Kruger Park e-Times

KrugerPark eTIMES

Keeping An Eye On Duke

An African Buzz At the Tourism Indaba

SA Defence Force Will Patrol Borders Again

photo: Lynette Strauss

May/June 2010 - e5

Desk Notes

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InsideSANDF To Resume Patrol Of Kruger National Park’s International Borders 3Relief For Abalone Right Holders 4Addo Now Has Its Own Webcam . 4It’s All In The Laugh 4Apes, Elephants And Logging In The Congo 5Keeping An Eye On Duke 6Biodiversity In Africa’s Protected Areas Declining Fast 7SANParks Products Revamped 8Mata-Mata Shows A New Face 8Website Works Well 8Is Kamfers Dam On The Brink Of Collapse? 9More Frogs On The Menu in West Africa 9Environmental Urban Planner Donates Prize To Establish Fund 10R2 Million Boost For The Southern African Wildlife College 10Letaba Is Best Camp In Kruger, Malelane Best Ranger Section 11Tourism Indaba Attracts More Delegates 2Tourism Winners Marked By Service Excellence 13Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur Winners Announced At Indaba 14Giraffes Prefer Feeding At The Top 14Competing For Limpopo Water 15NGOs Appeal Against Mining At Mapungubwe World Heritage Site 16Lions Benefit Form This Year’s BIKE4BEASTS MTB Challenge 17Young Trackers Excell With Cybertracker 17Is South Africa planning an elephant bloodbath after the 2010 FIFA World Cup? 18Climate Change And Environmental Crime In South Africa 20Rift Valley Fever: No Namibian Beef, Goat Meat For South Africa 21Zuma Supports Green Economy 22Invest Says Patel . 22What’s to celebrate on World Migratory Bird Day? 23Earth Day: 40 years on 24

The Kruger Park e-Times is published regularly to keep you updated on conservation, science, sustainable development and tourism issues in and around South Africa’s national parks, transfrontier parks and other environmetal hotspots across the globe.

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I imagine the Kruger National Park (KNP) rangers and environmen-tal crime units are especially pleased with the news that the South African defence force will be patrolling the country’s borders again.

Rhino poaching is still a major con-cern and a fortified line of defence seems long overdue.

Last year the KNP lost more than 40 rhinos in poaching incidents. So far this year, almost as many rhinos have been slaughtered countrywide.

In addition, South Africa’s minis-ter of environmental affairs indicated in her budget speech that dedicated time slots for environmental crime cases will be re-introduced in Durban Regional Court in KwaZulu-Natal, Nelspruit Regional Court in Mpum-alanga and the Hermanus District Court in the Western Cape.

On a lighter note, KNP rangers, with assistance from the Honorary Rangers, succesfully collared one of the park’s best known ‘new’ tuskers. Although Duke lost both his tusks last year, the 55 year old elephant is a favourite sighting in the Crocodile Bridge, Lower Sabie sections of the park. The Kruger vets were a bit wor-ried about the effects of the collaring operation, but all ended well.

On the same day, Kruger awarded their star performers for the last year.

The best camp prize went to Let-aba Rest Camp, while Malelane sec-tion ranger, Don English and his team scooped the best ranger category.

Lindiwe Ngobo, Sgt Isaac Hlong-wane, Samuel Milani and Enock Manyiqe each received a bravery award for protecting guests and col-leagues, often at grave risk of their own lives.

From awards to funding, the South-ern African Wildlife College, based near Orpen Gate, received a welcome R2 million boost from the Profession-al Hunting Association of Southern Africa. The college specialises in con-servation management training for people from all over Africa.

On the disease front, South Africa is being cautious with meat imports from Namibia, following an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever there.

Happy readingLynette Strauss

In April this year, soldiers resumed regular patrols of South Africa’s bor-ders. Defence and military veterans minister Lindiwe Sisulu and members

of parliament’s portfolio committee on the ministry inspected facilities on the borders with Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

This will be a huge boost in the coutry’s intensifying battle with poachers, notable of rhino in the Kruger National Park (KNP).

According to the International Rhino Foundation South Africa had already lost more than 30 rhino to poachers in the first four months of 2010.

In 2009, Kruger lost 41 rhinos in poaching incidents.

Lindiwe and the portfolio committee interacted with soldiers to understand the challenges the South African Na-tional Defence Force (SANDF) are faced with as they return to the borders.

The soldiers take over patrol as part of the new South African National Bor-der Management Agency, approved by Cabinet.

“We return to the borders as more advanced SANDF than when we left in 1998, I am very impressed by the ground work already done to take over the full patrol from SAPS and the progress and presence we have already made along the border.

“We are engaging the defence indus-try on some of the best technology to monitor illegal activities and also keep an eye on our fence 24 hours. Together with other law enforcement agencies the SANDF will ensure that their constitu-tional mandate to secure the borders is done with pride and excellence,” she said.

She said the SANDF is returning to the border in phases due to a shortage of funds and in line with Government budgeting processes, funds will start be-ing made available in the next financial year.

“This is a major programme, the in-frastructure is not the best it can be, the fence is not in a good state, we have over 2000m long, land border we have to look after and that requires both financial,

technology and human resources, but we are up for the task and I am confident that many South Africans are happy that their troops are back on the border,” she said.

The SANDF will also meet with the chiefs of the defence forces of neighbour-ing countries to re-establish coordinating structures and to urge them to deploy sol-diers on their side of the fence.

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Nyami Booi, said the SANDF is capable

of delivering on the task but they need the necessary resources.

“We would have preferred that the SANDF takes over full border patrol as soon as possible, but we understand that this phased approach is necessitated by lack of funds and we will do what we can to as-sist the SANDF to perform this function, we are happy that the return to the border has started,” he said.


SANDF To Resume Patrol Of South Africa’s Borders

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Newsclips

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Acoustic analysis of the ‘giggle’ sound made by spotted hyenas has revealed that the animals’ laughter encodes information

about age, dominance and identity. Re-searchers writing in the open access journal

BMC Ecology recorded the calls of 26 hy-enas in captivity and found that variations in the giggles’ pitch and timbre may help hyenas to establish social hierarchies.

Frédéric Theunissen, from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and Nicolas Mathevon, from the Université Jean Mon-net, St. Etienne, France worked with a team of researchers to study the animals in a field station at Berkeley.

Theunissen said, “The hyena’s laugh gives receivers cues to assess the social rank of the emitting individual. This may allow

hyenas to establish feeding rights and orga-nize their food-gathering activities.”

The researchers found that while the pitch of the giggle reveals a hyena’s age, variations in the frequency of notes can en-code information about dominant and sub-

ordinate status. These vo-

calizations are mainly pro-duced during food contests by animals that are prevented from securing access to a kill, and have been considered a gesture of sub-mission.

T heun i s s en and colleagues also suggest that the giggle may be a sign of frustration and that it may be intended to summon help.

He said, “Li-ons often eat prey previously killed by hyenas. A solitary hyena has no chance when confront-ed by a lion, whereas a hy-ena group often can ‘mob’ one or two lions and get their food back. Giggles

could therefore allow the recruitment of allies. Cooperation and competition are everyday components of a hyena’s life.

When hearing a giggling individual, clan-mate hyenas could receive information about who is getting frustrated (in terms of individual identity, age, status) and decide to join the giggler, or conversely to ignore it or move away”.

The researchers plan to further test these hypotheses with playback experiments in the field.

Photo: Lynette Strauss

It’s All In The LaughRelief For Abalone Right Holders

The Minister of agriculture, for-

estry and fisheries approved an addi-tional R6 million as part of Abalone Social Relief for commercial abalone right holders and crew, pending the finalisation of the process for the con-ditional lifting of the suspension of the commercial harvesting of wild abalone.

“Government has carefully consid-ered the pleas made by abalone right holders for additional relief measures and we remain concerned about their plight, especially in the context of dwindling wild abalone stocks’, Min-ister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said.

The relief is only a short-term measure or ‘stop gap’ to address the plight of the fishers and their families and it is not sustainable in the long-term. Minister Joemat-Pattersson said that alternative sources of fish resources will be explored for coastal communities and fishing companies. The Minister made this observation because the current wild abalone stocks, even with temporary suspen-sion of harvesting, will not lead to full recovery to meet the current demand.

The interim relief payments, made from the department, came into ef-fect on Friday 7 May 2010.

“No service provider will be in-volved in the facilitation of payments to ensure that every single cent reach-es the intended beneficiaries,” the Minister said.

Addo Now Has Its Own Webcam

The Addo Elephant National Park can now boast that it has its very own webcam where you’re sure to catch amazing views of the Park’s main at-traction, the elephants.

This webcam was bought with pub-lic funds and forum donations some two years ago, but was delayed due to infrastructural issues. There has been a long wait for the Interpretive Centre to be built so that the webcam could have connectivity abilities.


The Wildlife Conservation Society announced the re-sults of the first-ever evaluation of a large, “landscape-wide” conservation approach to protect globally important populations of elephants and great apes.

The study looked at wildlife populations in northern Re-public of Congo over a mosaic of land-use types, including a national park, a community-managed reserve, and vari-ous logging concessions. It found that core protected areas – coupled with strong anti-poaching efforts – are critical for maintaining populations of forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, and chimpanzees.

The region, known as the Ndoki-Likouala Conservation Landscape, is considered one of the most important sites in Central Africa for all three species. The Wildlife Con-servation Society has been working in the landscape since 1991 and helped establish Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in 1993.

The study appears in the April 23rd edition of the jour-nal PLoS One.

The authors found that protected areas remain a key component of the landscape for all three species. Chim-panzees and elephants are particularly sensitive to human disturbance outside the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, and the park plays a major role in their distribution. In fact Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park may be one of the most important sites for chimpanzees in the Congo Basin with some of the highest densities recorded in Central Africa.

The study also found that logging concessions that have wildlife management in place, including protection of key habitats and anti-poaching patrols, can support important populations of elephants and gorillas. However, the au-thors warn that logging concessions are only of conservation value if there are strict anti-poaching measures in place, and if they are close to protected areas free of human disturbance. As evidence, the study showed the results of surveys in a logging concession without any anti-poaching measures or wildlife management where abundance of all three species was very low.

“Protected areas free of human disturbance, logging, or roads remain key to the protection of great apes and elephants,” said WCS researcher Emma Stokes, the study’s lead author. “Landscape conservation should focus on protected areas surrounded by other land-use types that also have wildlife management in place.”

The forests of the Congo Basin are one of the last remaining tropical wildernesses and a top priority for biodiversity conserva-tion.

Commercial logging is prevalent throughout much of the Congo Basin, with over 30 percent of native forest allocated to logging concessions compared to only 12 percent under protection. More than 50 percent of the current range of western gorillas and chim-panzees is estimated to lie in active logging concessions.

“This study shows that landscape-wide conservation can work in Central Africa – provided there are the resources and political will to save wildlife over large areas,” said James Deutsch, Director of

the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa programs. “Conserva-tion on this scale is difficult and expensive, but absolutely necessary if we hope to save viable populations of elephants and great apes. At the same time, the government’s capacity to follow up and take legal action against poachers should be strengthened and is a key to maintaining the protection of the forests and their wildlife.”

The authors estimated elephant and great ape density using dis-tance-sampling surveys of elephant dung piles and great ape nests.

Authors include Wildlife Conservation Society researchers Emma Stokes, Samantha Strindberg, Parfait Bakabana, Paul El-kan, Fortuné Iyenguet, Bola Madzoke, Guy Aíme Malanda, Franck Ouakabadio and Hugo Rainey; Brice Mowawa of the Ministre de l’Economie Forestière, Republic of Congo; and Calixte Makoum-bou, formerly with WCS Congo Program.

The surveys presented in this paper were made possible through generous funding from the U.S. Agency for International Devel-opment Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Ape Conserva-tion Fund.

Donations in support of helping save wildlife and wild places, can be made at www.wcs.org/donation

photo: Jacques Goosen, SANHU

Apes, Elephants And Logging In The Congo


Lynette Strauss

The bush was littered with people, watching his every move. They saw him desperately wanting to outrun the helicopter, saw the

dart strike. He ran back and forth as lead filled his feet and eventually he sagged to the ground, oblivious of the hands that soon afterwards probed everywhere.

They stuck a twig in his trunk to make sure he could breathe easily. They measured his teeth, his feet, his heartbeat, drew blood. Cameras rolled and clicked almost non-stop.

Men and women, dressed in familiar Kru-ger National Park (KNP) greens, tugged, pushed, drilled and clamped to fit a new leather collar around the 55-year old neck.

A cautious eye on the clock marked their progress. Finally, they were done.

A few last minute photographs before the rangers gathered everyone into the vehicles. SANParks veterinarian, dr Peter Buss stuck the last needle.

The reversal drug kicked in and the giant rocked himself upright. He paused briefly

before he trudged away from the throng.It was then that Crocodile Bridge section

ranger Neels van Wyk found a few moments in his wife’s embrace for an emotional cel-ebration of both his father, who had passed away three years ago to the day, and Duke, a living legend of the Kruger National Park.

Silently, Neels and Cindy saluted the gi-ant as he disappeared from view.

Duke is one of the emerging tuskers in the park, following in the footsteps of the magnificent seven, Mafunyane, Joao, Shin-gwedzi, Dzombo, Ndlulamiti, Shawu and Kambaku.

Probably the best-known living tusker, Duke usually roams the Crocodile Bridge section of the park, occasionally venturing into the adjacent Lower Sabie and Tshok-wane sections.

Although both his tusks broke off last year, they were not lost, largely due to the efforts of the teams of Neels and fellow sec-tion ranger, Steven Whitfield, who is based in Tshokwane.

It was on Neels’ suggestion that John Turner, chairman of the Honorary Rang-er’s (HR) counter poaching and ranger

support services unit, raised the necessary funds for the collar itself and the collaring operation.

The collaring coincided with the annual HR fundraising event known as Mokhololo and allowed John and several other HRs, as well as their guests to attend the fruition of their fundraising drive.

The entire collaring operation after Duke went down took about 30 minutes, which made Dr Markus Hofmeyr, head of SAN-Parks veterinary services a happy man.

Markus said he was initially worried about how Duke would handle the tranquil-liser and anaesthesia, but the outcome was as good as could be wished for.

According to Markus, Duke is in excellent condition and may live for years to come. The collar, however, will help rangers great-ly to retrieve the carcass when Duke dies. His skull and tusks will then become part of the display at the elephant hall in Let-aba rest camp, where he will take his place alongisde the magnificent seven.

Photos: Lynette Strauss

Keeping An Eye On Duke

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A study of protected areas at 117 sites across seven countries in Africa has revealed a progressive decline in biodiversity.

This was unveiled during a side event in Kenya on May 12, 2010 hosted by BirdLife during the on-going SSTTA meeting at-tended by Government delegates from all over the world.

The event showcased results from a moni-toring project implemented by BirdLife and

RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) and funded by the European Commission.

The monitoring results clearly show that the state of biodiversity in protected areas is declining. Sites identified as being in a poor state increased from 43% in 2001, to 57% in 2008.

There has been a general increase of threats facing protected areas. Delegates at the meeting heard how BirdLife used a sim-ple ‘State, Pressure, Response’ Model for

the monitoring of African Important Bird Areas (IBAs), of which 46% are Protected Areas.

The data from the monitoring have been used to develop indicators to show trends over time within IBAs.

These results form important compo-nents of the suite of indicators suitable to track biodiversity progress towards the 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) target, and wider sustainable development around the globe.

“The results also show that if proper management responses are put in place it is possible to improve the state of biodi-versity and reduce pressures”, said Achilles Byaruhanga - Executive Director of Nature Uganda (BirdLife Partner).

“This was well demonstrated through the sites monitored in Botswana - Central Ka-lahari Game reserve, Okavango Delta and Mannyelanong - where comprehensive and effective uses of existing management plans have been instituted”.

BirdLife told delegates that it is important for policies to be implemented and alterna-tive livelihoods be provided for to reduce the pressures facing Protected Areas to en-sure that governments start moving towards meeting their biodiversity target under the CBD.

“BirdLife’s monitoring tool is a useful tool and can be used by governments to iden-tify threats, assess their impacts and that of conservation action while at the same time helping to develop solutions”, said Dr Julius Arinaitwe - BirdLife Africa Partnership Di-rector.

“BirdLife supports a post 2010 commit-ment by Governments (2020 target) that urges for urgent action to halt biodiversity loss; to reduce pressure on biodiversity, pre-vent extinctions, restore ecosystems while equitably sharing the benefits, thus contrib-uting to human well being and poverty re-duction”, concluded Dr Arinaitwe.

In total, BirdLife is working in 22 coun-tries in Africa in over 1,200 IBAs.

photos: Lynette Strauss, Jenny Newenham

Biodiversity In Africa’s Protected Areas Declining Fast


SANParks Products Revamped

Taking their cue from recent trends, SAN-

Parks are upgrading many of its products, focusing on an environmentally friendly and value for money approach.This accord-ing to SANParks, Tourism and Marketing, Managing Executive, Glen Phillips, who made the announcement at the Toursim Indaba held in Durban form May 7 to 11, 2010.The new developments include the re-vamping of the Golden Gate Hotel situated in the mountainous eastern Free State. The hotel, which previously had 35 rooms, now boasts 54 rooms.

The hotel is now open to the public for bookings. The Mata Mata rest camp bor-dering Namibia has also been given a ma-jor face-lift. The older chalets have been upgraded, the prefabs removed and eight newly built thatched chalets are also open to the public.

Philips said, Tankwa Karoo National Park, situated on the southern boundary of the Northern Cape has received a new campsite at Perdekloof, while Agulhas Na-tional Park located at the most southern tip of Africa has a new rest camp at Piet se Punt. The revamped heritage guest-house at Piet se Punt makes it one of the modern heritage sites in SANParks stable.

The Interpretive Centre in Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site is expected to open in September. Mapun-gubwe is located in the northern part of the country where South Africa meets Botswa-na and Zimbabwe on the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers.

Phillips said when compared to trends in the industry, SANParks has had a fantas-tic year. “We forecast 2009/10 to be a flat year, however year end results revealed a 0, 8% growth with an overall occupancy of 73,3%.”

The unit nights sold were 531,018 com-pared to the 521,018 sold in the previous year. Phillips said in terms of camp person sold the 675 392 recorded are better than the 604, 900 sold in the previous year.

According to Phillips, less international arrival were seen from Germany (from 32.0% to 28,4%) United Kingdom (from

13.6% to 13,5%) and Holland (from 11.1% to 10,5%). More visitors from France (grow-ing from 6.9% to 9,1%) and the United States moved from 5,0% to 5,4%, visited than in previous years.

He said SANParks flagship project, the Wild Card, continues to be one of the most popular loyalty programmes. This year the organisation has sold 105 687 cards.”

“Our efforts to transform the national parks visitors demographics is continuing to yield good results with the growth in black visitors growing to 406,085, a 17,5% in-crease from 345 559 from the last financial year.”

He said that from a financial perspective, “Despite the unfavorable global economic situation, SANParks has seen good returns in tourism income. In the 2008/09 financial year a total of R532,459M was recorded in comparison to R598,512M recorded in the 2009/10 financial year.’

Mata-Mata Shows A New Face

The Mata-Mata Rest Camp in the Kga-lagadi Transfrontier Park [KTP] was of-ficially re-opened on Thursday, 29 April 2010, after an upgrade of the facilities. The proceedings were officiated by the chief ex-ecutive of South African National Parks, Dr David Mabunda.

The rest camp, on the South African side of the Namibian border of the KTP, now boasts eight brand new thatched chalets along with the refurbished older chalets. The new chalets overlook the dry riverbed of the Auob River. The design and fittings of all of the accommodation maximises en-ergy efficiency.

Mata-Mata is the smallest of the tradi-tional camps in the KTP, the others being Nossob and Twee Rivieren. Camping fa-cilities will still be available at the camp for those who prefer that natural experience; and a small shop and fuel station will pro-vide the basic necessities for visitors.

Dr Mabunda said that the new-look camp fits in better with the landscape of the park and is an excellent investment for SANParks considering that the KTP runs on a 90-95% occupancy through the year.

Website Works Well Since inception in November 2007, the

SANParks website has reached an almost 700 percent increase in visits.

“This is a phenomenal performance even by world standards as very few web-sites in South Africa today can lay claim to such high figures,” said SANParks Head of Communications, Wanda Mkutshulwa at a press function held at Tourism Indaba in Durban.

The full figure for the 2009/2010 finan-cial cycle was 1,083,321,506 hits, 2,973,841 unique visitors and 6, 124,061 visits.

In addition, the web forum membership now stands at 18,348 members from all over the world, with over 612,000 number of ac-tive articles running.

Most members (53 percent ) are based in South Africa, followed by the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, France, Switzerland, Canada and Italy in that order.

According to Mkutshulwa the online ac-commodation reservation system, which was also launched five years ago, has facili-tated revenue growth. “Since the launch of the bookings online SANParks has collected just under R124million in accommodation revenue, with an impressive 98% increase year on year.”

She said 73 000 reservations had been made online, of which 39,000 of them in the last financial cycle alone.

“In this financial year the organisation aims to bring the website to the global community through the introduction of a number of ‘introductory pages’ in five of the world’s popular languages i.e. German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Mkutshulwa said SANParks also intends to introduce a new, fresh and vibrant look to the website by August 2010. “We hope and believe that our large community of website users will be as excited and impressed with these developments as they have been with the current website.”

She said SANParks is also experimenting with the use of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. “We hope these new generation platforms will afford us an opportunity to continue grow-ing sanparks.org to even greater heights.”

TOURISM HEADLINES


CONSERVATION HEADLINES

Is Kamfers Dam On The Brink Of Collapse?

A recent water quality study, conducted

by Dr Jan Roos from Water Quality Consul-tants in Bloemfontein, has found that Ka-mfers Dam’s water quality has deteriorated significantly during the past year. “The Ka-mfers Dam aquatic system is under severe pressure because of a massive cyanobacte-rial (algal) bloom and extreme oscillations in oxygen concentrations, driven by poor water quality”, said Dr Roos.

Not only is the water quality the worst it has ever been, but the water is now at its highest level ever. More than two-thirds of the Lesser Flamingo breeding island re-mains flooded, and two important railway lines are at risk. “This is a disaster” ex-plained Jahn Hohne, Chairman of the Save the Flamingo Association.

According to Dr Roos, the nitrogen, am-monium, fluouride, phosphates of the in-flowing sewage water are exceptionally high and way above the allowable Department of Water Affairs standards.

Kamfers Dam is a nutrient enriched sys-tem because of an excessive inflow of nu-trients (sewage) and consequent high algal biomass. The Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), for example, in the discharge water is very high (206 mg/l) and above the maxi-mum allowable limit of 75 mg/l.

“Kamfers Dam is one of the most impor-tant feedings sites for Lesser Flamingos in southern Africa, but this may change” said Mark Anderson, an expert on the biology and conservation of the Lesser Flamingo.

“This is because the composition of algae is changing from mainly blue green algae, Spirulina platensis, which is the dominant food of the Lesser Flamingos, to Chlorella,

one of the green algae”. There is concern that toxin-producing algae, such as Micro-cystis, may also soon be present in thispol-luted wetland. These algae are suggested to be responsible for the mass die-offs of Lesser Flamingos at lakes in East Africa.

It is however not only the flamingos who are being affected. When an algal bloom collapses all available oxygen is consumed and these conditions lead to the produc-tion of hydrogen sulphide gas (a rotten egg smell).

This is a poisonous gas, which is ex-tremely toxic to fish and other animals. It also causes bad smells and is a major

nuisance and irritation for residents in neig-bouring suburbs. Even visitors to the

Road Lodge and Flamingo Casino have been complaining about the stench.

Of further concern is that faecal coliform bacteria in the outflow water were unac-ceptably high (>241 900 cfu/100 ml) and in fact too numerous to count at the Insti-tute for Ground Water Studies laboratory in Bloemfontein.

“During the past three years the flamin-gos have bred on an artificial island which was constructed by Ekapa Mining” says An-derson. “There were 9000 chicks in the first year, 13 000 chicks in the second year and possibly only 2-3000 chicks during the last summer”. The rising water level resulted in the flooding of the island in November last year, and thousands of chicks drowned and eggs were lost.

“Although some work is being done at the Homevale Waste Water Treatment Plant, there’s absolutely no progress in the up-grading of the sewage works” said Hohne. “More than R200 million is required to upgrade the works so that it can process Kimberley’s waste water and treat it to an acceptable standard, funding which the Sol Plaatje does not have”.

The Save the Flamingo Association (www.savetheflamingo.co.za) was formed to address the threats to Kamfers Dam.

photo: Flamcam

More Frogs On The Menu in West Africa

The demand for frogs for human con-sumption is rising dramatically in parts of West Africa, according to a paper published in the latest issue of the TRAFFIC Bulletin.

Dried or fried: amphibians in local and regional food market in West Africa describes the frog trade in Burkina Faso, Benin and Nigeria, based on interviews with local fishermen, collectors, market traders and others in-volved in the trade.

In Burkina Faso, almost all frogs collected were consumed locally, with the African Tiger Frog Hoplobatrachus occipitalis the most frequently eaten species. Frogs are usually sold to market traders who fry the speci-mens before sale. Villagers in the Ganzo-urgou region also eat toads, which are first skinned, beheaded, washed then dried to avoid the toxic skin secretions.

In Benin and Nigeria, frogs are transport-ed to south-west of Nigeria for sale. Thirtyt-two traders between them handled around 2.7 million frogs per year, most originating from the northern savannah regions of Ni-geria and from neighbouring Benin, Chad and Niger.

In Malanville, Benin, frogs are collected exclusively for the Nigerian market. There, many fishermen have recently switched to catching frogs, not because of higher prof-its, but because frogs can be sold in batches, providing a lump sum of income—around USD20 per sack. Increasing numbers of collectors from Nigeria are visiting the area to collect frogs.

The authors accompanied a 30-strong team who between them caught around 450,000 (450 sackfuls) of frogs during a two-month stay in Malanville.

There are indications the trade in frogs is unsustainable in some regions; in Burki-na Faso, local people reported decreasing catches of frogs, although whether this is due to over-exploitation, habitat deteriora-tion or other factors is unclear. There were similar reports from western Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, where even tadpoles are collected for food.

While frogs are clearly an important food source in the region, currently there are no regulations in any West African country governing the harvest.

The authors suggest farming of large spe-cies, like the African Tiger Frog in West Af-rica should be investigated—to protect wild populations and provide a source of local income.

However, they caution about the poten-tial drawbacks, such as loss of income to villagers not involved in farming, land use and pollution from farms and the potential disease and health risks.


Environmental Urban Planner Donates Prize To Establish Fund

Students of green architecture, sus-tainable design for urban areas, engi-neering or science focussing on sustain-able technologies will benefit from a top environmental prize.

Simon Nicks, a planner and urban designer from Cape Town won the En-vironmental Category of the Johnnie Walker® Celebrating Strides Awards 2010 on May 5 and has donated his R125 000 into a bursary fund for post graduate students.

Nicks is a committed environmental-committed environmental-ist whose aim it is to “design places that are nice to live in with minimal impact on our planet’s resources”.

He says the prize package will be invested to pay for tuition for Master’s students for the next ten years.

Nicks, who is the managing member of CNdV Africa, started his career as a housing activist helping communities in informal settlements resist the threat of forced removal.

He was one of 12 finalists - in four categories including design, entrepre-neurship, environment and the arts - chosen for the success they achieved in their various fields.

The other winners chosen by the in-dependent panel of judges as well as members of the public are businessman Max Maisela, author, playwright and musician Welcome Nsomi and architect Mokena Makeka.

One of Nicks’ biggest design and environmental challenges is making proposals that go against the grain of current business-as-usual mainstream thinking in government, commerce and academia.

Conservation in Southern Africa has received a R2 million boost thanks to the Professional Hunt-ers Association of Southern Af-

rica (PHASA) through the Southern Afri-can Wildlife College.

PHASA have held a gala fundraising din-ner for the past four years, with all money raised through a wide selection of sought after auction items being donated directly to the College for the training of natural resource managers from across southern Africa.

“This is always a great conservation event, where wilderness and wildlife pro-tection are the true winners on the night. We are overwhelmed with the amount of money raised and can guarantee the stu-dents who will benefit from coming to the College will be getting the best training and management skills possible and the cause of conservation will be spread further through southern Africa.” said Theresa Sowry, ex-ecutive manager – training from SAWC.

The event this year – held at the Sandton Sun Conference Centre in Johannesburg - more than doubled the amount raised last year and means that many more students will be able to attend courses at the College and take their new skills and experience back to their protected areas around the region.

The guest speaker on the evening was professional hunter Coenraad Vermaak, who amused the audience with stories of

days gone by across Africa, but reminded everyone of the need for conservation and protection of our natural heritage and the animals and environments of Africa.

Items donated for the auction included hunting packages, accommodation packag-es at top lodges in South Africa and abroad, rare jewelry and paintings and a four ball at the exclusive Leopards Creek Country Club.

Top bids were for a white rhino hunt in North West Province, which brought in R520,000 and two lion hunts which went for more than R300,000 each.

The Southern African Wildlife College trains natural resource managers from around Africa in the expertise required to manage protected areas effectively. By pro-viding training in skills as diverse as anti-poaching techniques, fire management, infrastructure development, geographic information systems and computer skills, and community liaison, the College is pass-ing on the knowledge needed to sustainably conserve national parks and reserves and the animals, plants and people who depend on the parks for survival.

The College was established 12 years ago by WWF-SA and Peace Parks Foundation and to date has trained more than 3000 students who have continued on to become Protected Area Managers, Community Ex-tension Officers, field guides, game rangers, and tourism officials.

R2 Million Boost For The Southern African Wildlife College


Malelane section was named best ranger station in the Kruger National Park for 2009/10. Section ranger,

Don English, and his field rangers accepted the award at the annual KNP Achievement Awards which took place on Friday, 16 April 2010 in Skukuza.

Lindiwe Ngobo, Sgt Isaac Hlongwane, Samuel Milani and Enock Manyiqe each received a bravery award for protecting guests and colleagues, often at grave risk of their own lives.

Wolhuter received the Wilderness Trails Camp of the Year award, and the Shop of the Year award went to Berg en Dal. Nxanatseni Region’s Sirheni scooped the Bush Camp of the Year award while Phalaborwa was nomi-nated as best entrance gate.” Letaba was the best camp for the year, and Nxanatseni the best region.

The “Department of the Year” award went to finance while the “Special Team Effort” award this year went to veterinary wildlife services and the “Concession of the Year” award went

to Tinga Concession, which is situated near Skukuza.

The Honorary Rangers, who have over the years continued to donate goods worth millions in support of the KNP on a vol-untary basis without expecting anything in return, received an appreciation award, as did Nestle.

This year’s event also included the “Man-aging Executive Special Awards” with John-son Khoza receiving an individual special award for his efforts in sorting out the ad-ministration of the warehouse during the past year. The Public Relations Depart-ment also received a special award for the manner in which the department kept the KNP Achievement Awards going for the past 11 years without any serious financial cost to the organization. The third special award went to the rangers and environmen-tal crime and investigations staff for their effort in combating the escalating poach-ing incidences in the park particularly rhino poaching.

Individual awards were given to the fol-

lowing people who showed “Outstanding Ser-vice in the Work Place”:

Aurel Nyambi, Ben du Plessis, Annah Mlangeni, Dr Sam Ferreira, Dr Izak Smit, Victoria Nxumalo, Sinna Mphatse, Itume-leng Khadambi, Gerson Sekwena, John Mnyuku, Amon Sibuyi, George Sibuyi, Mbongeni Tukela, Amos Tivane, Edward Masambu, Thomas Macie, Silas Mukoki, Rodney Landela and Tebogo Maboko.

Individual Awards for “Outstanding Service to Tourists/Clients/Customers” were given to the following individuals: Nicolaas Coetzee, Kally Ubisi, Saul Hlatshwayo, Samson Ma-basa, Frank Mbungela, Rodgers Hobyane.

“The word success is generally associ-ated with hard work, though the word itself is easy to find in the dictionary, but attain-ing the actual success is definitely never an easy thing, hence I would like to congratu-late our staff members received awards”, said the KNP Managing Executive, Mr Abe Sibiya in his welcome address.

Photos: Laura Mukhwevo, Lynette Strauss

Letaba Is Best Camp In Kruger, Malelane Best Ranger Section

Managing Executive Special Awards – Senior General Manager, Environmental Crime Inves-tigation and Air Services, Mr Ken A R Maggs and Marula Regional Ranger, Mr Mbongeni Tukela receive the award on behalf of Rangers and Environmental Crime Investigation staff.

Best shop in Kruger - Berg en Dal Ranger Post of the Year - Section Ranger, Don English and Field Ranger, Eric Manyiqe receives the award on behalf of Malelane Ranger Post.

Best bush camp -Sirheni Best concession in Kruger - Tinga Luxury LodgeBest entrance gate - Phalaborwa

On the second last day of INDABA 2010, South Afri-can Tourism and exhibition organisers were certain that

attendance this year would at least equal last year’s numbers, if not surpass them.

On Monday, it was estimated that close to 13 900 people had already attended the four-day Indaba that was hosted at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban.

“This has been an outstanding IND-ABA for many of us,” chief executive officer of SA Tourism Thandiwe Janu-ary-McLean. ”It has been the INDABA at which we have collectively cast our minds to the future of our industry, and of our destination. The pace of business at INDABA this year, and the quality of delegates, both exhibiting and buying, indicate that we have every reason to be optimistic about South Africa as a desti-nation after the 2010 World Cup.”

This year’s Indaba showed that buyers and visitors from the rest of the African continent had recorded good growth in delegate numbers.

There was a 100 percent increase in buyers from Angola, an 18 percent in-crease in buyers from Mozambique and a 23 percent increase in buyers from Tan-zania.

Between them, these markets had sent 83 buyers to Indaba 2010.

Almost 10 percent more exhibiting companies had attended the Indaba this year. This was a clear indication of bull-ishness and buoyancy in the industry, ac-cording to January-McLean.


Tourism Indaba Attracts More Delegates



The 2009/10 Welcome Awards winners, sponsored by First Na-tional Bank (FNB) Commercial, were announced at a glittering

award ceremony at INDABA in Durban on May 9.

Kapama Private Game Reserve walked away winner of the parks category, while Cape Grace scooped the accommodation award. Best tour operator was Edge of Af-rica, best tourist attraction is Vergelegen Wines and the School of Tourism and Hos-pitality in Gauteng clinched the restaurant category. Collen Sibuyi of Mpumalanga was named best tour guide and

These winners represent the pinnacle of service excellence in the tourism industry.

Deputy Minister of Tourism, Thokozile Xasa, keynote speaker at the awards eve-ning, congratulated winners on their dedi-cation to making service delivery a top pri-ority, as this has a direct impact on South Africa’s reputation to deliver a world class tourism experience.

Says Hanneli Slabber, Global Manager: Product: “We congratulate these winners who are the cream of the tourism crop. They have embraced quality service deliv-ery and their overall performance demon-strates their readiness to welcome visitors to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.”

The winners were praised for raising the bar of service delivery, providing visi-tors with excellent service to entice them to come back and visit. Their products and services were innovative, met and went be-yond visitors expectations and inculcated a culture of a great hosting nation.

Of great importance when judged, was the overall impression they portrayed of a consistently high standard and that they demonstrated professionalism in their ap-proach to customer service.

The 2009/10 Welcome Award category winners are:

1 Accommodation Cape GraceWestern Cape2 Tour Operators Edge of AfricaWestern Cape3 Tourist Attraction

Vergelegen WinesWestern Ca4 Restaurants School of Tourism & HospitalityGauteng5 Parks Kapama Private Game ReserveGauteng6 Travel Agencies Flight

Centre GatewayKwaZulu-Natal7 MESE (MICE) South African Reserve Bank Conference Centre Gauteng8 Tourist Guides Collen SibuyiMpumalanga9 Online (Best website) City Lodge HotelsGautengPieter de Bruin, Head of the Tourism

Division at FNB Commercial, said: “The quality of winners this year truly reflects service excellence. We are inspired by their commitment, passion and hard work to cre-ate authentic South African experiences that showcase our diversity, richness and cultural heritage.

“It is of vital importance that the industry strives for service excellence to ignite and encapsulate a welcoming spirit with only month to go to the World Cup. We want visitors to remember us a warm hospitable nation so that they go home, ambassadors for South Africa,” concludes de Bruin.

Excellent service is fundamental to the visitor experience. The winners of the Welcome Awards have recognised and in turn been rewarded for delivering on this premise in their businesses. The Welcome Awards entries for 2010/11 will open in July 2010.

Photo: Reg Caldecott

Tourism Winners Marked By Service Excellence


Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur Winners Announced At Indaba

Stellenbosch wine farmer, Malmsey Rangaka of M’Hudi Wines has been named overall winner of the highly contested 2009/10 Emerging Tour-ism Entrepreneur of the Year Award (ETEYA).

This was announced at a glittering award ceremony celebrating ‘Heroes – past and present’ on May 7 at INDABA in Durban. This is also a 10 year mile-stone for the competition.

A delighted Malmsey Rangaka ac-cepted the award on behalf of her company and has also walked away with R100 000 to help grow the busi-ness. First runner up was Jojo Tsheola of Tsheola Dinare Tours, a tour opera-tor based in Gauteng. Tsheola Dinare provides shuttle services and arranges tailor-made tours for visitors.

Second runner up was Tiveka Mathumbu of Tiveka Game Lodge in Limpopo. Tiveka is a small game re-serve that provides quality accommo-dation, conferencing as well game drive facilities at competitive prices.

Third runner up was Tebogo Nare for Nare Travel and Tours in the North West. Nare Travel is a full service trav-el agency, tour operations and shuttle transfer service provider. It is a com-munity driven service specialising in tailor-made holidays to any destination in South Africa.

Said Hanneli Slabber, Global Man-ager: Product for South African Tour-ism: “The passion and exuberance displayed by the ETEYA winners is contagious. We are delighted with the level of business acumen they display. ”

The ETEYA winners were chosen based on how well they presented their businesses at ITB; the standard of their marketing material; their level of inno-vation; their enthusiasm; how well they presented themselves as ambassadors; and the return on investment.

The judging panel consists of South-ern African Tourism Services Asso-ciation (SATSA), the Tourism Grading Council (TGCSA), the Tourism Enter-prise Partnership (TEP), South African Breweries (SAB), South African Tour-ism, the Provincial Tourism Authori-ties, member of the media, Travelwires and private business, Flight Centre.

The giraffe’s e long ated neck has long been

used in textbooks as an illustration of evolu-tion by natural selec-tion, but this common example has received very little experimen-tal attention. Re-searchers at the Mam-mal Research Institute in the Department of Zoology and Ento-mology at the Univer-sity of Pretoria tested whether foraging com-petition with shorter herbivores could ex-plain why giraffes feed mostly on leaves high in trees, despite being able to feed at lower levels as well.

“This [study] provides the first real exper-imental evidence that the long neck of the giraffe might have evolved as a consequence of competition, which provides support for a previously untested textbook example of natural selection,” said Elissa Cameron, University of Pretoria, who coauthored the study with Johan du Toit, University of Pre-toria and Utah State University.

Giraffes are well known for their unusual height, and they generally feed high in the tree canopy, above the height other herbivores can reach. Giraffes receive more leaves per bite by foraging high in the tree, but it’s unclear whether this is caused by competition - smaller brows-ers eating some of the leaves at lower heights - or if more leaves grow at higher levels.

The researchers built low fences around trees in greater Kruger National Park to stop smaller browsers from eating leaves. After a complete grow-

ing season they found that the number of leaves on the fenced trees was roughly the same, revealing that small browsers are re-sponsible for most of the foraging. There-fore, the researchers argue, it is competition from other herbivores, such as kudu, that appears to drive giraffes to eat leaves high in the trees.

The study was first published in the American Naturalist: January 2007. Cam-eron, Elissa Z. and Johan T. du Toit, “Win-ning by a neck: tall giraffes avoid competing with shorter browsers.”


Giraffes Prefer Feeding At The Top


Climate change will bring higher temperatures to Southern Africa while changing rainfall patterns will affect the amount of water

available for food production.“Irrigation is often listed as an adaptation

strategy for farmers, but no one has really looked at the impact of climate change on irrigation,” said Claudia Ringler, a Senior Research Fellow at the US-based Interna-tional Food Policy Research Institute (IF-PRI).

Ringler and her colleague, Tingju Zhu, a senior scientist at IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division, have published a series of research papers on the effect of various scenarios - from a business-as-usual approach where greenhouse gas emissions continue, to having environment-friendly policies in place - on water sourc-es available for irrigation, such as rivers, groundwater and rainwater runoff, in vari-ous parts of Africa.

To measure this they took into account the rate of evapo-transpiration - the release of water into the atmosphere from surfaces such as soil and plants -and changes in rain-fall.

One of their papers looked at the Lim-popo River Basin, which crosses four South-ern African countries - Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique - and provides a living to hundreds of thousands

of farmers, and found that water supply would start diminishing in another two de-cades.

Nearly a quarter of South Africa’s popu-lation of 48 million and 60 percent of Bo-tswana’s people live in the basin, which has 2.9 million hectares of farmland, with 91 percent cropped under rain-fed conditions. According to the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, half the ba-sin’s water is consumed by big commercial farms in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Climate change will affect rainfall in the basin severely - it will receive between 10 and 25 percent less in the next two decades - so more and more farmers will turn to ir-rigation, the IFPRI scientists said.

ConflictsAt present the water in the Limpopo Riv-

er basin supplies the irrigation needs of 97 farmers out of every 100 in every second year; in another two decades this number will drop to 91 out of every 100 farmers, Ringler said.

Rainfall in the basin is highly seasonal and unevenly distributed, already affecting food production in the region, and climate change projections indicate that floods and droughts will worsen.

Commercial farmers make up 20 percent

of the farming population in the basin and own 60 percent of the land, while the re-maining 80 percent are small-scale farmers with 20 percent of the land, and therein lies the problem.

“The commercial farmers ... are well pre-pared for the water-stressed scenario with drip irrigation systems in place and access to drought-tolerant seed varieties,” said Ringler. Most of the small-scale farmers also depend on the river for irrigation but do not have access to drip irrigation sys-tems, which use very little water.

The farmers also face stiff competition for water from the gold, platinum, coal and iron mines in South Africa’s share of the ba-sin, and half of South Africa’s electricity is generated by the coal-fired plants located in the basin, according to ARC.

Most of the basin - 45 percent - falls with-in South Africa’s borders and its needs dic-tate the share of water that other countries in the region receive, Ringler said. The es-calating climate-related stresses and existing competition for water mean the potential to expand irrigation is limited.

“All the countries will have to work togeth-er to create an equal playing field in sharing the water,” she pointed out. “South Africa could create a water reserve for the Mozam-bican farmers who live downstream.”

© IRIN. photo: Lynette Strauss

Competing For Limpopo Water

The Limpopo River as it passes Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa across from Botswana


The fight to protect the Mapun-gubwe Cultural Landscape from coal mining heated up this month (May 2010) with the submission

of an appeal against the mine by some of the leading non-governmental organisa-tions in South Africa. Australian company Coal of Africa Limited (CoAL) was recently given the go ahead to begin construction of an opencast and underground coal mine within less than six kilometers from the borders of the Mapungubwe National Park and adjacent to the World Heritage Site, with the approval of the Environmental Management Plan for the proposed Vele Colliery.

The appeal was lodged by the Endan-gered Wildlife Trust (EWT), the Peace Parks Foundation (PPF), the Association of Southern African Professional Archae-ologists (ASAPA), the Mapungubwe Action Group (MAG), the Wilderness Foundation South Africa (the WFSA), the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (the WWF) and BirdLife South Africa (BLSA).

The appellants are being represented by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and include organisations whose objects and purposes involve the protection and main-tenance of the environmental integrity of the area in and around Mapungubwe for current and future generations as it relates to the natural habitat, ecosystems, cultural heritage and related aspects of the environ-ment.

In addition, the appellants believe it to be in the greater public interest to have sub-mitted this appeal in order to address the serious shortcomings of the Environmental Management Programme (EMP) and to attempt to prevent further damage to this environmentally sensitive and culturally im-portant environment for all South Africans. In addition to the appeal lodged, the appel-lants further appealed to the Minister of Mineral Resources to exercise her powers in terms of section 103(4)(b) of the Mining and Petroleum Resources Development Act to suspend the right to mine pending the outcome of this appeal.

The appeal was brought on the grounds that the EMP submitted by CoAL is defi-cient and that the approval of the EMP is unlawful and invalid because it purports to authorise conduct which is prohibited and

unlawful in terms of the National Environ-mental Management: Protected Areas Act, 57 of 2003.

Specifically, the EMP omits to consider certain consequences of mining in the area; misrepresents the true consequences of mining in the area; misrepresents the true impact of the consequences of min-ing in the area it identifies; and is premised on fundamentally erroneous assumptions regarding the nature of the mining to be done, the appropriate methods of evaluat-ing its impact and the possibility of effec-tively managing or mitigating such impacts.

Areas Of Major ConcernAreas of major concern to the appellants

include concerns for the sensitive land-scapes in and around of the mining area; the statutory prohibition against mining on those portions of the mining area that have been proclaimed nature reserves; the archaeological and other heritage resources affected by the mining; the impact on bio-diversity and specifically on habitat, ecosys-tems and various species in the mining area; the impact on the quantity and quality of water resources; the noise and dust pollu-tion that will be caused by mining; and the impact on the socio-economic conditions of persons affected by the mining operations, including such persons’ rights, under sec-tion 24(a) of the Constitution, to an envi-ronment that is not harmful to their health and well-being.

Furthermore, concern has been raised for the failure of the EMP approval pro-cess to comply with the public consulta-tion required in terms of the Act in that relevant persons and communities, includ-ing affected parties in Zimbabwe and Bo-tswana (which border this mine) were either ignored or their specific concerns ignored, or they were not consulted at all when they should have been.

The Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape (MCL) was recognised in 2003 as a World Heritage Site under the Convention Con-cerning the Protection of the World Cul-tural and Natural Heritage, adopted by the General Conference of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organi-zation (UNESCO) on 16 November 1972 (the World Heritage Convention) as it is considered to have “outstanding universal

value”. The MCL was the original location of far-reaching cultural and social changes in southern Africa between AD 900 and 1300 and its remains are a remarkably com-plete testimony ... of the ... largest kingdom in the African sub-continent.

Further, Mapungubwe represents “a sig-nificant stage in the history of the African sub-continent”, and therefore, the signifi-cance of preserving the Mapungubwe Cul-tural Landscape, both to South Africa and the world at large cannot be overstated.

The Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area (originally known as the Limpopo-Shashe Transfrontier Conserva-tion Area) was established by means of a Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe on 22 June 2006.

In terms of this agreement, the three gov-ernments commit to attempting to establish a Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) that includes Mapungubwe National Park and the core area properties.

It was renamed the Greater Mapun-gubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area on 19 June 2009 and although the proposed mining area is not within the proposed Greater Mapungubwe TFCA, it is almost surrounded by the TFCA.

The entire northern border of the min-ing area along the Limpopo River is directly adjacent to the Zimbabwean portion of the TFCA and falls within the proposed phase 2 of the TFCA. The impact of the mining ac-tivities on this sensitive landscape is best de-scribed in terms of the impact on its “sense of place”, derived from this unique natural environment, and enhanced by the distinc-tive mix of natural and cultural features in the landscape.

The appellants firmly believe that this mine is not only an inappropriate landuse for the MCL and a region that it already thriving on a sustainable ecotourism indus-try, but that it makes a mockery of our regu-latory framework if the inadequacies of the EMP can be overlooked for the sake of ex-pediting its approval.

The losses incurred to South Africa, and the world at large, if this mine proceeds, will be great. At a time when South Africa is be-ing showcased to the rest of the world and is trying to project a positive future, it would be sad if we were to bury our past in a heap of coal and rubble.

NGOs Appeal Against Mining At Mapungubwe World Heritage Site


The fourth BIKE4BEASTS MTB Challenge took place in the De Beers Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve on April 25 this year.

75 mountain bikers had lined up to pro-mote awareness of the region’s natural won-ders, promote eco-tourism and raise funds for the conservation activities of the Endan-gered Wildlife Trust. Participants were also given a rare opportunity to take part in a 31 km Fun Ride in the neighbouring Ma-pungubwe National Park. Race organisers, Lycaon Logistics, were thrilled with the suc-cess of the event.

Since inception, the BIKE4BEASTS MTB Challenge has raised almost R200 000 for the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT). The proceeds of this year’s race will go directly to the EWT’s Carnivore Con-servation Programme (EWT-CCP), which has several carnivore conservation projects across southern Africa covering species such as cheetah, leopards, wild dogs and lions.

Each year, a different threatened spe-cies is chosen as the mascot for the BIKE-4BEASTS MTB Challenge. In 2007 the mascot was the black rhino, in 2008, the Endangered African wild dog and in 2009 it was the cheetah. This year the lion, Panthera leo, which is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) moved into the spotlight.

Lions are Africa’s top predators. Recent studies have estimated the total number of

lions in Africa to be between 16 500 and 47 000. Lions have not roamed freely in most of South Africa since the early 1900s, but are now only found in large protected ar-eas such as the Kruger National Park and in small game reserves where they have been reintroduced.

Today, approximately just over 500 Lions occur in 40 game reserves in South Africa, another 1 600 in the Kruger National Park and just over 100 are estimated to live in the South African part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Lion populations are threatened by human-wildlife conflict and the lack of any populations of lions outside of protected areas means that most of the smaller populations have to be artificially managed to maintain their viability.

The BIKE4BEASTS MTB Challenge route winds for 65 km through the heart of the De Beers Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR), situated in the Limpopo Province, just south of the international boundary between South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe and adjacent to the Ma-pungubwe National Park. It follows existing vehicle dirt tracks to minimise the environ-mental impact on the undulating and varied terrain, through some of the most stunning and archaeologically rich scenery in the region. The landscape is predominantly Mopane veld with dottings of baobab trees. The terrain is sandy, with rocky kopjes and riverine sections providing interest.

The reserve forms part of the Diamond Route, a national project which focuses on linking the conservation properties of the Oppenheimer family and De Beers.

The winner of the 2010 BIKE4BEASTS men’s challenge was Renier Bellingan with a time of 02.28.57, setting a new course record on this newly designed course. Ber-nard Bronkhorst finished in second place, with Graham Crystal, also the first junior rider home, finishing in third. The winning lady and the defender of last year’s chal-lenge was Kerry Baytopp, with a time of 03.48.49. Michelle Boot took second place and Susan Miller came in third. The win-ning team was Barloworld Equipment.

In addition to sponsorship from Barlo-world Equipment and African Explosives Limited, the organisers would like to thank De Beers Consolidated Mines, Powerade, Global Communications, Exxaro, the Dia-mond Route, and South African National Parks. Special thanks go to UHN Potatoes for donating the use of the helicopter and the Off-Road Rescue Unit for providing logistical support and ensuring the riders? safety. Great Time also provided the timing and results. Special thanks go to all of the volunteers who made the day such a suc-cess; Nature Conservation Society, the Land Rover Owners Club, staff from the Endan-gered Wildlife Trust, Global Vision Interna-tional, and local community stalls.

Lions Benefit Form This Year’s BIKE-4BEASTS MTB Challenge

Two young people from the Hoedspruit area became the youngest to achieve a tracking qualification during a tracking evaluation held at Moholoholo in April 2010.

Samantha (10) and Tristan Patrick (8) from Hoed-spruit achieved a level I in track and sign identification under the Cybertracker evaluation system. This is the system used across the globe to evaluate trackers. Their next goal is to achieve a trailing qualification (the following and finding of various animal species) this will then give them a full tracker qualification.

The cyber tracker evaluation system is an effective method of evaluating a person’s true bush knowledge. No theory exam is re-quired but through the process a person’s knowledge about the environment and animal behaviour is tested, this is one test where practical experience counts. Moholoholo is looking at expanding this practical method of learning for younger people and will be holding more of these in the future for all ages.

Young Trackers Excell With Cybertracker


OPINION ......................................................

After a series of uninformed, emo-tional and identical letters of ac-cusations against South African National Parks (SANParks), I

felt that it is necessary once again to pro-nounce on the issue of elephant culling in our national parks. I want to put paid to any attempts at fuelling a falsified campaign of disinformation from any quarters, nation-ally or internationally.

I would like to point out that the bur-geoning elephant population and the entire wildlife asset in our national parks belong to the people of South Africa. It is a living testimony to the success story of the South African formal conservation tradition dat-ing back to 1898 when the Sabi Game Re-serve, a predecessor to the Kruger National Park (Kruger), was proclaimed to protect wildlife from decimation by indiscriminate bloodthirsty hunters. Through our generos-ity and warmth we have welcomed the in-ternational community to share with us the splendour and inspiration of our nature-based tourism experiences borne from our wildlife, including the majestic elephants. Our success in resuscitating the elephant population which was almost extinct by 1900 has returned to haunt us, with our parks bursting at the seams with elephants. Within South Africa, there is little space left to translocate elephants!

Consultation And Legislation

SANParks has spent the last 12 years (since 1998) consulting South Africans and the international community on the subject of elephant management. A delegation led by the previous Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Honourable Marthi-nus van Schalkwyk, met with stakeholders in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Switzerland in 2004/5 and solicited views on elephant management. The na-

tional and international consultations cul-minated in the publication of the ‘Norms and Standards for the Management of El-ephants in Private and State-owned Parks’. Shortly after the publication of the ‘Norms and Standard’s the Minister appointed a Panel of Experts and convened several dis-cussions and reviews where existing data and trends were an-alysed to formulate interim and long-term management strategies for man-agement authori-ties’ consideration. A book entitled “Elephant Man-agement: A Scien-tific Assessment for South Africa” ed-ited by R.J. Scholes and K.G. Mennell, with contributions from 62 experts has since been pub-lished. The Assesss-ment, as the book is popularly referred to, did not generate new knowledge but sought to add value to existing informa-tion by collating, summarising, inter-preting and commu-nicating it in a form that would be useful to management au-thorities or decision-makers.

It should be em-phasised that there is no one size fits all when it comes to managing elephants in different settings as circumstances

vary from one park to another in terms of biome, ecosystem, physical factors, popula-tion size, area size, regional socio-economic and political dynamics. However given the long history of Kruger in elephant research, case histories, and some Kruger elephant decisions and actions were largely quoted in

Is South Africa Planning An Elephant Bloodbath After The 2010 Fifa World Cup?Chief Executive of SANParks, Dr David Mabunda expands .................................


OPINION ......................................................

the Assessment and employed as examples to illustrate various principles. These exam-ples are well documented and have similar paralles in other parks elsewhere on the Af-rican continent.

Elephant Management: Learning By Doing

Management authorities are currently hard at work crafting and re-crafting their elephant management plans to include im-mediate to long-term management strat-egies and interventions. SANParks is no exception to the rule. The majority of wa-terholes in the Kruger are being closed to allow natural spatial and temporal variation processes to take their own course in regu-lating population dynamics for elephants. The intention is to leave a few artificial wa-terholes for nature-based tourism purposes which is another objective for which the park is managed.

Management is vigorously pursuing the expansion of the natural habitat of some of our national parks through contractual parks with private land-owners and in-ternational co-operation with neighbour-ing countries through Transfrontier Parks. Since 1998 several breeding herds were translocated to neighbouring Mozambique into what is now called Limpopo National Park as an integral part of the Great Lim-popo Transfrontier Park including Kruger and Gonarhezou National Park in Zimba-bwe. Experiments on immuno-contracep-tion were attempted with little success in a large place like Kruger but excellent results in smaller parks like Makalali, Botswana. There is room for further trial runs on con-traception in smaller parks like Marakele. It has been established that contraception is unlikely to work in big parks like Kruger al-though nothing dictates against continuing the earlier pilots for better understanding.

Millions of the tax-payers’ money have been spent on improving fences to prevent human-wildlife conflict in elephant-range parks and to protect sources of livelihoods for communities living adjacent to parks. Monitoring and evaluation programmes

in the context of the adaptive management approach are in place to record data and trends for better understand-ing of elephant biology and ecology. All these are interim measures that are already underway in some of our national parks pending the final-ization and implementa-tion of elephant manage-ment plans. The above interventions reduce the need for massive culls in future.

Culling RumourThe rumour that is circulating through

various communication channels that South Africa is planning a massive cull of between 7000 and 10000 elephants in Kruger is sheer sensation and mischief. It is absolutely heartless, impossible and unaf-fordable to physically cull so many animals even though culling is an approved inter-vention in the toolkit. We have long ditched the notion of carrying capacity of capping the elephant population in Kruger to 7 500 because carrying capacity is a concept bor-rowed from Agriculture and inconsistent with progressive wildlife population man-agement strategies. We accept, albeit this is a bone of contention, that the population levels in all our parks are currently higher densities than they should be. However to try and do a drastic reductions of popula-tions now at these high levels would be tan-tamount to a mother trying to implement family planning procedures after she has given birth to 10 children.

We have coped until now with discern-ible negative impacts of a growing elephant population and the most logical step to fol-low is to proactively prevent it from growing further. The non-lethal methods described above are part of the proactive interven-tions contained in our management plan and many are being implemented. We also accept that some impacts are going to be

subjected to a long re-covery lag given the long elephant life cy-cles and may require limited experimental culling of a few breed-ing herds in specific areas to reduce unde-sired impacts on .eco-systems. It would be premature to thumb-suck exact numbers of breeding herds that might be culled and the management areas where these will ema-nate from because such

detail can only come out of research and continuous monitoring ex-ercises.

In dealing with the current challenges of elephant population management the citizens and tax-payers of South Africa, through their democratically elected rep-resentatives (Parliament), have decided to include culling as a management option of last resort for managing elephants. This de-cision raised the ire of the anti-culling lobby and no doubt it is behind the recent resur-gence of rumours that we plan a massive el-ephant cull after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Culling When NecessaryIn conclusion we are not planning a post

2010 FIFA World Cup elephant bloodbath nor a trigger-happy willy-nilly extermina-tion of elephants as if we are possessed. Culling will come one day as and when it becomes necessary and will be informed by scientific research, management impera-tives and prevalent trends as an option of last resort. As South Africans we are con-nected to one another and our elephants. We are as diverse in our opinion as our cultural diversity but we love elephants and they will always remain a key component of our national narrative, key driver in our ecosystems and an inalienable subset of the South African tourism experience.

photos: Pieter Strauss

Is South Africa Planning An Elephant Bloodbath After The 2010 Fifa World Cup? — Dr David Mabunda


South Africa’s de-partment of en-vironmental af-fairs has set aside

R400 million for an “Eco-Towns” programme to be established in 10 munici-palities in 2010. The proj-ect – Buyisela- is an initia-tive in partnership with Indalo Yethu and the de-partment of water affairs. This initiative aims to cre-ate ten eco-towns mod-elled on sustainability as a legacy project, which will serve as a framework or blueprint for other towns to follow. Buyisela means giving back or re-storing, which in essence captures the thrust of cleaning and greening ef-forts which go beyond just lawns and trees, but also creates bio-recreational spaces for people to en-joy their neighbourhoods, whilst also protecting and enhancing the quality of the open spaces which could have been a breed-ing ground for criminal activities.

In her budget speech, minister BP Sonjica also promised the release of a

National Climate Change Policy and White Paper, which should be concluded by the end of 2010.

The policy will build on a broad under-standing of what can be done by all stake-holders - government, business, labour, civil society and individual citizens - to take ac-tion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate Change poses an enormous threat to economic growth, sustainable de-velopment and our ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS). By 2080, about 70 million people and up to 30% of Africa’s coastal infrastructure could face the risk of coastal flooding because of sea level rise and an increase in storm inten-sity and frequency over the oceans.

Climate Change threatens Africa’s food security with some parts of the continent expected to experience a reduction in agri-cultural yields of more than 50% by 2050. The oceans, covering 70% of the earth, plays an important role in the climate change debate, particularly the role it plays in providing moisture for rain.

The western parts of South Africa are projected to become drier, with some key agricultural sectors expected to be impacted quite severely, resulting in accelerated loss of biodiversity, particularly the Fynbos as well as chronic water shortages as we have seen in the past two seasons in the Southern Cape. In addition, the north-eastern parts of the country are expected to get wetter with a highly energised climate, risks of flooding and damage to property from tor-nadoes. At the recent Climate Change talks in Copenhagen, South Africa committed to reduce its emission by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025, depending on the availability of financial and technical support. South Africa will host the Climate Change Con-ference of Parties at the end of 2011.

“More needs to be done to prepare our communities and arm them with informa-tion to demystify the climate change debate and secure their informed understanding of human activities that contribute to climate change. We will use our public participation engagements to spread the message of cli-mate change.”

Fighting CrimeSouth Africa has been under tremendous

pressure in the past two years with the ris-ing number of rhino horns being poached in public and private protected areas. The department is establishing an interim Na-tional Wildlife Reaction Unit specifically to complement the work of the Environmen-tal Management Inspectors commonly re-ferred to as the Green Scorpions.

“With a total of 4 661 environmental cases reported nationally from the 1st April 2008 to the 31st March 2009, we have a compelling case for the establishment of environmental courts,” said Sonjica.

In agreement with the department of Jus-tice, dedicated time slots for environmental crime cases will be re-introduced in Durban Regional Court in KwaZulu-Natal, Nel-spruit Regional Court in Mpumalanga and the Hermanus District Court in the West-ern Cape.

“Our launch site will be the Johannes-burg Regional Court in Gauteng on the 20th May 2010.”

In May this year, South Africa will donate 32 black rhino, Diceros bicornis michaeli, to Tanzania. About 20 years ago, eight black rhinos were imported to Addo Elephant National Park from Tanzania.

photos: Lynette Strauss

Climate Change And Environmental Crime In South Africa


The veterinary import permits for venison, beef, mutton and goat meat not slaughtered at South African approved abattoirs have

been cancelled following the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in Namibia.

The South African department of agri-culture, forestry and fisheries said it has re-ceived notification from the Namibian vet-erinary authorities regarding an outbreak of RVF in the country. It has since placed trade restrictions on commodities from Na-mibia (mid-May 2010).

“Import permits already issued for the commodities of live RVF susceptible ru-minants including game animals, venison, beef, mutton and goat meat not slaughtered at South African approved abattoirs and raw milk are considered to be cancelled,” the department said in a statement.

The Directorate for Animal Health said it will, however, continue to allow commodi-ties such as pasteurized milk, break dry bil-tong, dried wors and matured meat slaugh-tered at approved South African abattoirs into the country.

“The Directorate will remain in contact with the Namibian veterinary authorities and revise our restrictions soon to prevent unnecessary trade restrictions,” the depart-ment said.

Hunters planning to hunt in Namibia and wanting to bring the meat back to South Af-rica have been advised to contact the veteri-nary authorities of Namibia before hunting.

RVF is a viral disease of animals that is transmitted by mosquitoes and causes ter-mination of gestation and deaths of young livestock.

Humans become infected from contact

with infected tissues of livestock and less frequently from mosquito bites.

As of 10 May 2010, South Africa con-firmed 18 deaths and 186 cases of RVF in humans in the Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Western Cape and North West provinces


Rift Valley Fever: No Namibian Beef, Goat Meat For South Africa

The vast majority of human infections result from direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected animals. The virus can be transmitted to humans through the handling of animal tis-sue during slaughtering or butchering, assisting with animal births, conduct-ing veterinary procedures, or from the disposal of carcasses or fetuses. Certain occupational groups such as herders, farmers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians are therefore at higher risk of infection. The virus infects humans through inoculation, for example via a wound from an infected knife or through contact with broken skin, or through inhalation of aerosols produced during the slaughter of infected animals. The aerosol mode of transmission has also led to infection in laboratory workers.Source: world Health Organisation


South African president Jacob Zuma supports calls for green technologies and industries that will ensure the country responds to the impact of

climate change.His government wants to lead a new

growth path that will aim at creating jobs through green economy and climate friend-ly initiatives.

“Through our actions, we need to re-spond to the notion that there is a trade-off to be made between faster economic growth and the preservation of our environment,” Zuma said at a Green Economy Summit underway in Sandton.

“We must be able to prove that faster eco-nomic growth can be achieved alongside the sustainable management of our natural resources,” Zuma said on Tuesday night.

He said South Africa, as the continent’s economic powerhouse, has a responsibility

to ensure that its policies and economic ac-tivities contribute meaningful to greenhouse gas emissions.

The three-day gathering, which brings together various organisations and inde-pendent climate experts, is a first to be or-ganised by government and is aimed to help South Africa’s economic development while preserving the environment. More than 650 delegates including invited international guests attended.

South Africa’s economy is the fastest growing on the African continent the coun-try is a global player among other emerging markets. But South Africa has also come under fire for its heavy reliance on conven-tional energy sources such as coal.

Zuma said renewable energy is an in-creasingly viable alternative to the energy sources that fuelled the growth of the de-veloped world. “But for Africa to make use

of its abundant renewable energy sources, it needs substantial investment, skills, tech-nology and greater economic integration,” he said.

“We look at this Green Economy Sum-mit to describe a sustainable path for our country, bearing in mind our historical ob-ligation to improve the living conditions of all South Africans particularly the poor,” Zuma said.

Environmental affairs minister Buyelwa Sonjica said inputs from the summit will feed into the national plan and priority ac-tions for a green economy path.

“It will start building national consensus on the green economy path as an innova-tive towards sustainable consumption and production. Our move towards a green economy is part of the country’s long term plan to grow the economy while mitigating the effects of climate change,” said Sonjica.

Zuma Supports Green Economy

South Africa’s economic development Minister Ibrahim Patel said the country has a responsi-

bility to explore new innovative ways to grow the economy and so also address its unemploy-ment problem.

He was speaking at a Green Economy Summit currently that took place at the Sandton Convention Centre on April 19.

“Green Economy gives us an opportunity to achieve our economic development goals and it’s something we have to explore,” Patel said.

He said organisations like the Industrial Development Corporation were ready to fi-nance entrepreneurs who want to explore the green economy industry.

According to the IDC’s ini-tial research and calculations of the potential size of green economy almost 300 000 jobs can be created by the industry in the next few years, in areas

like solar bio-fuels.The green economy sector attracted more

than $17 billion in China and more than 1.2 million people are currently employed in the sector. Germany created about 200 000 jobs using throughput technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

Patel said South Africa will be learning from the countries where the move to green economy has led to massive job creation.

The country’s mining industry also com-mitted to green economy objectives by through “responsible” mining that would not leave behind negative environmental impacts.

“I firmly believe that this new approach is a global imperative, not only for sustainable mining but also for sustainable development in general,” said mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu.

Shabangu said old mining technologies and outdated mindsets towards labour is-sues had created unnecessary and painful social consequences and environmental damages.

“To avoid these preventable outcomes, we have embarked upon a process of multi-stakeholder engagement involving all role players in our mining sector,” she said.

photo: Dragon Art, sxg

Invest Says Patel


Dr Ross Wanless of BirdLife South Africa says plenty.

World Migratory Bird Day is celebrated on 8/9 May. By which time all our migrato-ry birds have long since left

South Africa for sunnier climes. By rights we should celebrate the return of the swal-lows in November.

Why should we celebrate this distinctly northern hemisphere date? WMBD is one contribution that can safely be left from the alphabet soup that populates contemporary, acronym-ruled speech. Or is it?

The fact is that every year, by the time May rolls around, there are hundreds of thousands of quite amazing, highly migra-tory birds in South Africa. They come to feast on the winter abundance. The young birds stay year-round, because the going is so good here there’s no point in going any-where until it’s time to ‘head home’ and find a mate.

Adults travel stupendous distances to get here, gorge themselves for months, and then head south for the summer to breed. There’s only one group of birds that can possibly head south from Cape Town and still be happy breeding: seabirds. The rich waters of the Benguela ecosystem attract albatrosses to our waters by the boat-load.

That winter is the best time to see alba-trosses in our waters probably comes as a surprise to most people. In fact I suspect the surprise for most is simply that one can see an albatross in the flesh without going to the Antarctic.

Nevertheless, with a good telescope, a hot thermos and patience, anyone can sit on the cliffs at Cape Point Nature Reserve, over-looking the Atlantic Ocean, and see some of these incredible animals for themselves.

There’s an array of day trips that run out of Simon’s Town and will take punters out to the edge of the continental shelf, where these birds gather. And gather they do - in large numbers in the winter months. On a good day in winter, a trip can net you (to use a fishing metaphor) six or seven alba-tross species, double that in smaller species,

and literally thousands of birds in a mixed flock behind a single fishing vessel, all in a mad, hungry, whirling melee.

Many species are exquisitely adapted to find smelly scraps of food on the endless, featureless ocean. Enter industrial fishing boats, which are like gigantic dinner gongs, good-smelling restaurants and the ubiqui-tous ‘Golden M’ fast-food icon, all rolled into one. For albatrosses, if there’s a fishing vessel in sight there’s little point in doing anything else except waiting for the inevi-table handout.

And therein lies a problem. The fishing vessels’ handouts might provide a quick, easy meal, but nets and hooks are lethal ob-stacles to getting the free food. Each year hundreds of thousands of seabirds die the most horrific deaths – dragged underwater and drowned. If other air-breathing, char-ismatic marine predators (dolphins and whales) were massacred in this manner, the fishing practices such as trawling and longlining would have been outlawed long ago.

Instead of banning longliners from catching tuna, BirdLife International has worked for 12 years to find creative solu-tions to this debacle. It is an endless source of frustration that the burden of proof lies not with the fishing companies, but with en-vironmentalists. We have to prove they are causing irreversible harm to ecosystems by wiping ‘non-target’ species from the earth in their quest for more profitable fishing. That’s a tall order! But those are the cards the conservation world has been dealt, and the rules are not likely to change anytime soon, so grumbling is best kept to a mini-mum!

The plight of albatrosses has not im-proved much, indeed it’s mostly been a downhill run for them, despite concerted efforts, ingenuity and some technical break-throughs. We’ve raised awareness across the globe, raised millions of dollars and roped in fishermen, researchers and celebrities to help save the albatross. The Global Seabird Programme operates like a mini-BirdLife

International, and we even launched the ‘Save the Albatross Campaign’, modeled on the highly successful campaign to end whal-ing that was run in the 60s and 70s. BirdLife South Africa became host to the first Alba-

tross Task Force team in the world, in 2006. There are now seven teams around the world, working at the ‘grassroots’ level with skippers, vessel owners, fishery managers in government and the like. This inspired ap-proach has paid huge dividends, primarily for seabirds.

Our work is made easier by the likes of WWF, and their Sustainable Seafood Initia-tive, and the Marine Stewardship Council, both of which raise public awareness about the crises (note: that’s plural, because there’s a lot more than one crisis) facing sustainable fishing.

At the local level, the South African team has achieved some spectacular gains, and has won the support of the industries in which we’ve worked. The trawl industry has dropped its seabird bycatch rate by >60% since 2006. Pelagic longliners have achieved similar results. But on a global scale, the gains in South Africa are small, certainly woefully insufficient to reverse the popula-tion decreases.

What’s more, those gains are not cost-free. Although the onus has been on the conservation sector to prove the measures to reduce seabird deaths work, and that they will not cost the industry dearly, there are costs involved for fishing responsibly – such as having observers onboard.

Nations that don’t enforce responsible fishing practices don’t incur those costs, can fish more cost-effectively, and therefore sell their fish, caught at the expense of sharks, turtles and seabirds, more competitively.

The good news is that after years of ad-vocacy, BirdLife International has learned a bit about how international fishing is man-aged. There is slow, but steady progress in many of the world’s regional tuna manage-ment organisations. The technologies to reduce seabird bycatch really meaningfully are accumulating; the tide is turning. Luck is on our side, for no reason other than this: fishermen don’t actually want to catch sea-birds. So as long as we can find ways to pre-vent this without really getting in the way of their fishing, we will be successful!

So perhaps you should accept the hemi-spheric imperialism implicit (and to be fair, unavoidable without significant complica-tions) in the 8/9 May WMBD celebration.

What’s to celebrate on World Migratory Bird Day?


The 40th Earth Day was celebrat-ed on 22 April 2010. The En-dangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), which turns 37 years old this

year, reflected on its own impact on the health of the planet.

One of the major problems facing earth is biodiversity loss. We are losing biodiver-sity at 100 times the rates documented in fossil records. However, the EWT has made many inroads into reducing this loss of bio-diversity.

• Conflict between predators and live-

stock is a key problem and many farmers use environmentally destruc-tive methods to kill predators, such as poisoning, gin trapping and hunting. The EWT works with farmers to better understand the problem and prevent livestock losses. Its Livestock Guardian Dog Project promotes the use of the Anatolian Shepherd, a breed of dog used to guard free-ranging sheep on farms where they are vulnerable to predators. This project has been extremely success-ful as a non-lethal predator control method and farmers with Anatolians have reported a reduction in preda-

tion losses of between 95% and 100%.• Up until 13 years ago, vultures and other large birds, in par-ticular storks, cranes and Ludwig’s Bustards Neotis ludwigii, were often killed on powerlines, either when flying into the ca-bles or being electrocuted when perching on the conductors. The EWT, together with national energy utility Eskom, be-gan working on develop-ing solutions and today powerlines that have been identified as particularly dangerous to birds are fit-ted with ‘flappers’, devic-es that mark the lines to make them more visible to birds. Furthermore, the

exposed conductors are insulated so that the perching birds are not directly exposed to the live electricity. The EWT also advises on the placement of new powerlines to avoid bird flight paths and in some instances Eskom has even moved ex-isting lines based on this advice, thus reducing the number of birds being killed by electrical infrastructure in South Africa.

• Poisoning was once a major cause of South African crane mortality. This threat has recently declined, largely as a result of the work undertaken by the EWT’s African Crane Con-servation Programme and its part-ners. Over the last two decades these organisations have worked closely with landowners in the major crane regions, helping them to find viable solutions to the crop damage that cranes sometimes cause, without kill-ing or disturbing the birds. Today farmers use agrochemicals more re-sponsibly than they did in the past and are far more tolerant of cranes living on their properties.

• Honey Badgers Mellivora capensis often come into conflict with bee-

keepers when they feed on bee lar-vae and destroy beehives. To address this, the EWT runs a project that helps beekeepers prevent losses, us-ing badger-friendly practices such as raising beehives above the reach of the badgers. Beekeepers who successfully implement these prac-tices may display the official ‘Badger Friendly Honey’ label on their prod-ucts. The project recently assessed its contribution to Honey Badger conservation and found no change in badger distribution, suggesting that there has not been a decline in the Honey Badger population. The lack of reports on badgers being per-secuted by beekeepers also indicates that the programme has been effec-tive in addressing and solving the is-sue of badger killing.

• “While we have achieved these and many

other successes, the threats to our planet re-main pressing and new problems arise con-stantly,” says Hayley Komen, communica-tions manager of the EWT.

The EWT has been involved in a num-ber of applications for species uplistings on the International Union for the Conserva-tion of Nature (IUCN) Red Data List. This shows that many species still face a serious threat of extinction and even more needs to be done to protect them.

“Our natural habitats are also under seri-ous threat. Mining, particularly in Mpuma-langa and the Limpopo provinces, is placing heavy pressure on these areas and projects such as a suite of coal mines planned for development on the doorstep of the Ma-pungubwe National Park and World Heri-tage Site, and several new mines in the Waterberg and on the Eastern Highveld will destroy large areas of habitat for many species and impact on important ecosystem services such as water quality and quantity.”

“As such, the work undertaken by organi-sations such as the EWT remains critical. However, we cannot do it alone. Every in-dividual can make a difference to the health of our planet. Every individual is respon-sible for the health of our planet.”


Earth Day: 40 Years On

Documents

Kruger Park e-Times