# summary

- Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/biodiversity/summary/
- Published: 2022-08-16T20:03:22+02:00
- Author: dearSA

[ Have your say on the white paper](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/biodiversity/)

### Articles of interest

 * Engineering News –[ ‘New Deal’ strategic biodiversity White Paper published for public comment](https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/new-deal-strategic-biodiversity-white-paper-published-for-public-comment-2022-07-11)
 * SA News – [Public urged to comment on strategic biodiversity draft white paper](https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/public-urged-comment-strategic-biodiversity-draft-white-paper)

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Executive summary

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### SUMMARY

Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, has called 
for comments on the recently gazetted Draft White Paper on the Conservation and 
Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in South Africa.

The Minister published the White Paper in the Government Gazette 46687 (Notice No.
2252) on 8 July 2022 in terms of the National Environment Management: Biodiversity
Act.

Creecy said the White Paper will be relevant in the historical, socio-economic, 
and environmental context of South Africa, and the aspirations and needs of the 
people.

“It is a new deal to ensure people will not only be living in harmony with nature,
but that both people and nature will thrive,” she said on Monday.

Cabinet approved the paper in June 2022 for public comment, emphasising that “South
Africa’s biodiversity provides an important basis for economic growth and development,
and is critical to people’s livelihoods”.

The draft White Paper gives effect to the recommendations made by the High-Level
Panel of Experts (HLP) appointed in 2019 to review the current policies, legislation
and practices on matters of elephant, lion, leopard and rhinoceros management, breeding,
hunting, trade and handling.

The HLP recommendations provide a very clear way forward on how to address key sector
challenges.

The HLP consulted widely, including with various spheres of government, wildlife
industry stakeholders, conservation and animal welfare non-government organisations(
NGOs), as well as traditional leaders, traditional healers, and communities adjacent
to “big five” protected areas in North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal 
and the Eastern Cape.

“The HLP highlighted the importance of transformation of the sector, with empowerment
and capacitation of communities living with wildlife, and recognition of their traditions
and culture, as practiced through the traditional leaders and traditional healers.

“The HLP recommended the development of a White Paper for the Conservation and Sustainable
Use of South Africa’s Biodiversity and indicted the need for a shift to an Africanised
conservation approach that embraces the diverse cultures, traditions, and knowledge
systems in South Africa, and values such as Ubuntu,” the Department of Forestry,
Fisheries and the Environment said.

The HLP also emphasised the need for a more holistic approach to sustainable use,
which ensures responsible and humane use of South Africa’s biodiversity, and the
ending of poor and harmful practices, such as those associated with the captive 
lion industry.

“Importantly, a White Paper should also ensure transformation, with access and beneficiation
by communities adjacent to protected areas, as well as for previously disadvantaged
individuals.

“There is a need for us to do things differently. Through the White Paper, South
Africa will adopt an enabling definition and understanding of biodiversity conservation
that releases South Africa from the shackles of the past, and which emphasises the
constitutional imperatives within the environmental right, but also which will improve
the wellbeing of people consistent with Ubuntu,” the department said.

Furthermore, the White Paper will reshape ecologically sustainable use of components
of biodiversity, in a manner which forefronts the responsibilities incumbent on 
use, including ensuring species persistence and the ecological integrity of ecosystems.

“Social responsibilities are also emphasised, by ensuring that continued benefits
to people are fair, equitable and meet the needs and aspirations of present and 
future generations. Furthermore, in the case of animals, use must be humane and 
not compromise their well-being.

“In addition, the White Paper proposes to adopt a philosophical framing of Ubuntu
for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, emphasising an African approach
that is consistent with the traditions, culture, knowledge and aspirations of African
people in terms of defining their wellbeing.

The White Paper emphasises partnerships and adopting participatory and consensus
approaches throughout the biodiversity sector, which will promote meaningful participation
and influence of all stakeholders, with communal rather than individual outcomes.

_[ – SAnews.gov.za](https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/public-urged-comment-strategic-biodiversity-draft-white-paper)_

### STATEMENTS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS

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### Cape Independence Advocacy Group

### Dear Speaker,

I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and
the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work.

We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is 
proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette
on 21 June 2021.

Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although
we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill
will rightfully apply to all provinces.

This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters
of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear
that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South
African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because
the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly
different ideological and political opinions.

In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape
voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid
era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters
have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no
foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such,
they cannot be said to have functional democracy.

One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision
of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape
constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected,
to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being
drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views.

To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement
of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament
and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and 
democratic wishes of Western Cape voters.

We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity,
and without objection.

Yours Faithfully

**Phil Craig
 
(On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)