“When I go to rural areas, I often feel sad when I see rural areas with little economic activity and just dormitories where people live.
“But just as Rembrandt lies in the attic, the assets that our people should be using right now – land, plants and everything else in rural communities – are lying hidden away,” said Cyril. President Ramaphosa spoke at the Biodiversity Economy and Investment Indaba. Tuesday at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Center in Boksburg.
“We need to breathe life into them. It's residual capital that we have that needs to be leveraged.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks on the biodiversity economy and investment indaba at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Center in Boksburg. (Photo: Julia Evans)
Organized by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE), the indaba brought together government officials, traditional leaders and healers, academia, businesses, local communities and conservation authorities to improve biodiversity for alleviating poverty and unemployment. We discussed the contributions of the field. Pitch your biodiversity business concept to potential investors.
“More than 100 proposals will be put forward to investors,” DFFE Minister Barbara Creecy said at the start of the three-day indaba on Monday.
“We hope that many of these projects will be taken up and brought to fruition. We will ensure that the government supports and facilitates their success.”
At the center of the discussion at the Indaba was a controversial draft law. National Biodiversity Economic Strategy (NBES), released for public comment by Creecy earlier this month.
Strategy is aligned with goals white paper Research into the conservation and sustainable use of South Africa's biodiversity, with the aim of leveraging biodiversity economics to promote conservation, species and ecosystem management.
After its release, Don Pinnock wrote: daily maverick Drafting strategy in progress While this strategy appears to support wildlife conservation by embracing consumptive uses and significantly expand protected areas, this strategy does not support wildlife welfare, captive-bred lions, Creasy's position, traversing the progress made by Creasy and his department regarding progressive findings.of high level panel About lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and the White Paper on Conservation and Sustainable Use.
Read more at Daily Maverick: Government seeks to stop plans that would lead to large-scale exploitation of wild animals
Pinnock also said:In South Africa, the redistribution and protection of reclaimed land and redistributed land has not been successful, often leading to conflicts between claimants and rural groups.Enforcement tends to be insufficient and often stolen”
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Barbara Creasy at the Indaba Biodiversity Economy and Investment Venue. (Photo: Julia Evans)
creepy story daily maverick Indaba argued that this perspective was a “misreading” of strategy.
“The problem is, we have two historically different schools of thought. One school said, 'For conservation, look at it, don't touch it,'” Creasey said. said. “And the other school of thought has been saying, 'Biodiversity exists, let's take advantage of it.'”
In his keynote address, Creecy noted that the white paper identifies the challenge that “inappropriate and illegal practices are having on South Africa's reputation as a world leader in biodiversity conservation.”
“The White Paper therefore also emphasizes the importance of the duty of care and ensuring the wider welfare of animals and nature.”
hunting
Pinnock pointed out The plan is “South Africa has become one of the world's leading destinations for trophy hunters, even as the practice faces increasing international disapproval. This could have a negative impact on South Africa's brand and international tourism. ”
“Is there a consumptive use in certain situations? Yes,” Creasy said daily maverick.
“So hunting is a big industry, and no matter what anyone subjectively thinks about hunting, you can't take away from the fact that hunting contributes a huge amount of revenue.” [to] Maintenance. ”
Creasey said animals are culled at all sanctuaries.
“Of course, these are not things that ecotourism shares… You don’t come to Kruger Park to see an impala slaughter, but it happens.
“What we are saying is that large herds of game animals in areas where conventional agriculture is currently at its limits would allow this land to be both conserved and ecologically resilient, providing a sustainable source of prey. “It means you can find it,” he said. It's creepy.
“So we're not talking about putting Impala in a feedlot. We're talking about a large-scale system with the production to match.”
Biotrade and bioprospecting
The exhibition at Indaba will showcase market-ready biodiversity products and services from across the biodiversity economy value chain, including biotrade and bioprospecting (the processing of native plants into consumer products). I did.
“Indigenous pharmaceutical factory trade is a multi-million rand industry that supports jobs and livelihoods across the value chain,” Ramaphosa said in his speech.
“As a nation, we have been adamant that when plant and animal species are harvested for commercial gain, local communities must measurably benefit.”
He said four years ago, the first industry-wide profit sharing agreement was launched between the South African Rooibos industry and the Koi and San Council.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu (left) and Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Barbara Creasy hold the National Capital Account for Strategic Water Resources in the South East prepared by the Statistician-General. (Photo: Julia Evans)
Mr Ramaphosa said the agreement had so far seen R28 million shared between the two councils in recognition of the communities' indigenous knowledge of the rooibos variety.
Wolland le Roux, an Indaba exhibitor who sells Sceletia honeybush tea, said he was happy that President Ramaphosa mentioned rooibos in his speech. This is because in the Eastern Cape, local communities had little capacity to participate in the rooibos tea and honeybush processing value chain. Unlike the Western Cape, the provincial government offered to help.
Le Roux, who is active in the Tsitsikamma and Gukebela communities and is passionate about indigenous knowledge (as she is of Khoi descent), said most locals were harvesters at the honeybush market. Few indigenous people processed raw honeybush into commercial products, and that was where most of the money was made.
“The support that indigenous communities, particularly the Khoi and San peoples, need from the government is to move beyond being mere workers and harvesters into the processing value chain,” Le Roux said.
“There are so many byproducts from honeybush, from herbal remedies to skin care products,” says Le Roux.
“But we need to leverage local communities. We need to raise awareness of opportunities, train them, give them the necessary skills, and even provide them with financial or technical support.”
Indigenous businesses that received harvest training from DFFE Mazoi GroupLocated in Alice, Eastern Cape. Native aloe and pelargonium plants are processed into various medicines.
Its founder and CEO, Lwazi Marau, who commercialized an indigenous treatment that his great-grandmother started in the community in 1906, said that while his training in harvesting DFFE was good, he needed more training on the business side. I acknowledged that it was necessary.
In his speech, Prime Minister Ramaphosa acknowledged indigenous knowledge of plants such as aloe, sceletium, marula, pelargonium and buchu to traditional authorities in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo. He said about R2 million had been paid. .
“We know that compensation for the indigenous knowledge of communities is not enough,” Ramaphosa said. “We know that paying communities to harvest these seeds is not enough.
“When native plant species are harvested for commercial gain, there must be tangible benefits to local communities.”
“This is a very grand plan…We see how it contributes to the economy and commercialization, but we don't know how it contributes to conservation,” Le Roux said.
Land use in rural areas
Mr Creasy spoke of the need to involve rural communities and traditionally disadvantaged people in the biodiversity economy, saying: “We cannot continue to do business as usual.”
This requires investing in locally owned land for conservation compatible land use with biodiversity enterprises.
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Barbara Creecy (left) and Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza listen to vendors at the Biodiversity Economy Exhibition. (Photo: Julia Evans)
Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza said this in a speech at the Indaba on Monday. Land use change is not optimally managed in rural areas and can lead to conflicts between environment, culture and development.
“As the population grows, so does the need for alternative land uses for housing, agriculture and other development,” Didisa said. “This is the reality and it is a balancing act that we must always abide by.”
Support communities that provide land for developmentAlong with protecting nature and wildlife, Didisa said the community values nature and is active in protecting biodiversity.
international standards
South Africa has adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Frameworkat the last United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022.
The main goal is 30×30, which aims to effectively conserve at least 30% of the world's land, freshwater and oceans by 2030, while respecting the rights and contributions of indigenous peoples and local communities.
Mr Creasy said SA needed to anchor the global agreement domestically and the White Paper, along with the revised National Biodiversity Economic Strategy, was a mechanism to do so. He said this strategy is consistent with international policy and thought.
“If we're going to reach nearly 30% of our land goals, we're going to have to ask deeper questions about sustainable use,” Creasy said.
“What we do know is that right now conservation is being done by governments or private landowners, and the vast majority are private landowners. [are] South Africans are historically privileged.
“We still have some sustainable land left in our country that belongs to traditional authorities and local property associations and can enjoy some form of protection and ecological restoration, and that has the potential to benefit those communities. We believe there is an important piece of land here.”
Creasey said the state will need private sector support to reach the 30×30 goal. DM
