Date: Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Time: 10.00 – 12.00 SAST
It was over 300 years prior to the country’s first marine protected area (MPA), when the Western Cape witnessed its first fishing restrictions that had lasting impacts. To date, the majority of local and indigenous coastal communities struggle to discern between contemporary conservation measures from the colonial and apartheid periods.
MPAs are widely recognised for their ecological benefits, such as increased biomass, species abundance, and spillover effects. However, their social and economic legitimacy remains contested. In contrast, Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs), formally defined under the Convention on Biological Diversity and integrated into the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (target 3), lack operational clarity, are complex to operationalise, challenging to implement, inconsistently interpreted and can be a one-size-fits-all approach. This ambiguity poses multi-dimensional challenges to achieve the 2030 goal of conserving 30% of global marine, freshwater, and terrestrial areas.
Drawing on South Africa’s experience, this lecture examines the conceptual and practical dimensions of OECMs through the lens of “caring conservation”. It highlights governance complexities, trade-offs affecting Indigenous and local communities, and the need for inclusive strategies that integrate cultural and ecological principles. It invites a critical and systematic examination of these gaps to create an informed, equitable, and effective contemporary marine conservation framework for people and nature.
Bio:
Loyiso Dunga believes that to be an indigenous student of knowledge and know where we are going, we must know from whence we came. He is a marine biologist by training, focusing on kelp forest ecosystems, and a conservationist at heart. His work places him in the nexus of science-policy-society, where he works to build bridges that bring together multiple disciplines in order to co-design strategies to safeguard South Africa’s marine heritage for people and nature.
Reading:
- Establishing a basis for recognising marine ‘other effective area-based conservation measures’ (OECMs) in South Africa. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2989/
1814232X.2025.2552997 - Piloting a culturally significant areas framework for spatial planning and management in the coastal environment of South Africa. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.marpol.2025.106807 - The contribution of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) to protecting global biodiversity. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63205-8
