2021 WESSA Annual Review

2021 BLUE FLAG LAUNCH WESSA officially launched the 2021/22 Blue Flag Season this year at Hermanus in the Western Cape. In recognition for their excellence in safety, amenities, cleanliness and environmental standards, 60 Blue Flags will be proudly flown at 51 beaches, 5 marinas and by 4 sustainable tourism boats around South Africa over the forthcoming 2021/2022 Blue Flag season. The season officially opens on the 1st December 2021. Thirty-three Pilot beach sites were recognized this year for their efforts toward reaching Blue Flag status in the near future. With a national goal of 100 Blue Flag sites by 2030, all efforts are now focused on assisting these pilot sites to become fully awarded with the Blue Flag. WESSA continues to celebrate the great work of Grotto Beach and the Overstrand Municipality, hosts of the 2021/2022 launch who proudly achieved their Blue Flag status for 21 years! WESSA is committed to continue working together with municipalities and tourism operators to build the Blue Flag programme to its full potential and to restore the tourism industry after the devastating effects of COVD-19. The Green Key programme remains heavily impacted by the lack of international tourism to the country, but our partner hotel properties have seen gradual recovery through the support of domestic travelers. The Green Key programme still has significant potential for growth in South Africa and our hospitality partners remain committed to making their operations more sustainable. Our unit remains very optimistic about this awards programme and believe that we will still see the projected growth we had planned for before the pandemic started. Many of our tourism partners have also made use of this period to restructure and plan more strategically around the idea of sustainability and we believe this reset will be positive for the growth of Green Key in South Africa. GREEN KEY PROGRAMME

The last 12 months have allowed us to also reflect on the role that tourism plays to protect our natural areas and create ambassadors for protection of our natural world. We have seen a number of national parks and reserves suffer drastic decreases in income with the drop in tourismwhich has called into question the importance of this single line of funding for nature conservation. Some points for consideration for our organization now are how we can play a bigger part in building more diverse and resilient forms of income or funding for our natural spaces. We also need to do more to get those that live within close proximity to wildlife, and who pay the real cost of conservation, to benefit more from these places in a way that provides an acceptable standard of living and progress for them.

Our unit is looking at expanding our scope into the fields of community conservation, new strategies for protected area planning and the role of the wildlife economy in South Africa.

Blue Flag Overstrand Municipality receiving their 2021/2022 award

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Annual Review 2020-2021

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