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Entomological Society of Southern Africa
15 June 1995
The
Entomological Society of Southern Africa has become alarmed by the recent
increase in the collecting and exportation of South
Africa's indigenous
invertebrate fauna, particularly insects, by foreigners, as well as by the
increasing threat to their habitats
from human activities of various kinds. Our
Society therefore appointed a committee to investigate the problem and make
recommendations
of how to afford our invertebrate fauna and its habitats
protection from exploitation.
The core problem with the current situation
in this regard is that South Africa does not presently accept a national
responsibility
for the conservation of its fauna and flora and their habitats.
Instead, it leaves their protection to various provincial and other
conservation
bodies. This has led to greatly incoherent and discordant conservation
policies, and invertebrates have in most cases
even been specifically excluded
from the few conservation ordinances currently in place. In practice, this
means that invertebrate
animals are afforded virtually no protection at
all.
This lack of adequate protection of our invertebrate fauna is not
only an environmental and conservation problem but also a scientific
one, as
scientifically critical specimens required by local researchers to study the
indigenous fauna are being taken out of the
country in increasing numbers and
deposited elsewhere in the world, where we can only study them again at
considerable expenses and
with lengthy delays.
At a time when the quality
and sustainability of our natural environment is being regarded as a fundamental
right of every citizen,
when it is widely recognized that it is our duty to
conserve our natural resources and environment for future generations, it is
imperative that we accept a national responsibility for the conservation of our
indigenous fauna and flora in their full diversity.
This is so much more
expedient now when South Africa is taking its rightful place in regional
co-operatives like SADC and BIONET International.
SADC countries such as
Namibia and Zimbabwe have already had comprehensive and effective environmental
laws in place for several
years, inter alia to regulate the collecting
and exportation of their fauna and flora, and the envisaged role of South Africa
in various future BIONET
projects (regionally cooperative biosystematic research
on invertebrates) presupposes a scientific independence and competency that
cannot be maintained if the exportation of critical specimens and data is not
regulated. Internationally, too, several initiatives
to conserve biodiversity
globally (e.g. BIOTA, Systematics Agenda 2000) require that individual countries
take charge of the conservation
of their own biodiversity, and countries such as
Australia and Brazil have led the way with highly effective legislation to
ensure
the protection of their fauna and flora.
The committee appointed
by our Society last year made proposals regarding the conservation of
invertebrates to the IDRC/ANC/COSATU/SACP/SANCO
Mission on Environmental Policy,
and we are pleased to see that the report of this Mission, as published on 15
August 1994, is largely
in accord with our principal suggestions. However, even
while the recommendations of this report have been accepted by the Government
and the present national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism as the
basis for a new national environmental policy, this
can only function in the
framework of the present and interim constitution. We are therefore eager to
see that this current environmental
policy will, in essence, also be adhered to
in future and will function also under the new (permanent)
constitution.
We are concerned that the (in our opinion essential)
national character of the current environmental policy may be lost should
environmental
affairs in the new constitution be delegated to provincial level
only, without the country accepting an overall national responsibility
for the
environment and its conservation. Protecting our indigenous fauna and flora
again only by means of provincial legislature,
without a unifying national law
with international authority, will, in our opinion, render not only the
protection of invertebrates
ineffective but actually spells disaster for
environmental conservation as a whole. In order to guarantee and guide such
national
law(s), we are of the opinion that the protection of our environment
and biodiversity should be enshrined in the constitution of
the country. All
more detailed regulations regarding the conservation, collecting, exportation
and other utilization of invertebrates,
as of other animals and of plants, can
only be properly effected if the fundamentals of the conservation of our
biodiversity and
our environment are endorsed in our constitution.
To
this end, we propose that the new constitution:
- ensures
that the conservation of South Africa's environment and biodiversity be accepted
as a national responsibility and be ultimately
regulated at national level, to
which all provincial legislature in this regard shall be
subject;
- includes
in the fundamental rights of citizens the right to both a sustainable
environment and one whose natural biodiversity is
conserved.
We have made more specific proposals regarding
the regulation of collecting and exportation of invertebrate animals to the
Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and to the conservation
authorities of the various provinces, but firmly believe that these
can only be
effective if the principle of the conservation of our environment and
biodiversity is enshrined at the highest legislative
level, namely our
constitution.
We include the following documents as further
substantiation of our proposal:
- a
copy of our proposal made to the Mission on Environmental Policy last year
- a
copy of a relevant article submitted to the South African Journal of Science to
be published this month
- a
petition detailing the environmental clauses we endorse, signed on behalf of the
Entomological Society.
We trust that these proposals, coming
from a learned society of scientists intimately involved with invertebrates and
their conservation
and to a large extent entrusted with the research required to
understand our natural environment, will find due consideration by
the
Constitutional Assembly. If further information and deliberation about these
proposals are required, please contact us at the
above address.
R. G.
Oberprieler
Chairman : Committee on the Conservation and Exportation of South
Africa's Indigenous Insect Fauna for President : Entomological Society
of
Southern Africa
[editor’s note: Proposal for national legislation
to control the exportation of SA’s indigenous invertebrate fauna and
the
article in the South African Journal of Science vol. 9 June 1995 are
unscannable.]
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