African Penguins ‘Critically Endangered’- DFFE Must Act Urgently

Dear Editor

The DA calls on the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment to act with urgency and accelerate the publishing and implementation of the African Penguin Biodiversity Management Plan which has been in a draft for some years now.

This follows the African Penguin being uplisted from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Critically Endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on their globally recognised Red List of Threatened Species.

This is the last stage of classification before they become functionally ‘Extinct’. African Penguins are endemic to the southern African coast with most of their population centered along the Western and Eastern Cape coastlines of South Africa.

This alarming development comes after two red flags signaling the species’ decline. The global population of African Penguins fell below 10 000 breeding pairs for the first time in 2023, having lost over 97% of its population in under a century. Recently, a scientific study projected that at the current rate of decline African Penguins would become extinct as soon as 2035.

African Penguins are an ecologically and economically important species to South Africa as well as being an icon of South Africa’s natural heritage. Meanwhile, a recently published report commissioned by the Endangered Wildlife Trust estimated the tourism value of African Penguins in 2023 to be between R613 million and R2.7 billion. Penguins play a facilitative role for other marine predators who feed on pelagic shoaling fish and fertilize ecosystems surrounding their colonies. They are a precious part of our shared South African natural heritage and deserve to be protected.

The precipitous decline in this species is indicative of the state of our wider marine environment. In this sense, African Penguins are the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the marine ecosystem. As we close out Marine Month and contemplate the conservation of our oceans and coasts, this is a devastating blow.

We further call on all stakeholders involved in the ongoing litigation around the closure of areas around breeding colonies to fishing to put aside individual interests and find common ground for the benefit of the imperiled species. Lastly, we continue to advocate for responsible fisheries management, including an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries and the application of the precautionary principle to protect our threatened and valuable marine ecosystems.

To let the African Penguin go extinct will be a serious dereliction of duty on behalf of the South African government which has the Constitutional obligation to protect our environment for the benefit of present and future generations. Either we act now, or future generations will never experience African Penguins in the wild.

Regards

Andrew de Blocq MP
DA Spokesperson on Forestry, Fisheries and Environment