Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to visit Nibela on 1Drvrmber 2021

 The issuesurs of lost biodiversity within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park is about to boil over into mass a tion by some negatively charged folks, who's forefathers have fished lake St. Lucia and surrounding waterways since before the times of SHAKA ZULU.

This biodiversity loss has been caused, then exacerbated by the management style and related policies, procedures, actions and inactions of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority.

The IWPA (iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority) is the mandated Juristic person in terms of the World Heritage Convention act and associated legislations, which is appointed by the minister to manage the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World heritage site.

It is thus the duty of the IWPA to manage all the Environmental assets within the park, in the interests of the land owner as well as all of us as South African citizens , and ensure that the rights we had before the area was declared a world heritage site are not erroded or denied for any reason  or by any actions taken by the IWPA.

The government has introduced many new laws, acts and legislations since the IWPA took office in December 1999

The one that we are concerned about is the Integrated Coastal Management Act, which mandates estuary management plans for all estuaries in South Africa at three distinct and seperate levels. National, provincial, and local.

So the question becomes who is responsible for the local government component of the St. Lucia estuary management plan ? 

Because of the way that the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site was declared as a DMZ or district Management Area, to ensure that local municipality influence was removed from the IWPA PLANNING mandates, it is our opinion that the IWPA should take excludive responsibility for the negative economic impacts caused by the current (December 2021) biodiversity problems within lake St. Lucia and surrounding esturine systems, including the Umfolozi flats and Sokhulu flood plains.

It is the IWPA duty and mandate to ensure that our rights to access natural renewable resources are protected and enshrined in the IWPA plans, policies and Procedures. The IWPA has failed miserably here, and needs to be taken to task by the minister. We will be pushing hard for this at the meeting on 1 December, where to buyhe disappearance of a local fisherman during a anti poaching opperation within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park along the northern sections of Eastern shores in mid November 2021 is the main item on the agenda.

Feed back will follow on December 2 

#Frankie2Socks

Our first Stakeholders Engagement meeting with DEFF

 #PUBLICNOTICE

STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING.

The department of Forestry Fisheries and Environment will be holding a SPECIAL STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING in the St. Lucia area discussing the St. Lucia Estuary Mouth management from 15 to 16 November 2021.

This is big for us at the 4u2Fish campaign. It is our first major event we will be attending. Most of these type of public participation processes meetings bhave been held in secret in the past. Well at least that is our perspective, coz the marketing / advertising for such meetings has been exceptionally poor, and few folks have attended.

The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority is the government appointed body which runs the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage site, and they have been mandated by a vast number of different laws and legislations to have an IMP (Integrated Management Plan) in place. The Integrated Coastal Management Act dictates three levels of estuary management plans.

1) local government level

2) provincial level 

3) national 

Due to how the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority (IWPA) has been structured and  their mandate from central government, the IWPA is the responsible agent to implement the local government level mandated Estuary Management plan.  This mandated estuary manager plan is by rights meant to be a sub plan of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority  Integrated Management Plans

Now this is where things start to ge tout of hand, and every body starts avoiding responsibility, side stepping mandated public participation processes meetings (STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT MEETING)  and making plans that exclude some of the bigger stake holder groups, with the IWPA ignoring many of their other mandated responsobilities in terms of the world heritage convention act. 

The 4u2fish campaign would be truly apprciative if you could share this post and ask others to make a plan and either send a person to represent your interests or be there yourself.