The courtcase regarding African penguin conservation has been postponed due to the State's delayed response.
The courtcase regarding African penguin conservation has been postponed due to the State’s delayed response. Image: SANCCOBC
(The Post News)- The African penguin’s fate hangs in the balance due to the South African government’s procrastination in a critical court case. The Biodiversity Law Centre, representing conservation groups BirdLife South Africa and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), has intensified its battle to safeguard the African penguins.
The case, which was initially scheduled for October 2024, has been postponed to March 18-20, 2025, at the High Court in Pretoria. This delay was caused by the state’s late submission of their response affidavit on September 19, 2024.
At the heart of the dispute is the government’s decision to implement temporary fishing closures around African penguin breeding sites. The applicants argue that this decision was irrational and unlawful, as it neglected the precautionary principle and failed to act decisively on existing scientific evidence about the African penguin’s plight.
The urgency of the matter was underscored on October 28, when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the African penguin’s status to Critically Endangered. The population continues to decline rapidly due to food shortages caused by commercial fishing of small pelagic fish, the primary food source for the penguins.
The applicants assert that immediate action is critical to safeguard the African penguin’s food supply, emphasizing that delays caused by the country’s late filings are incompatible with the urgency required to prevent the extinction of this iconic species.
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