Month: December 2009

Richard Mabaso remembers when he finished matric and was not sure what he was going to do next.
“After the excitement of having our names in the newspaper was gone, my friends and I sat down and tried to think about what we could do to earn a living.”

Richard and his friends started a vegetable garden and a garden service. Eight years later Richard has brought The Indigenous Trees for Life project to his home of Luphisi, a poor rural community of between five and six thousand people located forty-five kilometres from Nelspruit.

The Indigenous Trees for Life Programme run by conservation NGO, the Wildlands Conservation Trust, is a livelihoods programme that helps poor and vulnerable communities to grow a future for themselves. Facilitators teach individuals in these communities how to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for the plants until they reach a certain height. These individuals are referred to as “tree-preneurs.” The trees are then traded for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees and either planted back into the communities or planted out in forest restoration projects.

Richard has been working for the Wildlands Conservation Trust based in Pietermaritzburg since 2002 and was instrumental in developing the tree growing programme across KwaZulu-Natal with Programme Manager Charmaine Veldman where there are now 23 such projects. When the Old Mutual Foundation, a supporter of the programme, were keen to fund a project in Mpumalanga, Wildlands saw an opportunity:

“We wanted to show Richard our appreciation for his contribution to Wildlands over the last six years, and by starting a project in Luphisi, Richard is able to create opportunities for his own community” said Veldman.
There are now 200 tree-preneurs growing indigenous trees in Luphisi, among them Richard’s niece and his mother. The community has produced 12 000 marula trees in about four months, and they are traded in for credit notes which are then used at the ‘tree stores’ to buy goods.

Twelve year old Philsile Mona is a tree-preneur in grade seven in Luphisi : “The project has taught me a lot about nature and I’m currently doing my best to grow enough trees to pay for my university studies when I complete grade twelve in five years time!”

Richard Mabaso is proud to see the project working in his community: “It is special in that I am waking up in the morning and changing someone’s life. I want my community to seize the opportunity and make something out of it.”

Enterprise Development or “ED” seems to be the new buzz word. It is about creating sustainable business enterprises in order to create jobs and to grow the economy, and the proof is out there that small and medium enterprises are key to job creation. This is why a programme that develops entrepreneurs is top of mind for donors when looking for a partner.

The Indigenous Trees for Life Programme is a livelihoods programme that helps poor and vulnerable communities, run by NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust in partnership with its funders. Community members are identified to operate as facilitators to teach individuals how to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for the plants until they reach a certain height. The trees are then traded back to Wildlands for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees and the trees are then either planted back into the communities or planted out in Wildlands’ forest restoration projects.

Established in KwaJobe with 300 tree-preneurs in northern Zululand in 2004, the programme has grown to 3000 tree-preneurs in 23 communities in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, and 300 000 indigenous trees are being grown per year.

The facilitators who teach communities how to grow trees are key to the project, and in recognising their contribution and to develop their skills, they will be the first group to benefit from an Enterprise Development programme that has been put together by Dumile Tshingana from Wildlands Conservation Trust, with support from the Foschini Group.

Tshingana is developing a training programme and support to facilitators currently working in the Indigenous Trees for Life programme, in order to grow their financial knowledge and entrepreneurial skills.

Tshingana explains “The programme will further skill facilitators in their roles, but also teach entrepreneurial skills in order for them to possibly start and run their own businesses, or help the tree-preneurs with such opportunities.”

“I am hoping that this initiative will empower the Indigenous Trees for Life facilitators to become drivers of their community’s positive change. I hope it will enable them to develop effective enterprise strategies to start securing more sustainable livelihoods.” said Tshingana.

The Foschini Group has been involved with the Indigenous Trees for Life programme for many years through clothing donations which are used at the “tree stores” where tree-preneurs purchase goods in exchange for the trees grown, and now they have committed R 300 000 per year over three years to this skills development programme.

Getting involved with Enterprise Development was just the opportunity Foschini was looking for.
“We at the Foschini group are thrilled to extend our relationship with the Wildlands Conservation Trust to help develop entrepreneurial skills” says Karde Buys, Senior Manager of Corporate Social Investment at the Foschini Group.

“By identifying existing facilitators who will benefit from training and support, the likelihood of real success stories emerging from the programme is high as these are individuals who have already displayed an entrepreneurial ability in teaching and developing the tree-preneurs.”

The first group of facilitators will receive their starter kits and attend workshops in January 2010, and will receive mentorship and support throughout the year.

Photo: Charmaine Veldman, Indigenous Trees for Life Programme Manager and Dumile Tshingana, Enterprise Development Manager for the Wildlands Conservation Trust with the first of three contributions from the Foschini Group dedicated to entrepreneurial training

Runners of SA’s Best Ultra Running Race (for three years…running), contribute hundreds of thousands of rands towards conservation projects every year. This is just one of the projects the runners of the Mont-Aux-Sources 50k Challenge have helped make possible.

There is something special about standing in a cave in the Drakensberg mountains, looking at centuries-old paintings on the cave walls, while behind you these paintings are mirrored in reality. Those who’ve visited these cultural gems in the ‘Berg, will know that eland feature heavily. Revered by the San people, this majestic animal, the largest of the antelope species in Southern Africa, can still be found across the Drakensberg, thanks to conservation efforts that date back to 1903. Recently uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park authorities took action to restore the northern populations, in the hopes that they will flourish, as they once did, when the San people where watching and panting in the shade of caves.

The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park is home to just under 2000 eland. For reason’s unknown to the staff, the populations have mostly populated the southern part of the park. Eland originally occurred in the northern parts of the park as well, so authorities took the decision to try restore these populations. Another aim was to help relieve pressure on the high eland density areas in the south. Research Technician for the Park’s Ecological Advice department, Rickert van der Westhuizen, managed the relocation of 92 eland, from Cobham and Garden Castle in the south to Cathedral Peak in the north. “In order to effectively monitor the success of the relocation, we fitted a portion of the animals with cellular collars”, he said. “These enable us to track the animal’s movements for around two years after the release.”

The collars transmit the coordinates and altitude of the animal, as well as its temperature, and speed and direction it is travelling, using cellular satellite technology (like our cell phones). Information from each animal is transmitted every three hours and is accessible 24 hours a day via a website. This saves a huge amount of manpower, as rangers are not required to track the animals on foot. This information can then be mapped with tools such as Google Earth. “The cellular collars are expensive but [conventional] telemetry work is difficult because of the mountainous terrain in the Drakensberg”, Rickert said. The six collars used for the animals cost a whopping R120 000! The reserve would not have been able to fund this were it not for the funds raised from the Bonitas Wild Series sporting events held in the Drakensberg, and an annual grant from the Wildlands Conservation Trust.

The capture, relocation and collaring of the eland took place in June this year. “We used a helicopter to drive the herds into a funnel-shaped chute which channelled them straight into KZN Wildlife’s Game Capture trucks”, said van der Westhuizen. “Pipes were cut and fitted over the animals’ horns to prevent them from hurting each other during transit.” Two males and four females were darted and collared and are currently being tracked by Rickert. Two of the collars have stopped transmitting, one is unfortunately believed to have been poached (not a common threat in this area) and the other’s whereabouts is currently unknown. This could be because the animal is out of cellular range or the collar has malfunctioned. If the collar stops transmitting data for more than a month on any of the animals, a search is launched. The other four eland are still in and around Cathedral Peak.

These studies are vitally important for the management of eland within the park but also to asses the technology for its usage in this type of environment. What will Rickert consider a successful result? “If most of the eland stay within Cathedral Peak’s boundary and if the population shows a healthy growth rate similar to the rest of the park within the next two years.” If the project is a success, eland will be happily grazing on the grasslands of Cathedral Peak and runners and hikers will be spoilt with sightings that the San would have been painting all those years ago.

Ningi Gcabashe passed her Code 10 driver’s license at the Verulam testing station on 22 October 2009 after months of preparation and many early morning lessons with Thula’s driving school. What’s different about this story is that Ningi paid for her driving lessons with trees. Ningi is a ‘tree-preneur’ and facilitator for the Buffelsdraai Indigenous Trees for Life Programme.

Indigenous Trees for Life helps poor and vulnerable township and rural communities to grow a future for themselves. Facilitators such as Ningi teach individuals how to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for the plants until they reach a certain height. These individuals are dubbed ‘tree-preneurs’. The trees are then traded for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees, and either planted back into the communities or planted out in forest restoration projects. There are now more than 3000 tree-preneurs around South Africa who grow more than 300 000 trees a year.

At the Buffelsdraai project, funded by DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) through the eThekwini Municipality, Ningi is both a facilitator and a tree-preneur, and by being the most successful tree-preneur in her community, she has been a wonderful role-model for the other tree-preneurs.

Paul Makhanya, Indigenous Trees for Life Project Manager at Buffelsdraai, explains: “Ningi leads by example and is passionate about growing the trees. She is the best producer by far in the community which means she is teaching from her own experience, and people can see what she has achieved from growing the trees.”
The mother of five children, she has paid their school fees by growing indigenous trees. In March 2009 Ningi approached Susan Viljoen, Indigenous trees for Life Programme Manager for the greater Durban area.

“Ningi asked if she could use her credit notes from her trees to buy driving lessons. We simply did a bank transfer directly to the driving school for the value of her credit notes, and since she began her lessons, she has paid a staggering R 5725 of her tree growing income to gain her driver’s license.”

Says Ningi: “I did not know anything about cars so we had to start with the small cars and then move onto the truck, this is why I needed many lessons. I prayed to God when I had the test, and I passed on the first try.”
Ningi now drives a Wildlands vehicle to collect trees from the homes of the tree-preneurs when they are ready to be traded for goods. “I no longer have to wait for Paul to get the trees. If he is busy and we need to collect the trees, I can go.” she said.

By her example Ningi has inspired others. Thandeka Zincume, facilitator at the neighbouring Ndwedwe project, has recently started driving lessons at the same driving school.

Its hard to believe there were once fewer than 100 White Rhinoceros in the world. Today the populations are thriving thanks to one of the most successful conservation operations in history. Although no longer a threatened species, like the Black Rhino, maintaining healthy White Rhino populations are not without their challenges. Like many species on the subcontinent, White Rhino are still at threat from habitat loss which can lead to complications in their genetic variation, and health risks. Poaching is another problem and incidents are on the rise. On the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s inaugural Wild Adventure Weekend 13 guests of the Trust spent a weekend helping the Zululand Rhino Reserve implement their White Rhino Management Plan. Guests learned a bit about what it takes to manage the prehistoric creatures and helped collect data for the research and monitoring of the animals in the reserve.

Two white rhino darts were planned for the weekend, where the animals were to be notched and ‘microchipped’ and given a quick health check. “Zululand Rhino Reserve (ZRR) is renowned for its contribution to the conservation of rhino”, said the Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Sharon Fernandes. “The darting is part of their ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of these magnificent animals and their successful breeding activities. Lufthansa German Airlines has supported the Trust for years now, and this was another way they wanted to give back to conservation.” The experience, funded by Lufthansa, forms part of Wildlands’ Green Leaders programme which aims to build a generation of green leaders that take ‘green thinking’ into their work, no matter what field they might be in.

Guests arrived on Friday evening at their accommodation in the Leopard Mountain Game Lodge, in the Zululand Rhino Reserve, near Mkhuze in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal. After a relaxing dinner and a presentation from the ZRR staff on their White Rhino Management plan, it was early to bed, and early to rise on Saturday morning in search of the first rhino. Dave Cooper, local veterinarian, managed a clean shot of a young female that the reserve trackers had located. A cloth is used to cover and protect its eyes and the ears are blocked to ensure minimal stress is caused to the animal. The conservation management team from the reserve included private vet Dr Dave Cooper, Dylan Holmes (Reserve Manager) and Karen Odendaal (Conservation Manager). The team managed the first procedure while guests looked on.

The procedure includes notching of the ear (for identification purposes) and drilling a hole in the rhino’s horn to insert the microchip. “We put a microchip in both the horns and the shoulder so if for instance one of the rhino’s is poached and they pick up the microchip in the horn at the border, they can at least link the rhino to the reserve which helps the intelligence guys figure it out”, said Karen. While the rhinos are darted we get tissue samples and then these get sent off for genetic profiling so we can then start building up a genetic database for the white rhino population in the reserve. That helps us [to do work] to improve the genetic variability of the animals in the reserve,” she said. The rhino are also sprayed for ticks and any cuts they might have.

The second rhino the team darted, on Sunday morning, was a large male and guests were able to have actual hands-on participation: one of the guests drilled the hole in the horn; another fitted the microchip; another recorded the data, and another guest sprayed for ticks, and on wounds and scratches. Guests also had a chance to do some birding and game viewing on scheduled game drives during the weekend.

Wildlands CEO, Dr Andrew Venter hosted the weekend: “These adventures allow us to give key stakeholders and supporters of the Trust a chance to have an up-close and personal experiences with some of our magnificent wildlife, and directly assisting with their conservation. We hope the experience will leave a lasting memory which will over time influence and inform behaviour so these individuals continue to make a constructive contribution to conservation as ambassadors of our natural heritage.”

“I’m 76 years old and this is the first time I’m seeing such beauty in this place.” These are the words of Mrs Sarafina Sibisi, a ‘tree-preneur’ from the Buffelsdraai community outside Durban. The place she’s talking about is uShaka Marine World. This is the first time Mrs Sibisi has ever been to uShaka, although she’s lived in the Durban area all her life. It’s also the first time she’s ever seen dolphins, turtles, penguins and all the other weird and wonderful sea creatures you’ll find there.

Mrs Sibisi was able to enjoy this experience thanks to her hard work and a programme called Indigenous Trees for Life. The programme, run by Wildlands Conservation Trust, teaches the tree-preneurs, mostly women and children from rural and peri-urban communities, to grow indigenous trees. These trees are then traded back to Wildlands for goods the growers need such as food, clothes, bicycles and garden tools. The trees are then used in reforestation projects around KwaZulu-Natal. There are now more than 3000 tree-preneurs in 23 communities around the country.

To encourage the tree-preneurs to grow more trees, and to ensure an environmental education element is carried through the programme, Wildlands introduced the Rewards programme. Manqoba Sabela, Wildlands’ Environmental Education Officer explains: “Tree-preneurs who’ve grown 100 trees are taken on a day trip to an environmental centre, 250 trees earns an overnight stay and 500 trees earns them a wilderness trail experience.” Mrs Sibisi is one of 22 tree-preneurs from the Durban area who were rewarded with a Trip to uShaka for growing a minimum of 100 trees.

Sea World Education Assistant Mpilo Mkhize, first took the tree-preneurs through a series of slides. The slides showed pictures of some of the creatures they were going to see and Mpilo shared titbits about each of them, which had the tree-preneurs cocking their heads and raising their eyebrows with interest. The tree-preneurs learned how muscle crackers are born female but become males; how choral are made up of tiny animals that we can’t see with the naked eye; and how sea cucumbers secret a kind of superglue when threatened, which their predators can get stuck in. Mpilo shared how stingrays protect themselves with stingers on their tails; how the male sea horses incubate the eggs laid by the female; and about the breeding habits of loggerhead turtles. Eels had an interesting lesson to offer as well: they eat the legs of octopus but not the whole body because the legs grow back, making it a sustainable morsel.

Next was the dolphin show, a firm favourite, and a visit to the aquarium, followed by lunch on the beach. One tree-preneur commented: “I have gained so much information about marine life. I have also learned that the trees we grow help to provide oxygen that animals use to breathe, that makes me proud. I was surprised to see that a dolphin can listen and do what you tell it to do; I thought that human beings only had that ability!” Another said: “I feel that I’m now aware of the marine life and the importance of marine conservation. I didn’t know that there are so many animals in the sea”. Mrs Sibisi, who was in awe from all she’d seen said, “I’m speechless because I have learned so much about sea life. I’m going to start telling my grandchildren about sea life and the sea turtle, they’re my favourite; they are like tortoises that can fly in the water”.

The trip was also made possible through NPC Cimpor who sponsor all of uShaka’s outreach programmes. uShaka takes 4000 under privileged children through their gates each year to discover the wonder of marine life, and also make trips out to schools and centres when site visits are not possible. “We’re happy to be supporting this project”, said Jone Porter, Director of Education for the NPC Sea World Education Centre. “The nature of the work that Wildlands is doing will benefit marine areas down the road. If we don’t have vegetation cover you’re going to get run-off of silt into the rivers, and this has a direct impact on estuarine systems which are vitally important ‘nurseries’ for the marine environment”.

The tree-preneur education rewards initiative forms part of Wildlands Green Leaders Programme. This programme is focused on nurturing environmental awareness and leadership amongst the Trust’s partners, including tree-preneurs and community and business leaders. The projects involve direct hands-on learning experiences, through which potential green leaders are exposed to our region’s spectacular biodiversity.

Photo 1: Top left

Back row from left to right: Manqoba Sabela (Wildlands Environmental Education Officer) and Tree-repneurs Dan Mkhize, Simphiwe Mkhize and S’khosiphi Mhlongo

Front row from left to right: Tree-preneurs Morin Gumede, Rose Mchunu, Busisiwe Ndlela, Nonhlanhla Khumalo, Thobsile Nzuza, Nobubele Nqwenani and Sarafina Sibisi.

Front: Mpilo Mkhize (Sea World Education Assistant)

Photo 2: Middle right – Tree-preneurs enjoy the Dolphin Show.

Photo 3: Bottom left – Seventy six year old tree-preneur, Mrs Sarafina Sibisi, enjoying her first trip to uShaka.

This is the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme, a livelihoods programme that helps poor township and rural communities. Facilitators teach individuals in these communities how to grow indigenous trees from seed and care for the plants until they reach a certain height. These individuals are referred to as “tree-preneurs.” The trees are then traded at “tree stores” for food, clothes, bicycles, agricultural goods and tools, school and university fees and then either planted back into the communities or planted out in forest restoration projects.

Richard Mabaso, Project manager for Indigenous Trees for Life in Vosloorus, has seen the project develop this year.
“At the August 2009 tree store, tree-preneurs traded R 2000 worth of goods – that equates to 800 seedlings grown and exchanged for credit notes. There is another tree store in January and we expect the value of goods traded to be in the region of R 5000. The interest is growing all the time and with it comes the trees.”

The Vosloorus Indigenous Trees for Life project is the first such project to be established in Gauteng. Unilever South Africa has partnered with the Wildlands Conservation Trust on projects for many years, including funding the Indigenous Trees for Life Programme in a number of communities. As part of their commitment to supporting local vulnerable communities where they operate, in 2004 Unilever established a Thokomala Home in the Vosloorus Community, a township close to their Boksburg Factory. Thokomala homes are community family homes for children orphaned by HIV and Aids, a project originally founded by Unilever and since 2005 operating as an independent section-21 company. By way of increasing the developmental impact on the community even further, Unilever requested that the Vosloorus Thokomala home be used as the starting point to establish a tree growing project and to roll it out within the community.

Sihle Duma is a nine-year-old grade two learner and lives in the Thokomala home in Vosloorus: “in April this year Gugu joined us at Thokomala and I was forced to share my clothes with him, but thanks to growing trees I managed to buy my own clothes”.

Sihle is now encouraging Gugu to grow trees so that he can be able to buy his own clothes during the next tree store. In October a tree-preneur from Kwa-Zulu Natal passed her driver’s license after using her “tree credits” to buy driving lessons.

Louise Duys from Unilever South Africa said “The children of the Thokomala homes have embraced the opportunity to grow trees, and now buy themselves clothes and food, and the rest of the community have seen this and are taking up the challenge.”

Elizabeth Marule, foster mother at the Thokomala home, “This project teaches the children independence and it has undoubtedly enhanced our knowledge of planting and caring for trees.”