The Wild Coast retains remnants of its original beauty, but this is under threat.
A contemporary picture of the precarious balance of nature vs human impact on this internationally and nationally adored stretch of SA coastline has been set out in a civil application by 47 applicants lodged in the Gauteng high court in December and January.
They are hoping for a high court-supervised order to be issued to three government departments for failing to uphold environmental laws which protect and conserve the Wild Coast.
The state of nature on this coastal strip is contained in the founding affidavit of Dr Div de Villiers, a former Eastern Cape conservator who started working on the coast 29 years ago, and rose to become the department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism’s director of compliance and enforcement of environmental law before retiring in 2023.
De Villiers dedicated 11 pages of his 90-page submission to an overview of the ecological and social importance of the area.
He states the Wild Coast, a 285km strip from the Umtamvuna River in the north to Kei River in the south, is located in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany hotspot and one of the world’s 25 most threatened biodiversity hotspots.
The Wild Coast contains a high level of diverse species, including many endemic, that is, found only there, and a number of threatened and endangered species.
There are a “remarkable” 34 endemic trees and 16 endemic shrubs recorded growing in 50,000 hectares of indigenous forest on the Wild Coast.
These plants and others are highlighted in the Pondoland centre of plant endemism on the Msikaba sandstone belt north of Port St Johns, one of seven centres of endemism in SA, and are recognised globally as a place of extraordinary floral biodiversity.
Biodiversity — the link between all species and essential for all life on earth — is so rich on the Wild Coast that it hosts more plants than the “entire UK”.
Local communities rely on indigenous and endemic plants for medicinal purposes as part of a holistic approach to healthcare, and are used for cultural and religious rituals and customs.
The extraordinary biodiversity on the coastline stemmed from its position as a transition zone, or confluence of two of SA’s three marine biogeographical zones where the warmer subtropical waters of KwaZulu-Natal meet the cooler though still warm-temperature waters of the Eastern Cape.
The Wild Coast’s terrestrial ecosystems are made up of three primary vegetation types — Transkei coastal belt grassland, Pondoland-Natal coastal sourveld, and the scarp forests growing on steep slopes.
Within these large groups of coastal vegetation are mangrove forests, subtropical coastal lagoons, estuarine salt marshes, seashore vegetation and dune thicket.
The 16 mangrove forest parcels, covering 300ha, are at the southernmost tip of their distribution and linked to the warm subtropical marine currents flowing offshore.
The marshes and sourveld on the Wild Coast are unique to the region and 80 grassland species are endemic.
The Wild Coast forests are home to the rare Cape parrot, mangrove kingfisher, giant golden mole, blue duiker, samango monkeys and tree dassies.
The rivers of the Wild Coast and their estuaries, where they join the ocean, are fed by the three major catchments — the Umzimvubu, Mbhashe and Kei rivers, the medium-sized Mthatha and Mtamvuna rivers, and nearly 100 minor catchments less than 60km inland.
About 35% of SA estuaries are on the Wild Coast — 57% of SA estuaries are in the Eastern Cape of which 60% are on the Wild Coast, which also holds the highest proportion of estuaries in a good to excellent condition, according to the UN Development Programme’s project document on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity on the SA Wild Coast.
De Villiers said the sardine migration, known as the largest shoal on earth, arrived off the Wild Coast from Cape Agulhas between June and July, attracting animals from across the world, including game fish, birds, seals and whales.
The sardine run, which saw the shoals taking advantage of a narrow seasonal band of cool water on the continental shelf which flowed [northeast] between the coast, and the southward flowing Agulhas current, was an event which rivalled the annual migration of the herds of Serengeti.
He says the “exceptional value and importance” of the Wild Coast is recognised by a “comprehensive legislative and policy framework”, which is meant to constrain and manage human activities allowed in the area to ensure their protection.
Areas which are protected include land situated in a 1km strip from the high water mark, known as the “coastal conservation area” or “coastal protection zone”, trust forests and natural forests, marine protected areas and nature reserves.
However, he argued, environmental laws were not being applied and a “situation of anarchy [mayhem] has arisen”.
His list of destruction includes illegal building sand mining, damage to coastal forests, illegal roads into conservation areas and areas of high environmental importance and sensitivity, and a fragmented, unco-ordinated government approach to coastal planning and management.
Four of the eight respondents, including government ministers and senior officials and the Eastern Cape division of the public prosecutions (DPP), have posted notices of their intention to oppose.
The matter is expected to be thrashed out in court in the coming months.
The province’s DPP has rejected the allegations made by De Villiers as serious and unsubstantiated, particularly with regard to their Mthatha office, spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said.
Responding papers have not been filed as yet.
Daily Dispatch
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