Lake St Lucia Restoration Plan Introduced

[Richprins]

Umfolozi Sugar Planters Ltd, generally known as UCOSP, is an agriculturally based company situated in Riverview, just outside of the town of Mtubatuba on the North Coast of KwaZulu – Natal.The company provides tramline transport of sugarcane from the farm to the sugar mill and manages flood protection infrastructure on behalf of it’s shareholders who are all sugarcane farmers on the Umfolozi Flats.



More to this story here: http://www.ucosp.co.za/site/files/6932/ ... elease.pdf

Sounds too bad to be true...sort of...

Can't post the text...

[Flutterby]

I have sent an e-mail to the Ramsar Convention.

You're a star.

[Toko]

The breach was done on 15 March in the evening.



https://twitter.com/iSimangalisoZA/stat ... 0632949762

[Flutterby]

[Lisbeth]

Programme 3: Oceans and Coasts
Programme purpose
Promote, manage and provide strategic leadership on oceans and coastal conservation.
Objectives
• Strengthen the knowledge, science and policy interface for the management of oceans and coastlines by
implementing a research programme on the key areas of oceans management on an annual basis.
• Conserve the ocean and coastal ecosystems, and ensure their sustainable utilisation by:
– developing 25 management plans for estuaries by 2018/19
– increasing South Africa’s exclusive economic zones that are declared marine protected areas to
53 594.15 km2
by 2017/18, in line with the priorities of Operation Phakisa.
• Enhance sector monitoring and evaluation by:
– publishing the annual report card on key ocean and coastal indicators
– developing and implementing the national oceans and coasts water quality monitoring programme
by 2018/19.
Subprogrammes
• Oceans and Coasts Management provides for the administration and coordination of the overall activities in
the programme.
• Integrated Coastal Management provides for the coordinated and integrated management of the coastal
environment.
• Oceans and Coastal Research monitors and undertakes scientific investigations on marine and coastal
ecosystems, ocean dynamics, ecosystem functioning and marine biodiversity to improve the understanding
and management of ocean and coastal ecosystems.
• Oceans Conservation provides for the management and conservation of oceans, and sub-Antarctic and
Antarctic Ocean environments; the development and implementation of ocean policy; the coordination of
information on the ocean atmosphere; the management of ocean ecosystems; and the management of
obligations in relation to regional and international oceans.
• Specialist Monitoring Services provides leadership in specialist monitoring strategies for oceans and coasts
through coordination with sector departments, and regional and international programmes and forums.

http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/na ... ffairs.pdf

The Lake St. Lucia Restoration Plan does not seem to be included in the above or maybe they have not read the above and then again we are not yet in 2018

The

Strengthen the knowledge

seems not to have been understood

[Toko]

Ongoing battle there

Two sugar cane farmers launched an application jointly with UCOSP to compel iSimangaliso to breach the Umfolozi river mouth into the Indian Ocean for the benefit of a few farms. An interim settlement requires iSimangaliso to breach the mouth at a point of its choosing when the Msunduze water levels reach 1.2gmsl at Cotcane. The matter will be heard in the High Court in May 2016.


http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/ ... ia-1964663

http://zululandobserver.co.za/86964/isi ... agreement/

http://zululandobserver.co.za/97737/st- ... -position/

[Toko]

I have sent an e-mail to the Ramsar Convention.

Lis, the UNESCO is the most important party with indirect influence on the management of the system. Please send them your mail, too!
Their power is that they decide if the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is part of the list of World Heritage Sites. If UNESCO decides to remove the park from the list this will have a big influence on the preservation of the St Lucia system and the local tourism. Their power is purely administrative, with a lot of impact on the decision-making.
UNESCO designated the iSimangaliso Wetland Park as a World Heritage Site in 1999. UNESCO has set requirements and demands that have to be obliged to be eligible for a World Heritage Site. Every five year they check if the iSimangaliso Wetland Park still meets these requirements and demands. This control relationship is the same between Ramsar and iSimangaliso Wetland Park, but the consequences of removal from the list are less severe than losing the World Heritage Site status.

Check this:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/914

A major threat to the Park is damage to the hydrology and salinity of the wetland system including reduction in the water supply by the transformation of the upper Mfolozi Swamps by agriculture. Serious droughts have raised salinity and killed off shoreline vegetation, causing bank erosion and silting of the lake. The Umfolozi River has also threatened to break into the lake, again raising the likelihood of sedimentation and invasion by sand and sea-water following breaching of the sand bar. Catastrophic events such as the grounding of an oil tanker near the park in 2002 also threaten the site. Other threats include damage by over-use (tourism and over-exploitation of resources such as unsustainable fishing).

[Lisbeth]

I'll try to do something, but doubt that it will have any reply nor even be read. I remember when I send an enormous dossier about the Hotels in Kruger to the IUCN main office in Geneve CC to the office in South Africa and never even got a sign of receipt from them

[Toko]

Some locals doing their share to stop it:

http://traveller24.news24.com/Explore/G ... h-20160316

[Lisbeth]

E-mail to UNESCO sent