Month: August 2010

In joining the efforts to try and help secure South Africa’s rhino populations against poachers, the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA), this month donated R160 000 to the Wildlands Conservation Trust to support current efforts towards alleviating the tremendous pressure that poaching is placing on this iconic species.

This donation was made in direct response to the call made at the recent Lead SA Rhino Summit for environmental groups to work together to conserve rhino. “With more than 170 rhinos having been poached in national parks and game reserves this year alone – the highest level seen in the country in 15 years – PHASA’s donation to Wildlands will go directly towards the conservation of black and white rhino in the Somkhanda Game Reserve and in expanding rhino habitat throughout northern KwaZulu Natal,” said Adri Kitshoff, Chief Executive Officer of PHASA.

Created by the Gumbi community after a successful land claim in 2005, the reserve comprises 16,000ha of land which was consolidated into a new conservation area with assistance from the Wildlands Conservation Trust and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF-SA).  This area represents one of the last remaining areas suitable for Black Rhino range expansion in KwaZulu-Natal. In acknowledgement of this, WWF-SA together with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, introduced a small black rhino population into the reserve. The population is doing extremely well, with proof of two new calves being picked up this month through motion detection cameras.

The area being supported has been incorporated under the biodiversity stewardship program and will be proclaimed as a Nature Reserve later this year. This will be the first reserve to be proclaimed on restituted land and represents a major achievement in ‘conservation by the people’. Wildlands currently employs an experienced, dedicated rhino conservation team who not only monitor the rhino population inside the reserve, but who also serve as ambassadors for the rhino population in the neighbouring communities.

As the largest professional hunting association in the world, PHASA actively participates in the formulation of conservation policy in South Africa in partnership with government and non-governmental organizations and in consultation with an international network of affiliated bodies. The latest donation to Wildlands builds on this partnership and illustrates a commitment to conserving biodiversity and bringing additional land under formal conservation.

Caption: Hans Vermaak: Director of the Fund & Executive Committee Member and Adri Kitshoff: CEO, PHASA with Roelie Kloppers, Programme Manager, Wildlands Conservation Trust in a symbolic handover ceremony help last week.

GO BACK

The Wildlands Conservation Trust’s Biodiversity Management Support Programme is dedicated to supporting formal conservation initiatives. Wildlands works closely with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to support their management of KwaZulu-Natal’s network of conservation areas and the species residing there. This is done through the funding of projects for research, management and monitoring of threatened and endangered species, and for conservation actions for biodiversity protection.

The elephants of Tembe Elephant Park in northern Maputaland, KwaZulu Natal are part of the Maputo-Futi-Tembe Coastal Elephant Plains Population, the only elephant population indigenous to KwaZulu Natal. This group of elephants used to roam freely into Mozambique from South Africa, through what is known as the Futi corridor and into the Maputo Special Reserve, but a fence between Mozambique and South Africa along Tembe Elephant Park’s boundary was erected in 1989 after the elephants moving between the countries began showing signs of severe trauma from the war going on in Mozambique, displaying bullet wounds and snare wounds from heavy poaching. It was thought best to fence in the Tembe population, which in time grew to the now 250 – 270 elephants that are found in the 30 000 hectare reserve today.

This large population of elephants pose a number challenges for conservation. Their numbers are too many for the area they occupy, and they are impacting on the biodiversity of the sensitive sandforest vegetation of Tembe Elephant Park, which forms part of the Maputaland Centre of Plant Diversity and Endemism, as declared in 1994 by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and World Conservation Union (IUCN). This distinctive forest type is known to be restricted to northern KwaZulu Natal and southern Mozambique, and has a unique combination of plant and animal species.

Since the 1990s Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife have been working with the Mozambican government to re-establish the link between Tembe Elephant Park and the Maputo Special Reserve to restore the ancient migratory route of the elephants; this forms part of the greater Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) plans for the region. This has been a slow process, and as a holding mechanism to relieve pressure on the sandforest and control elephant numbers growing further, Wildlands Conservation Trust has funded two management interventions in Tembe, a contraception programme for the elephants, and an elephant restraining line that has been put in place, protecting a 2500 hectare area of sandforest.

In May 2007 the first group of 82 female elephants was darted with the PZP contraception vaccine. The aim is to dart roughly 80-90% of the population, in order to have 75% of the population on contraception. If a cow is already pregnant and is darted, the vaccine will not interfere with the pregnancy and the vaccine will not take effect. In October 2007, a further 79 females were darted. The process was repeated in October 2008 and October 2009, with slightly lower numbers needing to be darted in order to achieve a level of 75% of the population covered.

With the gestation period of an elephant calf being 22 months, many of the elephants darted may have been carrying and would not yet have been on contraception, but there are indications that there are now fewer calves. Leonard Muller is the Tembe Elephant Monitor, and he tracks the breeding herds and gets identities for each animal, establishing the structure of the herd in order to establish when young are born. It will take a number of years before the full effect of the programme is felt, which is why such close monitoring of the breeding herds is necessary. Tracking collars have been fitted to some of the elephant cows in order for breeding herds to be identified and monitored. Behavioural as well as habitat information is gathered this way. The contraception programme is not designed to decrease the number of elephants, but to control further growth in the population.

Dr Roelie Kloppers, Manager of the Biodiversity Management Support Programme for Wildlands Conservation Trust, said: “the work we funded in Tembe Elephant Park represents one of a series of pioneering and groundbreaking ecological interventions supported by the Trust. We aimed to support the scientific community in developing new insights into elephant management that could be duplicated throughout the region. At this stage the results are very encouraging and the feedback we have received illustrates the value of supporting scientific input into advancing the management of biodiversity.”

Not only is the contraception programme helping to manage elephant numbers as a holding mechanism for later expansion of the range when the population might again be allowed to grow, but the biodiversity conservation objective of reducing the effect of the elephant population on the sandforest in Tembe is being achieved. Vegetation, animal and bird surveys are yet to be completed for exact results to be established, but it is clear that the sandforest is making a recovery from the damage caused by the elephants.

Pictures:
Sandforest in Tembe Elephant Park
An Elephant in Tembe Elephant Park
The Elephant restraining line in Tembe Elephant Park
Pictures credits: Maryann Shaw

55k’s on a mountain bike through a BIG 5 game reserve is a truly privileged experience.  Riders of the Bonitas Mondi iMfolozi MTB Challenge, showed their appreciation for this by raising over R200 000 for the Wildlands Conservation Trust at the 2010 event. These funds are used to support the monitoring of the Wild Dog population in Hhuhlwe iMfolozi Park (HIP) and trails for school children living outside the reserve.

This year 14 passionate riders donned wild dog suits in order to raise more funds for the cause.  It seemed the dogs knew their biggest fans were in the area, as on their way to the start, riders were treated to a sighting of a large pack of wild dogs with a kill.  The dogs in HIP are doing remarkably well and the numbers have grown to a now total 83 dogs in the park, contributing significantly to the genetic viability of the larger population. The importance of this population of critically endangered animals can be understood when comparing it to the estimated 120 individuals in the Kruger National Park – which is almost twenty times the size of HIP.

Wild Dog monitor inside the reserve, Zama Zwane, explains some of the work he’s been able to do with the help of funds raised at the 2009 MTB challenge: “We try to understand the dynamics of the pack formations; we need to be able to predict which individuals are going to disperse and then put collars on them so that we can track and look after them as well.”

Zama and a team of researchers monitor the dogs interaction with predators, breeding patters, location and movement of the packs.  They also create identification kits (details of the dogs markings) so that individuals are easy to identify.  All this data is captured and integrated into the management plan for the dogs in the park, and in the province as a whole as part of the EWT run, Wild Dog Management Group. “Funding is important because there are new individuals all the time and we need to identify dispersals.  The funds are used for transports costs, collars and telemetry equipment”, says Zama.  At around R3000 a collar, a constant supply of funding is required to continue the work.

Wild dogs weren’t the only winners of the event.  The iMfolozi Wilderness and Cultural Awareness Programme (WACAP) took five community trails with funding from last year’s challenge.  The reserves trail guides take students from schools on the reserves borders into the wilderness area of the park to learn more about the wildlife in the park and why conservation the reserve it so important.  For almost all of these children, this is the first time in a reserve and certainly in a BIG 5 area.

PhD student and Wildlands team member, Paul Cryer, is developing a strategy for protected area expansion and forming corridors between protected areas; one of the corridors in the pipeline is between iMfolozi and Opathe, near Ulundi.  He explains the importance of these trails to the future of corridor linkage projects such as this:  “It is of vital importance to the creation of these corridors to link with communities and get community members to have direct access to, and dialogue with Ezemvelo KZN wildlife regarding  conservation values, advantages and benefits of conservation areas.  WACAP is the tool to facilitate that.  I’m hugely optimistic about what this can achieve.”  Two new camps and further training are planned for the year to come to expand the impact of this programme.

For more information contact Simone Dale on Tel: 033 343 6380 or simoned@localhost/import-data-post, or visit  Posted on August 20, 2010Author BuyisiweCategories NewsLeave a comment on A wild ride for conservation

A staggering 104 000 indigenous trees have been planted at the Buffelsdraai Landfill Site near Verulam in less than two years.

The Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project was set up by the eThekwini Municipality to form part of its programme in achieving a “climate neutral” 2010 FIFA World Cup in Durban. The project goal was to plant 62 500 indigenous trees to establish a carbon sink in Durban’s newest landfill site, and this goal has been exceeded by 66%.

Nondumiso Khumalo supervises the planting team of eight people on site and since October 2008 she has worked towards this goal. Her sense of achievement and that of her team’s is tangible: “In the beginning it was difficult, so I worked out how many trees we needed to plant per month, then per week and then per day to achieve the goal; and now I go and stand and see all the trees, and it is amazing to see that we can do something I did not realise could be done” she said.

The target of 62 500 trees planted was exceeded through a few special events involving larger scale plantings that happened over a few days. For four days before the 2010 Comrades Marathon, 50 people from the neighbouring communities of Buffelsdraai and Osindisweni were contracted to plant 22 000 trees, a tree representing each entrant in the race. Khumalo’s team prepared all the trees for planting and co-ordinated and supervised these intensive planting days. Disadvantaged community members were able to earn while seeing firsthand the value of having the growing forest as their neighbour.

Said Nicci Diederichs, Co-ordinator of the Greening Durban 2010 Programme for the eThekwini Municipality,“Our original target was exceeded only as a result of the extreme commitment and hard work of both Wildlands Conservation Trust as the municipality’s project implementation partner, and the local communities that have made the project a reality.”

Simphiwe Mkhize, a planting team member since the start of the project in November 2008, says the team can plant up to 1000 trees in one day. “We have planted many, many trees in summer when there was a lot of rain. Some days we are transplanting and bagging the trees in the nursery, and in winter we have found it very difficult without rain.” he said.

Mkhize explains that the trees in this area serve as a buffer between the landfill site and the community: “The trees are helping us with shade and are protecting the people from the bad air at the dump, that is why we are planting the indigenous trees.”

With a background in conservation, Khumalo enjoys working outdoors and is seeing the impact their work is having on the environment. “Much of this area was covered in sugar cane before, and with chemicals and burning the animals stayed away. Now when we are planting we are seeing many small mammals coming back. We have seen mole rat, common duiker, elephant shrew and banded mongoose. I also enjoy working with the communities that live next to this area and involving them in what we are doing. It is important that they understand why we are planting trees.”

This high level of success and the multitude of benefits that have arisen out of this project have created sufficient motivation for the eThekwini Municipality to fund a second phase of the project. This phase, which started on 1 July 2010, will see a further 100,000 trees in the ground by June 2011, nearly doubling the carbon sink and the socio-economic benefits for local communities. This will create a new forest which has the capacity to sink between 20,000 and 30,000 tonnes of CO2 over a 20 year period.

“The project has shown far greater benefits than simply the establishment of a new carbon sink: with the amazing number of income generating opportunities for local communities in need, biodiversity conservation and catchment restoration benefits that have been created, this project has shown that reforestation is an excellent way of achieving climate protection in a socially and ecologically responsible way.” said Diederichs.

Picture: Nondumiso Khumalo on site at Buffelsdraai landfill near Verulam in Durban.

Members of the KwaJobe community near Mkhuze Game Reserve are seizing the opportunity to become environmentally conscious.

Through the Greening Your Future Programme run by the NGO the Wildlands Conservation Trust, community members are planting indigenous trees on their land in exchange for goods to the value of R2 per tree they plant. They nurture the trees and receive further compensation if the tree is still in good health each quarter thereafter.

Workshops were held to add meaning to the work they are doing, to create an understanding of why the trees are being planted and of the effect indigenous trees have on their immediate environment.
Manqoba Sabela, environmental educator for the Wildlands Conservation Trust, said of the workshops: “We want to make the community aware of environmental issues in their area and the role they are playing, and discuss the steps they can take such as recycling, dealing with soil erosion, and why planting the trees is important in relation to climate change.”

The use of natural resources was discussed, as for many people in this area chopping down trees for firewood has been a way of life. Alternatives such as using trees that are already dead as sources of wood were discussed, as well as the use of solar energy in order to burn less fuel. The value of trees and forests was explained in erosion prevention and provision of wind protection. Climate change was explained and the role of trees demonstrated in absorbing carbon dioxide and providing oxygen.

Khumbulani Jobe is a facilitator and monitor with the Wildlands Conservation Trust working in this community and attended the workshop, and said he saw how many of those doing the tree planting have changed their views: “We learnt that using the same paths every day for the cattle and walking makes erosion bad, so it is good to use different paths,” he said. “The landowners say they want to plant more trees as they have learnt that trees are saving our lives by absorbing the carbon that is destroying the ozone layer.”

The Wildlands Conservation Trust runs two programmes in this community, supported by Rand Merchant Bank. Indigenous Trees for Life sees indigenous trees grown from seed to a certain height and then exchanged for goods, and Greening your Future which aims to restore natural forests with the long-term goal of creating “carbon sinks” for carbon sequestration.

The planting of indigenous trees in KwaJobe is helping to restore a  30 kilometre stretch of riverine forest along the Mkhuze river which borders the north eastern fringes of the Mkhuze Game Reserve, creating livelihoods support for a needy community as well as restoring eco-system functioning which brings back much of the naturally occurring biodiversity.

Picture: Manqoba Sabela, Wildlands Conservation Trust Environmental Educator, runs an outdoor workshop for landowners in KwaJobe in northern Zululand.