Climate Change Bill: public hearings; Rock Lobster Anti-Poaching Strategy: DFFE briefing

Meeting report

Opening remarks
The Chairperson welcomed the members and the delegation from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment (DFFE), as well as the civil society organisations present in the meeting, noting that this was the first physical meeting of the Committee post-COVID-19 pandemic. He then allowed the members to introduce themselves, followed by the Department and civil society organisations.

He said the public engagements on the Climate Change Bill had started in February with the Committee engaging several provinces. The Committee received over 13 000 engagements on the Bill from various organisations and people and will continue to engage more.

Wilderness Foundation presentation

Mr Sinegugu Zukulu, Programme Director, SWC said there are numerous calculations of South Africa’s natural capital, including partial accounts conducted sector by sector by Statistics South Africa. In country-by-country surveys, the World Bank’s most recent Little Green Data Book (for 2017) offers calculations in which South Africa’s mineral depletion, energy (mainly coal) depletion and immediate CO2 damage can be collectively costed at 6.8 percent of GDP each year, resulting in a net negative wealth account.

He said the impact of climate change on subsistence farming is that harvests are being destroyed, as sweet potatoes rot, mealies germinate, yams do not cook well, livestock die, and houses collapse. There is also damage to infrastructure, pests on crops, wild weather risk to oil rigs, climatic extremes including drought, floods, and storms, as well as livestock diseases.

He emphasised the need for the Climate Change Bill to bring solutions to the impact of climate change in rural areas, and questioned the budgets set aside to assist in that regard and whether there are specific timelines envisaged to bring solutions to the problems.

(See Presentation)
           
Discussion

Ms S Mbatha (ANC) said as much as it is an environmental issue, climate change cuts across all Departments as evidently pointed out by the presentation, and was concerned that the Bill may not be able to cover all the issues that were pointed out in the presentation. Some of the issues fall under the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, some under Disaster Management, some under Agriculture, etc. As a solution to the alien plants, the Department should consider counteracting the issue by planting more oxygen-producing plants. She asked if the organisation had any role to play in the communities regarding providing awareness around climate change.

(Due to poor audio quality in the venue, we could not capture most of Ms Mbatha’s questions)

Ms T Mchunu (ANC) wanted to know if the foundation had done a study to determine the balance between economic growth and the environmental impact of climate change given that South Africa has a problem of high unemployment and poverty. She also wanted to know how the organisation can contribute positively for the Climate Change Bill to be effective.

Ms A Weber (DA) was unsure how the alien invasive plants can be linked to climate change and asked if the organisation was involved in assisting communities with solutions to the alien invasive plants. (The input was not captured fully due to poor audio quality)

Mr D Bryant (DA) said as much as people would like to focus on the impact of climate change, the focus must be more on the adaptation side and ensure that the country is prepared and equipped to deal with its impact. (The input was not captured fully due to poor audio quality)

The Chairperson wanted to know what other role was played by the organisation besides speaking to the Portfolio Committee and where had they spoken about the impact of climate change in the agricultural sector in rural areas and what was their response. Were they helpful and did they understand the impact of climate change? Are there any climate change awareness programmes within rural communities where people are informed about climate change and its impact? What does the organisation propose to be incorporated into the final draft of the Bill to solve the issues that it raised?

Mr Zukulu said in the implementation of the Climate Change Bill, it would be important to ensure that maker-based solutions or ecosystem-based adaptations are implemented. He said he has worked in climate change for many years, for example, the organisation did a climate change strategy session in Alfred Nzo in the Eastern Cape recently and established Climate Change Committees within District Municipalities. Last year, he also facilitated a review of the climate change strategy in Bizana in the Winnie Madikizela Mandela Municipality, especially on the eradication of alien invasive vegetation.

The work to help people understand the impact of climate change is ongoing, as the organisation also works with about 10 Farmers’ Forums where it advocates for agroecology and how to farm in a way that adapts to climate change. He was recently invited to present on the link between alien invasive vegetation and climate change and how they lead to fires and recently, he was invited to talk to traditional leaders regarding establishing bylaws within their communities in dealing with fires, but the organisation is limited in scope because of the lack of sufficient resources.

One of the challenges is that once the Bill is approved, it may not be implemented properly as it is easy to have legislation in place, but its implementation poses some challenges, especially when the legislation does not translate to the lowest level on the ground. The Bill should enforce that the various departments work with the various organisations that deal with people on the ground to help them adapt to climate change. He said there are various studies being done by the organisation on climate change and its impact on the environment and the economy of the country and they can be made available to the Committee.

Ms Weber followed up on her question regarding alien invasive plants.

Mr Zukulu said when there is an increased amount of Carbon Dioxide in the air, that supports the growth of weed vegetation and studies have shown that spaces that are grasslands today will be savanna bushvelds because of increased carbon. Linked to that is that the carbon amounts exacerbate the alien invasive vegetation. The danger about alien invasive vegetation is that it spreads fire quickly when it catches alight and if people are not careful about the amount of alien invasive plants they have around their houses, they risk having their houses burnt down in the case of a fire. This requires them to adapt by cutting off these plants.

Ms Weber said her question was whether there are active plans in the communities to deal with the alien invasive vegetation and prevent their impact.

Mr Zukulu said he had done workshops for Disaster Risk Reduction in municipalities, and they expected officials to be able to go to all the wards that have the alien invasive plants problem to help them with solutions. The solutions given by the organisation are at the district level and they expect the districts to spread the information to the people living in the different wards within the districts.

The Chairperson thanked Mr Zukulu for his presentation.

Traditional Healers Grouping

Ms Gcabashe said she has been a traditional healer for 22 years and her organisation supports the Bill because climate change is affecting where and how much the plants that they use as traditional healers are growing. Some of the plants are now extinct, or they no longer grow in the locations where they would normally grow. The second place where they saw the impact of climate change was the increase in the levels of poverty in communities because of the heavy rains washing away their crops, especially during the recent KZN floods.

The other problem that they experienced was the washing away of grave sites where people experienced the trauma of seeing the graves of their loved ones being washed away. She said their concern was that climate change has an impact that goes far beyond poverty as it brings anxiety, and anxious communities are not healthy communities. As much as they supported the Bill, they were concerned about the lack of specific guidelines for some of the interventions of the Bill and the sanctions for transgressions. There is also an extended focus on financial redress, but for communities whose lives have been washed away, money does not replace what was lost, and there is no redress at all, especially for the people who must rebury their loved ones.

Discussion

(Ms Mbatha and Mr Bryant’s input could not be captured due to poor audio quality)

Mr M Dlamini (ANC) wanted to know if there is anything done by Ms Gcabashe and her organisation to try and preserve the endangered plants that are important to traditional healers and how she thinks the Bill could be able to support them in that regard.

The Chairperson wanted to know the role of indigenous knowledge in climate change litigation.

Ms Gcabashe said the legislation is available but there is no detail in terms of how it should be implemented on the ground. The issue of allocation of space especially outside of municipal areas where there is town planning and infrastructure planning is a problem because there is a high demand for land and housing, and people end up building houses on land that is not meant for building because it is either on a river stream or is prone to mudslides. There needs to be better implementation in the placement of people into housing and better ways to address the demand for housing in the country.

The question of collaboration is deep because as much as the traditional healers must apply for permits to harvest, there is little farm-growing training and support, and in the markets, the plants are sold by people who do not understand their purpose. The commodification of traditional and indigenous medicine is massive because there is a demand and those are the challenges. The organisation extensively engaged with the Department and stated that their standards for sustainable wild harvesting must be accompanied by training. There needs to be a way to regulate the harvesting processes because if it was done only by traditional healers, there would not be a problem of certain plants going extinct, which is caused by people harvesting to sell in the markets. There is a willingness from traditional healers to collaborate with the markets and the Department because they understand the rules of demand and supply.

Ms Weber said municipalities have a role to ensure that farmers are not in vulnerable areas, but it seems that most of those roles are not performed anymore, and climate change cannot be blamed for their failure to perform their roles.

Ms Gcabashe said the problem is that information supersedes the reality on the ground and the government should care enough about the people to try and prevent them from living in areas that put them into vulnerability.

The Chairperson thanked Ms Gcabashe and noted that she made valid points, especially about how climate change affects traditional medicine. He said all the comments made by the civil society groups will be combined into a final draft alongside other comments made on the Bill, and hopefully they will be added into the contents of the Bill at the end of the process. He then allowed a 3-minute comfort break and the DFFE would present thereafter.

DFFE presentation on West Coast Rock Lobster (WCRL) Enforcement Strategy

Ms Sue Middleton, Deputy Director General: Fisheries Management, DFFE, presented the Department’s West Coast Rock Lobster Enforcement Strategy. She said the fishery generates around R500 million per year and employs about 4 300 people. The fishery has traditionally focused on the West Coast, but resource shifts in the 1990s resulted in three new areas being opened up East of Cape Hangklip and it consists of the following sectors:
Offshore commercial (traps)
Inshore commercial (hoop-nets)
Interim relief/ Small-scale
Recreational
The resource is fairly easily accessible and is experiencing over-fishing and illegal fishing and obtains good prices on the international markets.
There have been steady declines in catches (since the 1950s-1960s) that have a number of causes, including unsustainable harvesting, illegal harvesting, and environmental changes. The resource is currently at 1.3% of pristine levels (pre-1910), which is well below the 40% level which is generally considered desirable. Monitoring, Control & Surveillance efforts could be strengthened through the use of technology and the deployment of innovative and advanced enforcement approaches. Under-resourced fishers, particularly those in the small-scale sector, are exploited by marketers and often do not receive market-related prices for the forward selling of catches.
Regarding the WCRL enforcement strategy, she said in November 2021, the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment assigned a special project to the Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF) to advise on the West Coast Rock Lobster fishery. The forum was tasked to consider presentations and representations from stakeholders on the methodology used to determine the Total Allowable Catch (TAC), to review the appropriateness of the proportional cuts within the various sectors of the fishery; to review data on the poaching and local sales estimates used in the TAC model; to advise the Minister on whether the current cut in respect of the TAC is an appropriate approach to sustainable use of the resource and; to advise on an appropriate way in which fishing communities can assist the department to co-manage the WCRL resource.
A total of nine meetings (42 hours) were held with observer participation and presentations and documents were provided by observers and officials from or working on behalf of DFFE. The CAF developed five cross-cutting recommendations that are considered critical to the sustainability of the WCRL fishery and the communities who depend on the resource.
The CAF made 5 main recommendations to Minister on possible improvements of the WCRL resource:
-DFFE to co-develop and implement a WCRL poaching reduction strategy.
-To conduct an integrated socio-economic study in parallel.
-The implementation of a co-management approach, particularly in the small-scale sector, and to pilot immediate implementation of a more participatory approach.
-A WCRL Fisheries Improvement Program should be advanced by the Department through collaboration with the World Wildlife Forum (WWF) and stakeholders.
-Fishing communities need to receive fair benefits along the entire value chain. This will require capacity building and mechanisms to support the regulation of marketers.
(See Presentation)
Discussion
Mr N Paulsen (EFF) said in terms of managing the resource, he was concerned about whether the cause of the low levels of poaching had to do with environmental factors and wanted to know if there are early warning systems for the Department to deal with the issue. (Audio quality challenge)

(Ms Weber, Mr Bryant, and Ms Mbatha’s questions could not be captured due to poor audio quality)

Ms Mchunu appreciated the feedback given by the Department regarding the performance of the Offshore and Inshore commercial companies and asked for more information on the success of the cooperatives getting fishery permits and whether they can grow. She also wanted to know which countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region are at the export level and whether they are inland countries or coastal countries. She was interested in this because it could lead the Department to find the trail of the poachers, especially in the inland countries.

The fishing rights were given for 15 years and currently, there is an anti-poaching strategy, which is an indication that this is a vulnerable species. Is there a plan to ensure that the species is preserved? Does the DFFE have a relationship with the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition (DTIC) to enhance the achievement of Strategic Goal 1 to also enhance the exportation of the product?

The Chairperson asked if the National Strategy was elevated into the Annual Performance Plan.

Ms Middleton said they approved the Anti-poaching Strategy which will become part of the bigger national strategy which is still under development.

The Chairperson asked if the National Strategy and the Anti-Poaching Strategy are in the 2023/24 APP.

Ms Middleton said the target for 2023/24 is a draft National WCRL Strategy, and the target for last year was a draft of the Anti-Poaching Strategy.

The Chairperson asked if the Department met that target.

Ms Middleton said they did.

The Chairperson wanted to know where the WCRL workshops happen and who is invited to them by the Department.

Ms Middleton said there is a decline in the resource itself and a decline in the number of catches, and environmental factors also have a role, including weather conditions and poor visibility. WCRL takes a slightly different character to abalone. There are early warning systems, especially in terms of detecting oxygen levels and forecasting and the most common are around the Elands Bay area because of the geography of the bay. At best, the early warning systems enable the Department to get teams on the ground ready for the lobster and unfortunately, it is regarded as a natural phenomenon that is not under anyone’s control. The warning systems only help with getting people to catch the lobster and put them into tankers to put them back in the water again, but they are unable to prevent many fatalities.

She said lobsters do not do well when caged because they are cannibals and they do not grow when caged so the Department is not looking at growing them in a farm condition, but they are looking more at abalone. If she had a choice, she would cut the recreational fishery, but this would cause a national outcry. The maximum fine is R800 000, or two years imprisonment if found guilty, and in terms of the Act itself, the penalty is R2 million, or 5 years imprisonment.

Most of the exported products are to China and other Asian countries and are mostly live lobster. The Department does not employ military veterans Inshore and the number of persons with disabilities (PWDs) can be determined later, but there are 408 men and 189 women, and five youths. The Department is intercepting poached abalone and there are more incidents of them finding the people, but in terms of lobster, the numbers are too low. In terms of the Small-Scale Fishing Policy, the Department allocates fishing rights to small-scale cooperatives, and it has done that in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, and KZN. After a two-year period of giving fishing rights to primary cooperatives, the Department sets up secondary cooperatives, which entails marketing mechanisms.

She conceded the point about engaging the DTIC and added that the Department currently has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Small Business Development, noting that there is room for a similar arrangement with the DTIC and other government departments. The Department invited representatives of all the stakeholders to the Abalone workshop at one venue, working with different organisations who assisted with transport and accommodation in Stellenbosch for a week. In terms of other consultations, the Department does roadshows in communities.

The CAF was a five-person appointment made by the Minister and most of them were scientists, with some representing the academic sector. The Chairperson was someone who was previously part of the Department and there were also two international scientists, as well as one scientist from the University of Witwatersrand and a Community representative. The Act allows for the payment of CAF members and the rate is concurrent with the Minister of Finance. 

Mr Bernard Niedeman, Acting Director: Monitoring and Surveillance, DFFE, made input. (This could not be captured due to poor audio quality).

Mr Odwa Dabula, Director: Inshore Fisheries Management, DFFE, made input. (This could not be captured due to poor audio quality).

(Ms Weber and Mr Bryant’s input could not be captured due to poor audio quality)

Ms Mchunu asked if there are any inland countries that are exporting more than the coastal countries and whether that study was done. She asked for the statistics of the small-scale fisheries or cooperatives that were moved from the primary to the secondary stage.

Ms Middleton said one of the objectives of the Department is to ensure that the recreational sector is organised and that there is an organised industrial body to make it easier to engage them through a recreational Indaba. The research study on inland countries exporting more than coastal countries can be considered by the Department as it has not been done. On the small-scale fisheries Policy, she said the Department only allocated rights in the Northern Cape in 2019 and in the Eastern Cape two days before the National Lockdown of COVID-19 was announced. The three years is only due now, so the Department is about to set up the secondary stage.

Mr Dabula said recreational fishing is one of the important fisheries and in other countries it is used as a fallback. The Department intends to have all the stakeholders, including small-scale fishers, commercial fishers, and commercial fishers in one meeting to hear their inputs in one sitting and to understand the full scale of their challenges so it can formulate solutions based on that information.
Ms Middleton said there is currently a crisis because the recreational permit needs to be purchased through the Post Office, and the Post Office is no more, and the Department is struggling to find a notional service provider that has presence and a footprint in all the rural areas and can sell the recreational permits on the Department’s behalf.

Mr Niedeman welcomed the suggestion to conduct a research study on the inland countries that export more than coastal countries with the intent of finding leads to the poachers. 

Mr Bryant asked if the Department will be working with the existing recreational working group that existed and asked if the research study done on the fishery landscape of South Africa was considered by the Department.

Ms Middleton said she had no knowledge of the research and asked Mr Bryant to share the source.

Mr Bryant said it was a research study done in 2012 by Mthete.

Ms Middleton said she will investigate it.  

Mr Dabula said there is currently a management working group for each fishing sector so all their inputs will be considered in the meeting by the Department.

The Chairperson said the meeting can be concluded as the question-and-answer session was done.

Mr Bryant said it was a long time since Committee minutes were considered and adopted by the Committee and noted that it becomes difficult to remember the contents of meetings when it is done later. He asked when the minutes of previous meetings will be considered and adopted.

The Committee Secretary said they will be considered in the next meeting.

The Chairperson thanked the members and the Department for availing themselves at the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.