Biodiversity Law Centre hails African Penguin ruling as 'long-overdue step towards securing their survival'
Birdlife South Africa and SANCCOB have reached an agreement with commercial sardine and anchovy fishers to provide foraging areas for African Penguins.
FILE: African Penguins stand on the beach at the Boulders penguin colony, which is a popular tourist destination, in Simon's Town, near in Cape Town, on 1 November 2024. Picture: RODGER BOSCH/AFP
CAPE TOWN - Birdlife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) have secured a historic court victory for the critically endangered African Penguin.
The out-of-court settlement after six years of court battles will secure foraging areas for African Penguins for the next decade, to help bring the species back from the brink of extinction.
Birdlife South Africa and SANCCOB have reached an agreement with commercial sardine and anchovy fishers to provide foraging areas for African Penguins.
Biodiversity Law Centre's Kate Handley said the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has two weeks to ensure the closures are implemented.
"The imposition of scientifically-informed fishing closures, to limit commercial purse-seine anchovy and sardine fishing activities around key African Penguin breeding colonies, is a long-overdue step towards securing their survival in the wild. We now look to the DFFE and the minister to ensure full implementation of this order."
Handley said the permit conditions were set to be renewed every year for the next 10 years.