The Witness: Thu, 5 Apr 2007
By Craig Bishop

Wild Coast under threat if govt approves dune mining application DUNE mining the Wild Coast will send close to 200 endemic species into extinction.

That is according to the Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC) campaign, which has called on government to reject a recent application for a licence to dune-mine minerals along the Pondoland Wild Coast by Australian mining company Mineral resources Commodities and its local associates, Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources and Xolco.

Campaigners have alleged that mining will destroy growing tourism potential of the region and trash endemic flora and fauna and cultural heritage.

SWC spokeswoman, Val Payn said that it is inconceivable that in the current international climate, in which species are disappearing at an unprecedented rate, that South Africa could even entertain thoughts of allowing open cast dune mining in an area as biologically valuable and fragile as the Pondoland Centre of Endemism.

By allowing mining, government will be smothering the long-term development of a viable and sustainable eco-tourism industry in the area. By implication, they would be smothering the aspirations of local communities who favour a sustainable future based on tourism development.

The Pondoland Centre of Endemism is an internationally recognized hotspot of plant endemism.

There are only 235 endemism hotspots in the world, which contain about 80% of the planet’s known plant species. The Pondoland Centre has 196 known endemic plant species that occur nowhere else in the world, and a rough estimate of 2 253 total species, more than the whole of the Kruger National Park or the UK, which both contain about 1 400 species. New species are still regularly being discovered in Pondoland.

In addition to priceless natural heritage, the area is also a known, but unexplored treasure trove of Early Stone Age. The SWC said it was concerned at documented manipulated consent strategies which the mining company had allegedly used to smother opposition to the mining proposal, resulting in high tensions among various local communities

Some community members have accused the mining lobby of being evasive about specifying the supposed benefits mining would bring to communities.

Promised community upliftment developments, such as assistance with improvement to local schools, have not been forthcoming and they allege that intimidating tactics have been deployed by the mining lobby to silence community opposition.

Decision-making over mining developments does not fall within the jurisdiction of normal environmental impact assessment procedure, does not allow for an independent process of review, potentially contravenes the Convention of Biological Diversity and does not insist on a holistic cost benefit analysis of the merits or demerits of various development options, Payn added.

She said studies by the Wild Coast Conservation and Sustainable Development Initiative revealed that the long-term development interests of the region would be better served by eco-tourism and sustainable agriculture.

craig@witness.co.za
Published: 5 April 2007

Posted on April 5th, 2007
Filed under: Newspaper and Media