Part of the solution to saving the future of our seas, is to tackle the way coastal communities interact with their environment to ensure sustainability, according to Dr Tony Ribbink, CEO of the Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), who addressed a Rotary Club luncheon in Grahamstown on Thursday.
"The real issue is whether people can feed their families," he said. “The best way to assist the communities is to get them to do something other than taking from the natural resources.” He demonstrated his point by showing pictures and videos on how coastal communities can be impoverished and killed when oceans are not cared for.
Part of the solution to saving the future of our seas, is to tackle the way coastal communities interact with their environment to ensure sustainability, according to Dr Tony Ribbink, CEO of the Sustainable Seas Trust (SST), who addressed a Rotary Club luncheon in Grahamstown on Thursday.
"The real issue is whether people can feed their families," he said. “The best way to assist the communities is to get them to do something other than taking from the natural resources.” He demonstrated his point by showing pictures and videos on how coastal communities can be impoverished and killed when oceans are not cared for.
The event was organised as part of the SST's SEA Pledge Campaign, an initiative that encourages people to support sustainability of seas through financial and written pledges. Dr Ribbink will be advocating for the campaign at COP 17, the seventeenth meeting of the United Nation's annual climate change conference, will begin in Durban on November 28. On 3 December, the conference will be specifically focusing on the state of the Earth's oceans and coastal zones.
Ribbink and three students from the South East African Climate Consortium Student Forum made Grahamstown the second stop on their road trip along the South African coast. Driving two hybrid cars donated by Honda, they will visit 25 communities in total to raise awareness.
Part of the campaign's vision is to set up SEAS centres, which will be carbon-neutral buildings, to provide people with skills that can help them to get employment and a stable income. These centres will target rural populations without high levels of education, people who often have no choice but to gather food from their local environment particularly from the ocean. Many do not know the laws about protected species, size and catch limits, or simply poach wilfully.
The first centre is set to open at the end of next year in Hamburg, where the SST received a donation of 3 hectares of land. Funding for SEAS centres will come from SEA pledges as well as from donations from corporate sponsors, most notably the South African Marine Safety Authority (SAMSA).
The type of work that these centres will do has already begun in Hamburg, where the SST taught a group of women to do embroidery, which they now sell locally. This business provides them with an income that allows them to cease their unsustainable reliance on coastal resources.
“The future of the world is in our hands. We have damaged it, and we have to fix it,” said Dr Ribbink.
