A settlement could be on the horizon in the African Penguin lawsuit launched by local conservation bodies against the Environment, Forestry and Fisheries minister for the minister's failure to implement biologically meaningful fishery closures around key African Penguin breeding areas.

In March 2024, BirdLife South Africa (BLSA) and the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob), represented by the Biodiversity Law Centre (BLC), sought to review and set aside previous minister Barbara Creecy's decision to implement biologically meaningless closures to fishing around key African penguin breeding colonies.

According to the applicants these closures failed to reduce competition with commercial purse-seine fishing, enabling them to infringe on African Penguin prey, and did not correspond with the Penguins' core foraging areas.

Now new Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Dion George has instructed department lawyers to settle the matter and secure the penguin's fish diet with an out-of-court settlement.

This was shared by the DA as a social media announcement on Tuesday and in a statement on the DA's website with headlines, "Lifeline for African Penguins as DA Minister protects feeding grounds" and "DA praises Minister Dr. Dion George's action to protect endangered African Penguins."

🐧 What's good for the penguin is good for SA's wildlife and tourism!The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, the DA's Dr. Dion George MP is securing African Penguins' primary food sources, by...