IWPA IMP Emergency request for help

 The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority, as the custodian of the Greater St. Lucia Wetlands Park World Heritage Site, Now called the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritagge site is currently busy with their annual mandated review and update of their Integrated Management Plan or IMP.

This #MANDATED Integrated Management Plan is a very painful and disturbing experience for the majority of the folks living in and adjacent to the iSimangaliso wetland Park.  The IWPA or iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority have deliberately and with criminal intent side stepped the public participation process of these plans in the past, through political interference at the highest levels possible.

This IMP (Integrated Management Plan ) is supposed to be integrated into 

• all relevant local Municipalities IDP Process plans
• the Umkhanyakude District Municipalities IDP process plans
• The KZN provincial IDP process plans
• the NATIONAL IDP process plans 
  

In Terms of the ICMA or Integrated Coastal Management Act every estuary in South Africa should have an estuary  management plan in place, which should be registered with the IDP of the local municipality where any such estuary is found.

 Because each estuary is found in a local municipality, the Estuary management plan should by all rights be managed by that local municipality.

The St. Lucia estuary is however a very different story coz it falls into two local  local municipalities as well as the iSimangaliso Wetland park WORLD HERITAGE SITE, complicating things and adding frustrations to the St. Lucia Estuary Estuary management plan

It has thus become necessary to find a way to organise the various interested and affected parties and establish a single responsible entity to manage the St. Lucia estuary management plan. The 4u2Fish campaign has started working on this, and created a petition to the premier of KZN SOUTH AFRICA found here

https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/Sihle_Zikalala_Premier_of_KZN_south_Africa_Support_the_4u2fish_campaign_in_our_efforts_to_restore_BIODIVERSITY_in_St_Lucia_Estuary/

Please consider signing this petition and sharing it further to your social media audience, asking them to sign and share again.

THIS IS NOW AN EMERGENCY ISSUE, AS THE ANNUAL ISIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK AUTHORITY INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PLAN REVIEW PROCESS IS CURRENTLY UNDER WAY, and then I initial first round comments and Input session closesd on 31 October 2020

#Frankie2Socks for the #4u2fish campaign.

September 2020 update

 4U2FISH update 15 September 2020

We understand that this blog has been in-active, and the sole reason was #FINANCIALRESOURCES

Well that has been addressed, just a little, so you will soon be reading more about myself ( #Frankie2Socks )  and the many different efforts to get the issues of the closure of the St. Lucia estuary addressed at the highest levels, as the problems are diverse, plentiful and carry heavy financial burdens which the poorest of the poor are expected to bear the brunt of these costs. 

#PeepSee our petition here 

The primary issue here is the loss of economic opportunities associated with the natural renewable resources of Lake St. Lucia and surrounding waterways, which in the past sustained and supported  a very large rural population, before the state in the form of (1) the old NPB, then (2) in the form of the IWPA, and its allies, within the various different government departments, manipulated financial and socioeconomic information to mislead many different organizations and world bodies about the true situation on the ground.

Basically  the economies that were in place sustaining the rural populations around lake St. Lucia and interconnected waterways were ignored, then systematically destroyed, to ensure that the domestic tourism market, connected to the sustainable consumptive tourism associated with the natural renewable resources, within Umkhanyakude was removed from the equation.

In simple English  NO FISHING .... No tourism associated with fishing.... lots of job losses....

In my opinion this is all about control and management of the largest tourism attraction in KZN, the old #Maputuland Coastline, or the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, and the surrounding rural areas. Big tourism companies are pushing hard to exclude the domestic tourism market, and ensure that only the international market exists. National government is involved in this push for international tourism at the exclusion of the South African Domestic tourism market.

These are vastly complicated issues, where local folks have been vilified, and through efficient and effective  public perception management techniques, are currently perceived to be poachers, thieves and untrustworthy folks.  The folks on the ground need their dignity returned, and their rights in terms of section 24 as quoted here, need to be addressed.

Quote "Chapter 2, section 24 (b) iii  of the South African Constitution reads  as "Every one has the right to have the environment protected, for benefit of present and future  generations through reasonable legislative measures that secure ecological sustainable development and the use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development." end Quote

 

This stance needs to be tested at the constitutional court, so we need your support, mostly moral, coz if we have enough moral support, then financial support will flow like water.   the issue is to get the first 200 folks on board, then get them to assist by speaking about the problem, and asking others to #PEEPSEE and follow a hashtag or three (well just 2 #4u2fish and #reviveStLucia ) 

 

Please help this cause by sharing our posts and talking about the use of natural resources  within the sustainable tourism sphere of influence.

#Frankie2Socks @ Bird Island lodge on the #Nibela #Peninsula for the #ReviveStLucia campaign

The 4u2fish campaign needs your views and opinions

The 4u2fish campaign is in place to assist  the general public within Umkhanyakude and the St. Lucia tourism industry with their projects, by getting folks  within the social media space to be active, attentive and present in person when needed at public participation process meetings.  This will give the 4u2FISH team members and other interested and affected parties the political tools and necessary public support to take on the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority ( IWPA )

This drastic step has become essential, due to the very serious mismanagement of the St. Lucia estuary system and the subsequent collapse of the biodiversity within the St. Lucia estuary system and surrounding waterways.  The local communities surrounding Lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system used to depend on the renewable natural resources within the system for many of their daily needs, as well as a source of income to support their families. These natural renewable resources have disappeared. They are no longer available because the system has collapsed following the mechanical closure of the St. Lucia Estuary in 2002, and the subsequent poor \ bad management of the St. Lucia estuary system by the IWAP

There are no prawns or fish to be caught in the St. Lucia estuary. The fish no longer have access to their breeding grounds and nursery zones, where the fry could grow up in the protection of mangrove forests and other intertidal areas.

There is currently ( May 2019 ) no domestic tourism connected to consumptive tourism within the  St. Lucia estuary system or its hinter lands in Lake St. Lucia. This means that the passing trade associated with tourism connected to boating and fishing within the area is missing.  This passing trade is rather substantial, and was the main driver of the local arts and crafts industry within the Umkhanyakude district municipality.

The management of the 4u2fish campaign thus invite you, as a concerned  citizen to  join  us in our attempts to regain fishing and general access rights to the many diverse natural areas of lake St. Lucia, the  St. Lucia estuary system and surrounding water ways as well as the  coast line of the Elephant Coast.

Besides access rights which have been systematically eroded, there is the major issue of biodiversity collapse, which also needs our attention. The #BIODIVERSITY problems need urgent attention, but we must not neglect access rights.

Our  collective fishing rights and access rights have been systematically eroded away through the introductions of legislations developed and implemented by the IWPA. The iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority  is the government appointed custodian of the GREATER ST. LUCIA WETLAND PARK WORLD HERITAGE SITE,  which was renamed as the iSimangaliso wetland Park World Heritage Site.  The IWPA have been systematically ensuring that the local as well as domestic consumptive tourism market is eradicated and removed from the tourism mix within the Umkhanyakude district municipality.

This may sound harsh or even unthinkable, but  we do need to consider the world heritage site deregistration process, and evaluate using this as a tool to force the hand of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park Authority. The area was declared a WORLD HERITAGE SITE because of the natural biodiversity within the area.  Now that the biodiversity within lake St. Lucia and the St. Lucia estuary system has collapsed, does the area still warrant being a world heritage site ?

This and many other very thorny issues need to be addressed, and each of these issues will require public participation process meetings as is mandated in the legislations around these issues through the processes as laid out in the National Environmental Management Act. ( NEMA ) 

Some other important questions that the public have been asking....

Where does one find a toxicology report discussing the long term impact of the IWPA  spraying with DDT,  which was undertaken with special permission from the United Nations  as part of the South African governments anti malaria efforts, following motivation of using DDT by the CEO of the IWPA and the minister of ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS in the early 2000's

When will the IWPA hold PPPMs   ( #PPPM  ) Public Participation Process Meetings discussing their Integrated Management Plans which they are mandated to have in place, including their annual revision of these processes.

When will the Coastal Management Committee hold a public participation meeting in the St. Lucia town hall.  The public need to know what this organisation is doing about fish breeding that is not happening within the St. Lucia estuary system, following the #BIODIVERSITY within the St. Lucia biosphere.

When will the minister of environmental affairs speak to the St. Lucia tourism industry discussing the huge losses within Umkhanyakude district municipality domestic  tourism base, caused by the collapse biodiversity within the St. Lucia estuary system along with its surrounding waterways as well as what reports are being passed across to the minister of tourism and the minister of finance?

Like I said there are many diverse issues that each have some impact on our collective fishing experiences. The 4U2FISH CAMPAIGN intends to put platforms and structures in place for the public to  use in their personal efforts to ensure that their environmental rights are both protected and enforced in a manner that they appreciate, whilst protecting our environment along with the renewable resources such as fish, prawns and other harvestable organisms which are of value to the domestic consumptive tourism market.

Please continue the discussion in the comments below, share this post on your favourite social media platform and talk about the 4U2FISH CAMPAIGN to those who you believe may have an interest.

#FRANKIE2SOCKS
#ReviveStLucia
#HestelStLucia
#4U2FISH
#BIODIVERSITY