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Subsequent to President Ramaphosa's 2018 State of the Nation Address on Friday last week, his mention of the need to reduce the size of his Cabinet has led to some interesting speculation about the possible reconfiguration of the environment-related government departments. In 2009, President Zuma split fisheries and oceans management between two separate departments (DAFF and DEA, respectively) despite all expert and academic advice that to do so would cause more harm to fisheries and oceans governance. Not to mention that splitting oceans and fisheries governance would be in direct contradiction to the domestic and international recognition that oceans and fisheries governance required integration, not disintegration. Ideally, I believe that an efficient and effective administration responsible for regulating the environment (within the context of the Bill of Rights) would entail the creation of a single super environment ministry with deputy ministers responsible for overseei...

In December 2016, the South African government took the brave step of expanding the South African horse mackerel fishery by granting fishing rights to new entrants for the first time this century. The last time mackerel rights were allocated back in 2005, it was decided to maintain the status quo in a bid to support the investments made up to then (including the introduction of a large Russian flagged mid-water trawl owned and operated by the Oceana Group) and on the understanding that the crop of right holders would begin to change the manner in which horse mackerel was fished, processed and marketed. Over the duration of the long term fishing period, nothing in fact changed. The fishery continues to be dominated by a limited number of vessels (1 midwater trawler and a handful of hake trawlers that also target horse mackerel for their owners). On-land processing remains almost non-existent with minimal jobs created in factories in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. So, when 27 new entr...

After more than five years of negotiations, UN state members agreed at the end of 2017 to draw up a new rulebook by 2020, which will establish conservation areas, catch quotas and scientific monitoring in terms of an internationally binding treaty to protect and regulate the High Seas.  The waters outside national maritime boundaries – which cover half of the planet’s surface – are currently a free-for-all that has led to devastating overfishing and pollution. The 2017 UN vote was supported by 140 nations, which is more than the two-thirds needed for passage to authorise the commencement of substantive negotiations on the text for a Law of the High Seas Treaty. The conclusion of a High Seas Treaty would mark the most significant development of oceans management since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas in December 1982. The UN will now host four meetings over the next two years to draft a legally binding treaty.  Only 3.5% of the world’s oceans...