We are at a time that we need to consider our relationship with Earth. We can no longer afford to exploit finite natural resources at the expense of the integrated environment. We will have to drastically limit our impact, maximize recycling and minimize waste. We must protect, manage and restore natural ecosystems to conserve biodiversity and maintain ecological services. Most importantly, we must learn to respect all life, recognizing that all is connected and interdependant and that there are limits to exploitation. www.geasphere.co.za
The South African National Parks Petition The South African National Parks (SANParks) have embarked on a commercialization programme that will significantly alter the character of our National Parks and that threatens to irretrievably alter the undeveloped status of large tracts of relatively untouched wilderness. The commercialisation programme includes not only the privatisation of a number of facilities and services but also the construction of an indeterminate number of new lodges and roads and the granting of rights for exclusive use of considerable prime portions of land within our national parks including the Kruger National Park. This will include, inter alia, off-road driving, a considerable increase in night traffic, commercial air traffic in and out of our park(s), and increased private and commercial traffic on the existing road network of the parks. The sale and harvesting of game, birds and other resources in our parks, in order to make money, has not been ruled out as a possibility. The decision to embark on this high impact programme that has no defined end (ie. how much development is acceptable) and scope to indicate what forms of developments and activities are appropriate or desirable, was made: with extremely limited public participation without an in-depth investigation to look for lower impact alternative means of generating income for the SANParks without consideration to the cumulative and off-site impacts of the luxury private concessions (the individual, compartmentalised developments' Environmental Impact Assessments DO NOT address these very important impacts); without a preceding or concurrent investigation and programme having been put in place to ensure SANParks are optimally managed and structured in terms of cost effectiveness (efficiency) and accountability (to minimise unnecessary losses); and without fully complying with all the principles and requirements of applicable legislation that is currently in place to protect the integrity of the environment (eg.Section 22 of the Environmental Conservation Act [Act No. 73 of 1989] and the National Environmental Management Act [Act No. 107 of 1998]). We support the idea that National Parks should be managed in a manner that minimises the need for government subsidies and in a manner that creates jobs and generates a profit, wherever feasible. However, this must not compromise or destroy the essence and uniqueness of what makes many people wish to visit our National Parks (and our country) in the first place. Wilderness areas are irreplaceable and are ever-increasingly becoming more rare and more valuable on a global scale. Development decisions need to be made only after careful and thorough consideration of these facts and of the needs of future generations, to whom we have an obligation to ensure they are left with some options of their own. Already, we have left them with arguably too little undeveloped land. We thus support proposals for some, suitably low impact and truly peripheral developments, where these are deemed appropriate through the application of the Precautionary Principle (err on the side of caution) to ensure that long term / permanent loss is not incurred through decisions motivated by short and medium term needs / profits. We call for an immediate halt to the concession process until such time as: a) A comprehensive Strategic Environmental Assessment has been conducted in which all the cumulative and off-site impacts of the concessions have been identified and addressed; b) A thorough investigation has been conducted to identify and consider all alternatives; c) The scope and extent of the commercialisation programme have been firmly set; d) An environmental management system that will capacitate the SANParks to effectively manage and monitor the programme has been developed and implemented; and e) A proper public participation programme has been conducted! To register your support, click here on our Petition Website: http://www.mylittleblackbook.co.za/Petitions For more information go to : < http://www.geasphere.co.za/sawilderness > Geasphere Website Also visit the <http://www.parks-sa.co.za/> Parks Website Should you wish to support the plea to preserve the integrity of South Africa's National Parks through a moratorium on commercial developments until these 5 requirements have been addressed, please add your name to the petition.
