Cape Town - Over the weekend the Western Cape government and CapeNature launched the Berg Estuary in Velddrift as an official Ramsar site, and unveiled a Ramsar signboard.
This gave the wetland national and international recognition as a site of ecological importance with improved conservation action.
This was particularly significant as Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell previously said the Western Cape had already lost almost 50% of its wetland areas so therefore it was imperative that a “whole society approach” be taken to restore and protect wetland areas.
CapeNature chief executive officer Razeena Omar said: “The Berg Estuary, which was declared under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance earlier this year, forms one of only four estuaries on the West Coast of Southern Africa.”
Omar said it spanned across 1 162ha and contributed to close to 60% of the estuarine habitat on the West Coast.
There were about 127 species of waterbird recorded at the estuary since 1975, some of which were globally threatened such as the Cape cormorant or regionally threatened such as the Caspian tern.
“The Berg River Estuary Ramsar Status is a big deal for us, especially from a conservation perspective. Estuaries are always at the end of a river, and therefore you can learn a lot from an estuary about what is happening upstream of a particular river,” Bredell said.
At the launch, Premier Alan Winde said the Berg Estuary was a wetland of global conservation significance and a highly valuable asset that provided the province with recreational, social, and economic benefits and must be maintained through a balance between sustainable use, conservation, and development.
“Estuaries like the Berg provide a number of goods and services such as tourism, salt production and fishing to name a few. These alone are worth over R380 million to the local economy per year and so its conservation is paramount not only to the local ‘Weskus’ community but also the province’s economy”, Winde said.
Bredell said the Berg River estuary could help answer many important questions about if enough water was flowing through the river to maintain its biological functions and health, as well as if the river was being polluted by various up-stream users, and many others.
“With Ramsar Status these questions are elevated from being a Western Cape government concern, to now becoming a concern of international importance. With Ramsar Status comes the eyes of the global environmental community.
“Our responsibility as local custodians of the Berg River and this estuary will from now on receive global scrutiny,” Bredell said.
