Pretoria - South Africa has joined the international community in marking the annual celebration of World Oceans Day (WOD).
The day is aimed at appreciating, protecting, restoring and honouring ecosystem services and resources provided by the oceans.
South Africa has jurisdiction over one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world, as it is uniquely surrounded by three ocean spaces (the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans), offering a resource-rich and biologically diverse environment.
“Our oceans represent a significant asset for current and future generations. The oceans provide direct socio-economic benefits through extractive industries, such as oil and gas, fishing, aquaculture and less obvious benefits through the provisioning of ecosystem services such as climate regulation, carbon storage and waste absorption.
“Furthermore, our oceans and coastal areas support a growing tourism industry as many citizens and international visitors flock to our shores to engage in recreational activities such as swimming, diving, whale-watching,” said Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.
Recent studies have described the direct economic contribution of existing ocean activities to South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product in 2010 at approximately less than 4.5%.
Given the relative size of South Africa’s ocean space, potential exists to increase the ocean contribution to the GDP. South Africa has developed the Oceans Economy strategy through Operation Phakisa to explore the potential of economic growth through ocean resources.
The United Nations has identified pollution, particularly pollution originating from land, as one of the big stressors to the health and integrity of marine ecosystems. Globally, it is estimated that roughly 80% of all marine pollution stems from activities carried out on land.
South Africa participates in the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Environment from Land-based Activities (UNEP GPA), which has identified litter as one of the key sources of pollution in the ocean environment. – SAnews.gov.za
