NEWSLETTER Issue 02 2017

NEWS GOES NUTS

Mr Abraham Reinhold of Rent-A-Drum explains the business of recycling to Natural Resource Honours students. With the help of these students, waste from NUST will soon be moving along the conveyors for sorting and recycling at the Materials Recovery Facility outside Windhoek

How should NEWS entice young students to join up? By giving free membership of course. So this is what we’ve done.

With the help of Endless Energy Dr Morgan Hauptfleish, your co-chairs, Frauke Kreitz and John Pallett, organised a lunch-time meeting on the NUST campus to throw open the doors of NEWS to all interested students. 46 new members signed up, mostly students of the Natural Resources Management Department.

Roan News handed out2000 Kids with KEEP

Talks

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NEWS goes NUTS

Membership CardsRoll of Honour

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Martti Ahtisaari Primary School from Windhoek was amongst the first schools visiting Na-DEET Centre to receive a variety of back issues of Roan News for their school library. Elijah Shikukumwa, Environmental Educator, is seen handing over the pack of magazines to Victo-ria Shidute of Martti Ahtisaari PS at the group’s departure from NamibRand Nature Reserve.

The Rotary Club Windhoek sponsored this NaDEET Centre programme week for 28 Grade six learners and 3 teachers of Martti Ahtisaari Primary School.

NaDEET’s environmental education programme for Upper Primary Schools aims to help learners to identify environmental problems, especially in regards to water, energy and rub-bish and to gain knowledge, skills and the ability to take action to address these problems. Along with a number of copies from NaDEET’s own environmental literacy “It’s Time to…”-series, visiting schools now also receive back issues of Roan News magazines as additional resource material for their school library.

The Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET) is one of NEWS’ Partner Organ-isations. NaDEET’s mini magazine, the Bush Telegraph, published twice a year, is the official youth magazine of the Roan News and distributed as supplement.

R OA N N E W S H A N D E D O U T AT N A D E E T

2 ,000 S C H O O L C H I L D R E N PA R T I C I PAT E D I N K E E P

The Giraffe Conservation Foundation’s Khomas Environ-mental Education Programme (KEEP) has had a fantastic first year. Almost 2,000 primary school children have par-ticipated in the programme, representing 13 schools and groups from a wide range of socio-economic backgrounds in the region, and most importantly, feedback from edu-cators and students alike has been overwhelmingly posi-tive.

KEEP is an interactive environmental education programme designed and implemented by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), a Namibian registered trust, and developed in collaboration with the Namib Desert Environmental Education Trust (NaDEET). KEEP aims to inspire young Namibians to care for their environment by allowing them the opportunity to reconnect with nature through a targeted field-based environmental education programme. How do we do this? We take primary school students for an outing to Daan Viljoen Game Reserve where they turn the bush into the classroom. During this 3.5km hike we teach the Grade 3 and 4 students how to identify animal and plant species, track wildlife and investigate their signs. They tackle water, waste and littering, and the importance of healthy eating. A day with KEEP is not a day away from their formal education as many other topics are all closely linked to their school curriculum. Most importantly, we encourage the students to become problem

NEWS has also collaborated with Morgan to instil more en-vironmental awareness in the 11,000 students at NUST. The Natural Resources Honours students are now involved in mea-suring water consumption on campus, as part of background monitoring towards Namibia’s Save Water campaign. Also, on Monday 13 March, the students were given a guided tour of Rent-A-Drum’s Materials Recovery Facility, to learn about the huge potential that lies in recycling. Plans are being formu-lated to introduce preliminary waste sorting on campus, with separate bins for plastics, metal, glass and paper.

Most importantly, NUST has agreed to fund a position for a Masters student to drive an Environmental Management Plan

on campus. The position is being advertised at the moment. This collaboration between NUST, NEWS and the Recycling Namibia Forum (RNF) aims to make the campus more environ-mentally responsible on all fronts. With the help of the Masters and Honours students, we hope that all NUST students will car-ry this awareness to all corners of the country after qualifying.

NEWS also organised a lunch-time talk on Friday 17 March at NUST by a visiting academic, Dr Jackie King, who gave an inspiring presentation on ‘Environmental Flows’, focused on the Okavango River. We hope to hold similar talks by staff and colleagues of NUST and UNAM in future.

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Tuesday, 4 April ‘17 @ 19h00Towards the creation of a Maritime Museum for Namibia being established at the town of Lüderitzby Dr Angel Tordesillas

VENUE: Namibia Scientific Society, Robert Mugabe Ave 110,opposite National Theatre. Safe parking in yard via Love Street entrance.

All events are open for the public – everyone welcome!

OTHER EVENTS & TALKS

NEWS TALKS

TA L K S A N D E V E N T S

solvers by tackling some of Namibia’s biggest environmental issues. With all that learning there is one very important thing that is never forgotten – having fun! Our first year in the bushveld classroom was not short of excit-ing adventures. We had lots of close encounters with giraffe, lessons in adaptation from stick insects and advice from a beetle on the importance of keeping our environment tidy. We have learnt about team work (from a lichen of course), about community, about kindness and respect for each other, for ourselves and of course the environment. Our young animal detectives enjoyed tracking and finding spoor of rare brown hyena, leopard, our cousin the baboon, tiny steenboks and mighty giraffe, to name just a few. Breaking open ani-mal scat (poo) proved another favourite activity for the kids – anything remotely gross is a hit – and how much you can learn about animals by doing just that. What a treasure chest of cool bits. The KEEP kids have found termite heads, bones,

bird beaks and claws in just one scat – brown hyena definitely have a varied diet!However, the biggest excitement was caused by a huge Southern Rock Python (3.8m and 34kg), a regular on our field days. Making sure the KEEP kids gave her enough space to feel safe, she has been a great educational tool, and at the same time we managed to break some myths about snakes. Sadly, the participants have also seen first-hand the effects of the drought. Both porcupine and baboons have been ring barking trees heavily, stripping the protective outer bark and exposing the soft bark underneath. This is where the tree stores its water and by scraping off this bark with their teeth the animals get some much-needed water and nutrition. While sitting next to the dried up dam our KEEP kids start to understand that, like the animals we see out here, we too need to adapt to our environment by saving water whenever we can!

Every day these KEEP kids have not only arrived with excite-ment and energy but show a willingness to get involved and learn. They become our capital’s problem environmental problem solvers. With enough support and encouragement, the future of the Namibian environment is looking positive and the team of GCF is proud to do its part for this.

We would like to thank the students and teachers who have participated in the programme so far and of course all our do-nors (including NEWS), who have allowed us to make all this happen! A special thanks goes to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Ministry of Education for their support.

Wednesday 21 June ‘17 @ 19h00World Giraffe DayGiraffes: Africa’s Gentle Giants by Dr Julian Fennessy .

VENUE: Namibia Scientific Society, Robert Mugabe Ave 110,opposite National Theatre. Safe parking in yard via Love Street entrance.

All events are open for the public – everyone welcome!

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R O L L O F H O N O U R

NEWS Office Tel +264 61 306450 Email: information@NEWS-Namibia.orgFor regular news follow us on FB:

www.facebook.com/pages/Namibian-Environment-Wildlife-Society-NEWS/268969839781864

www.NEWS-Namibia.org

Co- Chair: Frauke Kreitz and John Pallett Recycle issues: John Pallett Treasurer: Maria Pimenta Media and Website issues: Frauke Kreitz Talks/Events/Facebook: Frauke Kreitz Newsletter and Roan News: Frauke Kreitz Portfolio and Office Coordinator: Hilda-Marie Botha

Members: David Aiyambo Joerg Melzheimer Manuela Schmid Martina Kűsters Reinhold Mangundu Ruth Chun Ruben Portas Northern Regional Representative: Shelly Rothman Southern Regional Representative & EIA: Jessica Kemper

N E W S D I S CO U N T M E M B E R S H I P C A R D S

NEWS members can look forward to various discount rates offered by the following organisations:

• Bushwackers - Discount will range from 2.5% to 10% de-pending on what is purchased

• Caprivi Houseboat Safaris -10% discount• Düsternbrook - Up to 20% discount (depending on season,

etc.) on accommodation activities• Eco Marine Kayaking—15% discount on kayak cruises in

Walvis Bay

• Felix Unite—15% discount on canoe trips on the Orange River and 10 % discount on accommodation

• Levo Tours—25% discount on dolphin cruises in Walvis Bay Sandwich Harbour

• Toktokkie Trails—5% discount on desert hiking trails in the Namib Rand Nature Reserve

To qualify for these discounts NEWS members must please mention that they are NEWS members and present their membership cards on arrival.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of our corporate members, which allows us to pursue our mission to conserve the natural environment of Namibia and to promote appropriate protection, wise and sustainable use of natural resources and sustainable development.

ROANAbsolut Tours & Safaris

First National BankJohn Meinert Printing (Pty) Ltd

Rössing Uranium

SABLEBank WindhoekMatiti Safaris cc

Namdeb Diamond Corporation (Pty) LtdTourvest Destinations

(Sense of Africa)

KUDUNamibian Engineering Corporation (NEC)

Rent-A-Drum

ORYXBannerman Mining Resources Namibia

(Pty) LTDB2GOLD

City of Windhoek Manica Group Namibia (Pty) Ltd

NamibRand Nature ReserveOlthaver &List GroupSWA Safaris (Pty) Ltd

Valencia Uranium (Pty) Ltd

SPRINGBOKDamarana Safaris

Langer Heinrich Uranium (Pty) Ltd Standard Bank

STEENBOK African Wanderer Tours & Safaris

Batis Birding SafarisBlue Sky Namibia Tours

EnviroDynamicsEnvironmental Compliance Consultancy

Financial Consulting SevicesFelix Unite River Adventures cc

Gocheganas Nature Reserve & Wellness Village

Jumbo Charcoal Pty Ltd

Municipality of Walvis BayN/a’an ku sê Foundation

Namibia Individual TravelNeo Paints Factory (Pty) Ltd

Ongava Game Reserve:Andersonns Camp

Little OngavaOngava Lodge

Ongava Tented CampPasjona-Safaris

Reptile Uranium Namibia (Pty) LtdSGA Chartered Accountants

The Wood ConnectionUnlimited Travel & Car Hire cc Ultimate Safaris Pty. Ltd

Westair Wings Charters (Pty) LtdWilderness Safaris:

Wilderness Safaris Head OfficeDamaraland Camp

Doro Nawas Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp

Kulala Desert LodgeLittle KulalaRhino CampSerra Cafema

W M L Consulting Engineers

NEWS COMMITEE MEMBERS 2016/7