Applicants want recommendations of the panel imposed.has lost 97% of its population. If current trends persist, the species will be extinct in the wild by 2035.and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds , initiated a landmark litigation in the High Court in Pretoria in the interests of Africa’s only penguin species: the endangered African penguin .
“It follows her failure – since at least 2018 – to implement biologically meaningful closures around African penguin breeding areas, despite scientific evidence that such closures improve the species access to their critical sardine and anchovy food source, thereby contributing toward arresting the decline of the African penguin.”
All the while, the African penguin population had suffered an alarming decline of 8% per year on her watch.Dr Alistair McInnes, seabird conservation manager atSouth Africa, says: “The African penguin’s survival depends on the right decision being taken now. African penguins at breeding colonies need access to food.
These closures were first imposed in September 2022 while an international panel of experts extensively reviewed the science collected since 2008 as part of an Island Closure Experiment . The panel’s recommendations were provided in July 2023 with the purpose of enabling the minister to take definitive, science-based decisions regarding island closures after years of indecision and debate.