Month: July 2007

The grand sum of R160 000 raised by 300 cyclists who dared ride a wild 55km route through natural bush harbouring the big five during the last weekend of July will be used to fund local projects within the iMfolozi Game Reserve, as well as community projects outside the reserve run the by the Wildlands Conservation Trust.

More and more mountain bikers are realising that by supporting the Sterling Powerade iMfolozi Mountain Bike Challenge, hosted by the Bonitas Wild Series and Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, in the iMfolozi Game Reserve, they are contributing to conservation and community development efforts as well as the success of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park as a tourist destination. “Riders have bought into the concept of sustainability of the environment and its wildlife, wanting to leave a strong legacy for generations to come,” said event organiser Brad Glasspoole.

The aim of the race is three-fold: a) to provide a unique cycling experience for mountain-bikers; b) to promote the support of conservation in KwaZulu-Natal and c) to promote the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP) as a tourist destination. To this end, the race is a partnership between the EKZNW and the WCT who both benefit from the funds generated and from the exposure their organisations get.

One lone supporter of the race, who did not even ride the race this year, raised R9 000 by encouraging businessmen to donate their money to “a good cause”. Jeanne Gerber raised the highest individual sponsorship for the third year in a row by phoning people from companies he knows and asking them for donations of a minimum of R1 000.

It is people like Gerber who make this event what it has become, according to Simone Dale, communications manager of the Wildlands Conservation Trust. She said that Timber 24 brought in the most teams (five) for the second year in a row and raised the highest team sponsorship of R9 000. “It was a great experience this year as we saw lots of game including rhino, buffalo and elephant and we stayed in the wonderful tented trails camp in the heart of the reserve,” enthused Andrew Nicholson of the Timber 24 team, who rode for the second time.

Glasspoole reckons that 2007 was the most eventful of the three Sterling Powerade iMfolozi Mountain Bike Challenges: “Three riders took a tumble on one of the toughest parts of the route while a rogue bull elephant caused much excitement and had to be closely monitored along the route,” he said. He praised the commitment of Netcare 911 staff (who were on standby with their helicopter in case of emergencies) and EKZNW staff – who monitored the movements of wild animals as cyclists passed through their territory.

It all started three years ago when the WCT was looking for a Zululand venue to host a mountain-biking event. Glasspoole and Andrew King put their heads together to come up with an opportunity for cyclists and conservationists to ride with the Big Five. The event became possible after a series of Environmental Impact Assessments within the Park and much discussion between EKZNW and the WCT. This Bonitas Wild Series event has grown from 146 entrants in 2005 to 323 in 2007 – numbers are capped at 300 (250 for the public and 50 for sponsors and EKZNW staff and a few extra to cater for a possible drop off at registration).

While riders have fun seeing game and testing their mountain-biking prowess, communities living adjacent to HiP also learn about the importance of conservation and the need for protected areas such as the Park. The community challenge is held two days before the Sterling Powerade iMfolozi MTB Challenge to encourage local community schools to have fun within the game reserve while learning about the wildlife and conservation. This year, the theme was the Wild Dog and 36 children from four primary schools on the southern boundary of the Park ran a four kilometre race. The first three girls and boys home may have received brand new bicycles but the main prize was a fact sheet about the endangered Wild Dog and information about how every person can make a contribution to conservation.

Brendan Whittington Jones of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Carnivore Conservation Group and Karen Allen of EKZNW’s poverty alleviation programme organised the event and hope that it will remain an annual event run parallel to the Wild Series event. “We are hoping that the kids take home the message about Wild Dog conservation to their peers and their parents and we as EKZNW want the communities to know that we are not the enemy but that we want to establish and maintain meaningful relationships with all individuals,” said Allen.

*Reproduced with kind permission from the Weekend Witness

The event will take place at Michaelhouse on the 19th August, and will comprise a 75km Marathon, 35km Half Marathon and 10km Fun Ride.  The location is great, with the school grounds providing a perfect venue for the start/finish area and race village, and the course is open and fast, with sweeping views of the KZN midlands, Dargle valley and the Drakensberg.

The courses are non-technical and achievable for most riders. “Michaelhouse and the Wildlands Conservation Trust have invested a great deal in the event, and we have no doubt that the Bonitas Michaelhouse MTB Festival will become a household name on the MTB calendar” says Stu Berry of Impi Concept Events.  “Both the 75km and 35km courses are designed for the average rider, and so will be attainable to every level of mountain biker.  The courses follow the ridges and sabbles of the sourrounding mountains, and provide awesome views of the midlands all the way thorugh to the Berg, making for more than enjoyable riding”.

Come and ride over the dam where ‘Spud and the Crazy Seven’ used to swim, and traverse the hills where they used to hike during adventure club.

The race will offer top prize money to all categories with a total of R25 000 being given away (R9 000 first place in the men’s 75km race and cash for 1st – 5th places in the men’s, and 1st – 3rd in the ladies categories).

Each pre-entrant will receive a race branded unique moisture management shirt, as well as a goodie bag containing heaps of value.  The Bonitas/Michaelhouse MTB Race will be filmed by ATV and screened on SuperSport three weeks after the event has been completed.

Make sure that you are part of this inaugural event which contributes towards the Balgowan Conservancy and Wildlands Conservation Trust.  Log on to www.cyclelab.co.za and complete your entry, or visit your local bike shop and grab an entry form.  For race details, log on to the impressive race website at www.michaelhousemtb.co.za

If you have any queries, please contact Stu on 083 456 8435.

Brought to you by the Bonitas Wild Series and Impi Concept Events.

LIVE EARTH is a 24-hour, seven continent concert series taking place on 07/07/07 that will bring together more than 150 of the world’s top music acts and 2 billion people (nearly two thirds of the current global population) to trigger global action against the greatest threat that humankind has ever faced – climate change. Led by Al Gore and Kevin Wall, Live Earth seeks to inspire its global audience to make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives and spur action by corporations and governments to turn the tide on global warming. “Music is an international language that has the power to move people,” Wall said. “Live Earth’s 24 hours of music spanning all 7 continents will move people in every corner of the planet to take action against global warming.”

Live Earth will be holding the African concert at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg, showcasing the music of UB40, R&B singer and songwriter Joss Stone, Beninese four-time Grammy-nominated, singer, composer, and performer Angelique Kidjo, Senegalese master musician Baaba Maal, South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlasela and many others. The concert will bring an estimated 10,000 people together to raise awareness about the climate crisis.  “Live Earth is taking place across all seven continents because the climate crisis affects us all – and all of us must be a part of the solution,” said Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore. Supermodel, actress, singer and author Naomi Campbell, who will be speaking from the stage at the Johannesburg concert, commented “I’m proud to be a part of Live Earth and I’m especially proud that we are joining forces here in South Africa”. “Live Earth Johannesburg will not only unify Africans on this issue, it will connect the crisis here with the rest of the world.”

The concerts will be among the most environmentally friendly events ever produced. Two of the single largest environmental impacts that events can have on the planet are the waste that is left behind, and the greenhouse gas emitted from travel and energy usage.  A single concert can produce several thousand kilograms of waste in hours and emit upwards of 2,000 tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The Live Earth Green Team is a group of green event experts from all over the world, including Gina Shoemaker of Top Turf and Mama She’s Waste Recyclers, each of South Africa, and Seven-Star Events Inc of Asheville NC, USA, who are working closely with a local nonprofit alliance The Climate Action Partnership to green the concert.

The concert will be carbon neutral and will feature a comprehensive landfill diversion program that will use recycling and composting practices on a massive scale. Almost all of the electricity used at the concert will come from generators running on a blend of biodiesel made from waste grease, and energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs donated by Philips will be installed not only at the concert venue, but also in the surrounding schools. The concessionaires will offer food and beverages in environmentally friendly plastic cups made from corn starch. The typical service ware products used at a concert event include plastic cups, fork & knives and plates, products that can persist in the landfill for over 450 years, often containing potentially toxic or hazardous chemicals.  Bioware products on the other hand are made from materials that are 100% biodegradable and can be transformed into compost. All waste food scraps and bioware from the event will be collected and composted into a usable garden soil addition, and every item that can be recycled will be collected and sorted to be made ready for recycling.  By taking these simple steps, the Live Earth Green Team estimates that it can divert 75% or more of the concert waste stream from going to the landfill, preventing the release of tons of Methane, an emission product of landfills that is known to be twenty three times more powerful a green house gas than carbon dioxide.
The Johannesburg Live Earth concert will showcase a system that will change the way concerts and events handle green house gas emissions and waste forever. “While the Live Earth concerts are an important tool in mobilizing people and governments to take the necessary actions to fight global warming, it is the legacy of change that the concerts leave behind that will really make the difference,” says Live Earth South Africa Greening Manger Elif Beall. When the event is over, when the dust has cleared, and Live Earth has left South Africa, Johannesburg hopes to show other South African cities that resource recovery is the new “green” face of event management, and that all it takes is a little planning and the inclination to make a difference.

For more information, visit www.liveearth.msn.com  and www.liveearth.org

Tickets available from Computicket online: http://www.computicket.com, 083 915 8000, or any outlet country wide

Reports on the imminent effects of climate change are now mainstream and the warnings somewhat overwhelming: rising temperatures and sea levels, mass extinction of plants and animals, epidemics and natural disasters.  We all know now that greenhouse gasses (mainly CO2) are the culprits and that industry, fossil fuel – powered transport and the destruction of the world’s rainforests are the largest contributors.  So what are we, as South Africans, going to do about it?  South Africa’s leading Non-profit conservation organisations are joining forces with international activists and leading the way.

CAP [Climate Action Partnership] was formed recently with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between some of South African leading conservation NGO’s.  Initiated by Conservation International South Africa (CI) and with partners The Wildlands Conservation Trust, the Wilderness Foundation, and the Botanical Society of South Africa, CAP aims to raise awareness of global warming in the country, and to mobilise South African’s and South African Business to start taking responsibility for their green house gas emissions.  CAP’s partners are certainly leading by example – all have committed to making their core business carbon neutral within 3 years.  And they’re competing for first in line.

CI’s Fundraising Manager Dr. Amy Spriggs says: “CAP aims to promote the climate change message and provide a platform for discussion and debate around the impact on South African bio-diversity”.  And what better way to do this than through music – the universal language.   On 7/7/07, Live Earth will be a defining musical event with more than 100 headliners performing live on all 7 continents and being broadcast globally through television, radio, web, wireless and other media platforms. These artists hope to inspire an audience of more than 2 billion people worldwide to make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives to turn the tide on global warming.  Johannesburg will host the African concert and CAP will be assisting with ensuring a South African – relevant message and a carbon-neutral South African concert.

CAP, through Live Earth, hopes more organisations and individuals will take the plunge and commit to becoming carbon neutral.  Kevin Wall, the Founder of Live Earth and former Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8, which brought together one of the largest audiences in history to combat poverty, is positive about the partnership: “Live Earth, together with CAP, will provide simple actions and tools that, if applied on a mass scale, will have significant impact on combating the climate crisis globally and its effects on South African bio-diversity”, he said.  “A global movement of people making meaningful changes in their lives will give companies they do business with and the governments who represent them, no choice but to enact positive long-term changes themselves”.

Live Earth will launch an ongoing campaign to combat the climate crisis that will be led by The Alliance for Climate Protection, chaired by Al Gore, and international environmental NGO’s.  Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, a stark, factual, call-to-action documentary, has sparked action all over the world, and South African’s are starting to take notice.  What we want now are South African solutions to South African problems.  CAP, together with local experts, are committed to ensuring more research on the effects of climate change on bio-diversity in South Africa, and finding innovative solutions to counteract this damage.

So what is a carbon footprint and what does it mean to be carbon neutral?  Everyone has a “carbon footprint”.  We all use cars, or busses, or planes.  We use electricity, or gas, or fire if we’re not so lucky, and we create tonnes of waste every year – plastics, metals, cans, the list goes on.  All this contributes either directly or indirectly to the warming of the atmosphere and the earth’s increasing inability to keep up with the carbon we’re emitting.

To make your self, or your business, carbon neutral, you must first calculate your carbon footprint – or CO2 emissions. You can use Conservation International’s carbon calculator to do this – available on their website at www.conservation.org. (CAP will have a South African – relevant calculator available shortly.)  Possible reductions then need to be identified and acted on (“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” as Jack Johnson, a popular American singer, would encourage us to do).  Remaining emissions must then be offset through reliable, high quality carbon projects e.g. through indigenous forest rehabilitation and maintenance.  CAP has committed to raising funds for the development of projects like these, one of which the Wildlands Conservation Trust has already established through its Indigenous Trees for Life programme.

Indigenous Trees for Life is a sustainable livelihoods initiative in KwaZulu Natal where vulnerable children are taught to grow indigenous trees which they then sell back to the Wildlands Conservation Trust as a source of income.  There are now over 1300 “Tree-preneurs” who produced more than 200 000 saplings just last year.  Trees produced from this project are going to be used to rehabilitate the Mkhuze River floodplain and Riverine Forest in the first bona fide Forest Rehabilitation Carbon Sink project ever to be undertaken in South Africa.