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Thursday, July 18, 2002 - Web posted at 9:57:40 am GMT

JOHANNESBURG - South Africans are devouring forests, grassland, fish and food stocks faster than they are being replaced, says a new report released yesterday by two environmental groups.

The report by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Endangered Wildlife Trust comes as South Africa is set to host a major global summit on the environment next month and said the country has lost 46 per cent of its forests, 62 per cent of its grassland, and more than 90 per cent of its original mangroves.

Almost 10 per cent of the country's plant species are threatened with extinction, it added. South Africa is home to 227 mammals, 800 birds, and over 23 000 plants. But the report warned that the impact of high consumption went beyond threats to flora and fauna.

"Current water usage by the human population in the Western Cape (province) ... will outstrip storage capacity within 30 years," it said.

Such scenarios, it said, would impact heavily on the poor and deliver a blow to the fight against poverty.

Using an index measured in what the report called global hectares of "biologically productive space", it showed South Africans were consuming natural resources at an average rate of four global hectares per person per year.

But biological productive capacity was only 2,4 hectares per capita per year. "This means that South Africa is currently exceeding the available biological capacity by more than 40 per cent. We need to reduce this to zero before we can say that we are on a sustainable path of development," it said.

The report said " ... a doubling of the country's population over the past 30 years has resulted in a halving of the amount of biological resources available per person".

The report comes less than six weeks ahead of the UN-sponsored World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), to be held in Johannesburg from August 26-September 4.

Dubbed Earth Summit 2, it is a follow-up to the first mega-environment conference in Rio 10 years ago and hopes to map out concrete strategies to reduce poverty without inflicting irreparable harm to the planet.

The sustainable use of natural resources and protection of biodiversity will be high on the summit's agenda. - Nampa-Reuters

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