On 18 March 2013, the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, will sign the Benguela Current Commission Treaty in Angola. The signature of the BCC Treaty will be the culmination of a two decade-long process of establishing a joint management commission for the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem Programme. In 2007, the Ministers responsible for fisheries and environmental affairs from Namibia, Angola and South Africa signed the Interim Agreement for the establishment of the Benguela Current Commission. In so doing, the Commission became the first of its kind on the African continent (prior to that the Guinea Current LME programme had established an interim commission). There are a total of 5 large marine ecosystem programmes around the African continent. South Africa is a party to two; the second being the Agulhas-Somali LME.
Feike has had a substantial professional relationship with the BCLME since 2004, having provided the Programme and Commission with a range of strategic advice which has included the development of an ecosystems information system for the region, compliance with a number of regional and international protocols such as MARPOL and analysing fisheries and environmental institutions, policies and laws in each of the three member states.
Noting the BCLME and the BCC's overwhelming marine fisheries management bias, it is therefore inexplicable that the South African Fisheries Ministry has played almost no part in the operation of the Commission since 2009 (when the department of fisheries was established). This is in sharp contrast to the leading roles played by the Namibian and Angolan fisheries ministries and senior fisheries professionals.
The South African fisheries ministry does not even make mention of this historic event on its website or via any other media.
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