the R200 million ($10.6 million) Tourism Relief Fund, which we welcome.

Furthermore, the debt relief agreed by the G-20 and International Monetary Fund for low-income nations — many of them African — is also a step in the right direction and will offer some much-needed fiscal breathing space for governments, although not all African economies are covered and so is not comprehensive.

The European Union’s proposition in its Global Response to COVID-19, which recognizes that countries relying on tourism will be among the hardest hit, is another encouraging step forward. But it does not address this specific challenge in its financial response to the current crisis, which AWF believes is a missed opportunity to support a sector which was the second-fastest-growing industry on the continent pre-COVID-19.

Emergency funds to cushion protected areas, revive the tourism sector, and provide a safety net for communities dependent on wildlife economies are needed urgently. International partners should support the wildlife tourism industry to address the social and economic consequences of the outbreak.

Supporting wildlife tourism means supporting healthy economies and individual livelihoods designed to thrive and respect planetary and environmental boundaries. This in turn encourages the regeneration of nature and the equitable distribution of benefits.

African protected areas are unique on this planet, exquisitely beautiful, and home to iconic species that attract domestic and international tourists. Wildlife forms the foundation of Africa’s natural ecosystems. Wildlife-based tourism employs 9.3 million Africans directly and indirectly.

These are jobs that support livelihoods and local economies in places where there are few other options and thereby incentivize people to protect the space needed for diverse species and healthy animal populations to thrive.

In this regard, we held a listening session with tourism business leaders in Africa who expressed anxiety on the inevitable inability to honor payment of land leases to local communities in several conservancies where they operate.

Inability to make these payments will lead to communities unduly encroaching into wildlife spaces and running the risk of being uncomfortably close to animals that harbor diseases, like COVID-19, that can jump to humans.

As an organization, we intend to work alongside other like-minded institutions to advocate for tourism and wildlife reforms the world over.

We realize that the conversation needs to transcend beyond our circles in order to garner the much-needed attention it deserves. We are committed to ensuring a better future for this sector and the communities we support.

We must act now to protect and position nature-based tourism as one of the solutions to global public health security by increasing investments toward wildlife-based tourism, and to dependent nature-based enterprises to safeguard community livelihoods and to conserve nature for posterity.


About the author
Kaddu Kiwe Sebunya is the chief executive officer of the African Wildlife Foundation, where he leads the vision of an Africa where human development includes thriving wildlife and extensive wild lands as a cultural and economic asset for Africa’s future generations. He has over 20 years’ experience in conservation at grassroots, national, and regional levels in the U.S., Africa, and Europe.


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Re: SA Environmental Sector in Trouble

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Emergency funds to cushion protected areas, revive the tourism sector, and provide a safety net for communities dependent on wildlife economies are needed urgently. International partners should support the wildlife tourism industry to address the social and economic consequences of the outbreak.
Theoretically, the author is right and if it was only the African wildlife tourism sector in trouble, I am sure that something could be done about it, but
what he calls International partners, are having so many expenses at home that they can hardly be expected to sustain the African tourism industry. Some European countries are on the edge of bankruptcy, Argentina and other South American countries are close to chasm too. All the others are pouring billions into the economy in order not to end up like the above mentioned and I doubt that there will be much left for extravagant expenses in Africa, where people are dying from hunger.


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