The South African government needs to step up to the plate on some key environmental concerns, says former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel.

Speaking at the launch of the World Wide Fund for Nature–South Africa’s (WWF-SA’s) Oceans Facts and Futures report, in Cape Town, on Wednesday evening, he said government had still not ratified the historic twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP21) climate change agreement drawn up in Paris late last year to cut emissions and fight climate change.

This was despite South Africa’s very expensive hosting of COP17 in Durban in 2011, which laid the basis for COP21. 

“Since December, the United Nations has been pleading with countries to ratify COP21 to take the battle for the environment to a new level. One of the countries that has not ratified COP21 is South Africa.

“There is no point in convening COP17 and sending large delegations to these conferences if we don’t internalise [the] resolutions of these conferences and import them into our local legislation,” said Manuel.

Under the Paris agreement, countries are required to set national targets for reducing or reining in their greenhouse-gas emissions. They are also expected to report on their progress.

Manuel, who is a former chairperson of the Global Ocean Commission, said South Africa needed to take environmental issues a lot more seriously.

He used the example of the R1.3-million fine imposed on three Chinese vessels which had been caught in May with 600 t of squid on board. The vessels, which were operating without permits, were spotted by patrols and forced to dock in East London.

“The fines imposed on the vessels amounted to a fraction of the cargo they had on board. The fine was a slap on the wrist. It is shameful.”

Manuel, who is also former Minister in the Presidency, said South Africa had an amazing store of research and science on marine and ocean matters, but needed more activists to strongly promote this.

“Parliament should be more active, but they’ll only be active if society takes these issues more seriously.”

Manuel said issues related to protecting oceans should be integrated into the school curriculum. This would ignite a passion in young people in all matters concerning the sea.

He called on the WWF and other nongovernmental organisations to lobby to get more countries to sign up to the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), a groundbreaking accord to stamp out illegal fishing.

The accord will allow countries with harbours to inspect boats that come into their waters. Countries will also be able to close ports to vessels suspected of illegal fishing. South Africa is a signatory to the accord.

The WWF-SA said South Africa’s rich and productive coastal waters supported thousands of jobs and contributed a large slice to the national economy each year, with coastal goods and services estimated to contribute 35% to South Africa’s gross domestic product.

But the report says South Africa’s key marine fisheries resources are overexploited, with illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, in particular, decimating many of the once abundant inshore fish stocks. West Coast rock lobster and abalone are at or close to commercial extinction.