Scientist fights to save the oceans
A DURBAN scientist, Kajal Lechman, is at the forefront of petitioning the government to save our land and oceans through the Maziwe 30x30 campaign.
Lechman, a marine biologist from the Bluff, is part of a group of protesters who have been picketing around the country. They have been trying to convince the government it should commit to the UN global 30x30 land and ocean conservation campaign to save the environment.
While Lechman and others from the organisation, Youth for Marine Protected Areas, have taken to the streets, representatives from about 80 countries, including South Africa, gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss issues related to the Convention for Biological Diversity – to pledge their ongoing commitment to support the protection of 30% of global land and sea by 2030.
Lechman said through the campaign the world would be able to maintain global biodiversity, ensure the survival of wildlife and help mitigate against the effects of climate change.
Youth for Marine Protected Areas is involved in offshore research, community upliftment and youth development. It consists of various organisations and has members from Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Lechman said they had sent a letter to Barbara Creecy, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, thereby petitioning the government to get involved in the 30x30 campaign.
“At the beginning, there was confusion that the 30x30 target meant that each nation had to conserve 30% of its land and ocean, but it's a global campaign. If each country committed its own percentage of land and ocean that
it would protect, then cumulatively by 2030 we will have 30% of each part of our planet protected.”
She said the government had previously indicated it did not have the resources, especially the financial resources, available to participate. However, Lechman praised South Africa as a leader in land and sea conservation because there were already several protection measures in place and 42 marine protected areas in existence.
Lechman said just as there were nature reserves and parks on land, so there were also protected areas in the ocean.
She said to implement the campaign, a certain part of the ocean would be demarcated as protected and that no permission would be granted for extraction activities, fishing for commercial uses, mining for gas or minerals, or the development of piers or promenades.
“So essentially to protect the ocean or land you allow the habitat to heal itself or sustain itself so that it has a knock-on effect on surrounding areas because there are no boundaries.”
She said if a specific part of the ocean was allowed to thrive, then the marine life available there would be allowed to spread out further into the ocean.
The first step to protecting a part of the ocean was to identify the area, put in protective measures and then publicise details like the co-ordinates, said Lechman.
“The issue is whether we have enough security in our deep waters to prevent people from coming in, and doing wrong within those areas.”
She said protecting marine space was more difficult than protecting land where there were rangers and it was easier to see the demarcations.
Lechman said she was passionate about the ocean; as a child she always felt connected to nature, the sea and what happened in the water, and so it was almost natural she would end up in marine biology.
Albi Modise the chief director of communications in the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, said: “With regard to our country’s position on the 30% target, South Africa acknowledges the need for an ambitious global protection target under the global biodiversity framework, but also emphasises that each country’s contribution to any agreed target must be subject to national circumstances and capabilities.”
He said the department had participated in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) meetings in Geneva because it was relevant to South Africa as a party to the convention.
Modise said South Africa was part of the UNCBD negotiations that included discussions on the post 2020 global biodiversity framework and its 21 targets.