Month: November 2019

Dear Valued Partners & Friends of the Trust,

After 19 years at the helm of the WILDTRUST, Dr Andrew Venter has decided to step down as CEO of the Wildlands Conservation Trust (WILDTRUST). This is part of a structured executive leadership team development and transition process that he has implemented, together with the WILDTRUST Board, over the past two years.

The Chairman of the WILDTRUST Board, Andile Ncontsa, said that Andrew has had a long career growing the WILDTRUST into one of South Africa’s premier sustainability and environmental NPO’s. He has nurtured the growth of an executive leadership team, anchored by the WILDLANDS Executive Director, Dr Roelie Kloppers, and WILDOCEANS Executive Director, Dr Jean Harris. Dr Kloppers and Dr Harris  will continue to lead these core WILDTRUST programmes under the guidance of the WILDTRUST Board, with support from Shanitha Singh (Executive Director: Finance, Human Resources and Administration) and Louise Duys (Executive Director: Partnerships, Marketing and Training). “Collectively, they are responsible for driving their portfolios and ensuring support and success in their respective fields. Supporting them is a group of able strategic directors and managers and an enthusiastic and passionate team who drive the day-to-day operations,” said Ncontsa.

In 2004, after the successful merger of Wildlands and the KZN Conservation Trusts, Andrew became the first full-time employee of the newly created Wildlands Conservation Trust. Since then the organisation has evolved into the WILDTRUST – one of South Africa’s largest environmental NPO’s currently employing almost 4 000 “Green” and “Blue” team members that are driving a wide range of terrestrial and marine conservation and sustainable development projects.

“It has been my privilege to lead this team, whilst shaping and supporting an ever evolving portfolio of projects, including Trees for Life, Recycling for Life, Food for Life, Khuthaza Business, the WILD SERIES, Greening your Future, Adopt-A-River, the Karkloof conservation area expansion, Somkhanda Community Game Reserve, the BLOOD LIONS film and impact campaign, the Blue Fund, Ocean Stewards, Whale Time, Blue Crew, Blue Port, #OnlyThisMuch, Ocean iMPAct, Oceans Alive, the Shark Conservation Project, Waste Uprising and the OUR OCEANS film and impact campaign. I look forward to seeing WILDTRUST grow from strength to strength as it continues to evolve in response to our region’s environmental challenges and donor opportunities,” said Venter.

In addition to exploring a range of new and exciting sustainability impact opportunities, Andrew will now focus his energies to drive the development of recycling innovations that have evolved from WILDTRUST Recycling for Life initiatives and activities, developing and scaling commercially viable impact opportunities. “In essence, Dr Venter is not lost from our common cause and we wish him well as he dedicates himself to new challenges and taking Recycling for Life to the next level,” said Ncontsa.

WILDLANDS – a programme of the WILDTRUST embarked on an innovation journey three years ago where they pioneered the Green Desk. These desks were the first of their kind providing a solution to divert multi-layered plastic waste from landfill. To amplify this innovation, the #GOGREEN campaign, supported by Old Mutual and funded by Polyco (Polyolefin Responsibility Organisation NPC) was born. The campaign aimed at providing a practical solution for collecting waste from athletes and spectators at endurance events, while discouraging littering and promoting upcycling and recycling.

Polyco is a not-for-profit industry body responsible for growing the collection and recycling of polyolefin plastic packaging in South Africa and for promoting the responsible use and re-use of plastics. Their mission is to reduce the amount of plastics going to landfill and to end plastic waste in the environment. Polyco does this by collaborating with various stakeholders, with investment in innovation and recycling infrastructure in South Africa, and by educating both the industry and the consumer about recycling.

The equivalent of the waste collected from the Two Oceans and Comrades marathon was transformed into Green Desks in collaboration with Polyplank, a multi-material flexible packaging recycler based in Cape Town.

Through the 2018 events, a total of 800 desks (400 through Two Oceans Marathon and 400 through the Comrades marathon) have been donated to underprivileged schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Western Cape.  The schools which benefitted included Ikhaya le Themba, Ukhanyo Primary, Masiphumelele and Kayamandi High School in the Western Cape. In KZN, the schools that benefitted include Intshisekelo Secondary School, Sukuma Comprehensive School, Ukusakwabasha, Mzimba and Lamula Primary School.

Polyco CEO, Mandy Naudé states, “Polyco is very pleased to be part of the #GOGREEN Green Desks campaign for the second year, along with Old Mutual and WILDLANDS. This project is a perfect fit within our organisation in terms of finding new market end-uses for recycled polyolefin pellets or for difficult to recycle multi-layer materials. These desks are being made from 100% recycled material – predominantly polyolefin material, which is extremely durable and perfect for school desks. Educating children that used plastic packaging has value and must not end up being litter in the environment is crucial. Showing them that used plastic packaging was used to make their new desk is a very powerful message. We are pleased to be associated with this project and to assist to meet two key needs in our country – to clean up our environment and to provide the necessary desks to our schools.”

CMA CSI Convenor, Mqondisi Ngcobo says, “At the CMA, we are mindful that the responsibility rests within each and every one of us to recycle, repair, reuse and do the best that we can by our planet. This initiative is highly significant in that it addresses the major need to recycle our waste and benefit local schools in a tangible way with durable and much-needed school desks.”

“It has been an incredible journey seeing these schools benefit from the waste generated at these events. As an environmental organisation, we feel this not only fulfils our mandate but further fuels our vision for a sustainable future for all. As the running season gets into full swing, we would like to call on all runners taking part in the Comrades Marathon 2020 to sign up as a WILDLANDS runner and ‘dare to dream’ of a better tomorrow for all South Africans,” concludes Buyi Makhoba-Dlamini, WILDLANDS Marketing Deputy Director.

Somkhanda has become the first Community Game Reserve to contribute to the latest WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project (BRREP) which saw 17 black rhinos from South Africa being successfully translocated to Liwonde National Park in Malawi. This is the first international move for BRREP and its 13^th to date.

The 17 rhinos destined for Malawi were captured in KwaZulu-Natal and quarantined for six weeks in one of Ezemvelo’s parks before being flown from King Shaka airport in Durban to Lilongwe, with every precaution taken to ensure their wellbeing throughout the process.

As part of a long-term strategy, WWF runs the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project aimed at increasing growth rate and numbers of the critically endangered species. WWF works with private and community landowners as well as state conservation agencies to identify large blocks of land on which to establish new black rhino populations.

In this historic move, two of the Somkhanda born female black rhinos will now be contributing to the black rhino populations in Malawi. This is a huge achievement for the Gumbi community and the Emvokweni Community Trust as this realizes their vision of devoting their land for conservation. Nathi Gumbi comments, “when the trust decided to dedicate Somkhanda to conservation, we never imagined that we would be contributing towards the expansion of the critically endangered black rhino. We are proud pioneers and we believe that this will add to our already rich history and heritage.”

Meiring Prinsloo, Somkhanda Community Game Reserve Manager added, “This translocation means so much for conservation. It highlights the value of trans-frontier conservation initiatives and meta population management strategies. It also stresses the value and importance of cooperation between various non-governmental conservation organizations and state agencies. It is a proud and momentous occasion for Somkhanda Community Game Reserve to be part of it. This is also a real motivator to the team on the ground to continue the important and often dangerous work of protecting our natural heritage which we are all entrusted with.”

Roelie Kloppers, WILDLANDS Executive Director concludes, “It’s simply an amazing South African success story to have rhino born on land claimed back from Apartheid era wrongs now starting a new population in Malawi. This community have shown that its everyone’s responsibility and privilege to look after our endangered species. We are truly proud to partner with them.”

With only around 5500 black rhinos remaining across their range in the wild, translocations to well-protected areas are essential in giving populations a chance for growth and survival and allowing future generations of people to benefit from their natural heritage.

Sean Williams, a long-time supporter and donor of WILDLANDS, who witnessed the translocation remarked, “It is not about what is in it for us today, but what is in it for our children in the future.”

This translocation wouldn’t have been possible without the crucial partnerships between WILDLANDS, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Wildlife ACT, Emvokweni Community Trust and WWF-SA.

At a press conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa last week the issue of overfishing and overuse of ocean resources was unpacked with a specific focus on the Western Indian Ocean (WIO).

WILDOCEANS, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and TRAFFIC collaborated on a presentation given at the conference with a specific focus on overfishing linked to sharks and rays.

Rhett Bennett, Shark and Ray Program Coordinator for WCS presented the issue to the press saying: “Sharks and rays perform important ecosystem services as apex and meso-predators and provide income and protein in many fisheries. As human populations and demand for marine resources increase, more and more fish stocks become overexploited and sharks and rays are increasingly being targeted, for meat, fins, liver oil and other products. However, sharks and rays generally have very low reproductive capacity, with late maturity and few offspring, making them highly vulnerable to overexploitation.”

“With over 200 species, the western Indian Ocean (WIO) is considered a global hotspot for shark and ray diversity, with a core in southern Mozambique and north eastern South Africa. However, the WIO suffers intense fishing pressure and overexploitation in industrial, commercial and artisanal fisheries, which operate in almost all habitats using a diversity of fishing gears, some of which are illegal,” said Bennett. “These fisheries have significant impacts on sharks and rays and, consequently, 27% of elasmobranch species in the WIO are now threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List of threatened species. These species require urgent conservation and management intervention, but this is impeded by significant gaps in ecological, biological and fishery information and limited protective legislation.”

“There is an urgent need to address the problems that are driving our sharks and rays to extinction,” Dr Jean Harris of WILDOCEANS said, adding that “hope was not yet lost.” She said that in South Africa WILDOCEANS was working with government and civil society to address these challenges. “But we need far more sanctuary areas for sharks and rays, especially places that they aggregate to breed, and nursery areas.”

“We need increased surveillance. And, of course effective enforcement. Not just arresting poachers, but the resources to detect and prevent illegal fishing in the first place.” Dr Harris said the number of fish caught by any group — including local people who rely on the sea for food — must be sustainable. And she called for an immediate review of “foreign fleet agreements” in the western Indian Ocean region.

“We have EU and Asian vessels fishing working in African waters, some licensed and others not. We need an audit of how this is impacting our region’s stocks and the impact on biodiversity, especially where unselective methods like long-line fishing and net trawling are used.” Dr Harris was especially critical of EU fleets working in African waters. “These companies are subsidised from Brussels and come here because they’ve already depleted their own stocks.”

She said there needed to be “a reassessment from top to bottom” of the fishing industry and its impacts on biodiversity and food security in Africa.

“Fish and marine creatures including sharks, turtles, even dolphins are being removed from the sea in tons, often as unwanted by by-catch, and some of our species will vanish altogether in a very short time unless action is taken now.”

“If these were rhinos or elephants, there’d be an outcry, and rightly so. But some of our marine species are just as endangered and being killed in far greater numbers,” said Harris.

President and CEO of Ocean Unite, Karen Sack said: “Illegal and illicit fishing has been a scourge impacting Southern African waters for decades and is multi-billion-dollar organized crime.  It threatens law-abiding fishers, devastates habitats and species – especially vulnerable species like sharks, and deceives responsible retailers and well-meaning consumers alike. There are clear links between illegal fishing, people smuggling, human trafficking and the illegal drugs and gun trade which means that it is a national security as well.  Governments need to work together to counter illegal fishing, particularly through joint monitoring as well as openly sharing vessel information and data, creating a more complete and interconnected picture of fishing occurring in national and regional waters and across our global ocean.”

Global Fishing Watch enables users with Internet access to monitor fishing activity globally, and to view “individual vessel tracks, exclusive economic zones, marine protected areas, and other features.” It is hoped that the initiative can help to reduce “global overfishing, illegal fishing and habitat destruction.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Fishing_Watch)

“Transparency is a powerful part of the solution to combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which represents a grave threat to fish stocks, and the well-being of fishing communities.” said Tong Long, CEO of Global Fishing Watch. “Where countries publicly share their vessel data we can create a more complete picture of fishing activity. Law-abiding fishers are tracked easily and openly, demonstrating their compliance. Rogue operators stand out due to their patchy track record or suspicious behaviour. With greater transparency, nations have a more cost-effective way of monitoring vessels that puts the burden on fishers to demonstrate compliance rather than on the country to prove illegality.”

On 21 October 2019, environmental attorneys Adrian Pole and Kirsten Youens lodged a detailed appeal on behalf of WILDOCEANS (a programme of the WILDTRUST) with the Environment, Forestry and Fishery (DEFF) Minister Barbara Creecy, challenging an authorisation granted by the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) to authorize foreign mining giants Eni and SASOL to drill six exploration oil wells at two deep sea locations in high current off the coast of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Relying heavily on the results of commissioned oil spill modelling, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done by the oil company’s EIA consultants (ERM) argued that the possibility of a catastrophic oil spill should a wellhead blowout occur was unlikely and that impacts on South Africa’s ocean would be low should this occur.

Disturbed by the quality of the EIA, Dr Jean Harris (Executive Director of WILDOCEANS) obtained three international expert reviews of the EIA, including critique of the oil spill modelling and assessment of risks and impacts. These independent experts, in contrast to the EIA that informed the decision of DMR, caution that such deep-sea offshore oil exploration is a new frontier for the oil and gas industry, and that well-head blowout frequency is expected to be greater in deep high-current locations and very rapid responses to catastrophic events would be near impossible. Furthermore, they caution that the risk assessment by the EIA consultants significantly under-represents the likely negative environmental impacts. “This is particularly alarming given the Critical Biodiversity Areas and new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on the east coast of South Africa that are in the path of more realistic oil spill modelling scenarios, and damage to these areas would severely compromise biodiversity, fisheries and tourism,” said Harris.

Dr. Erik Cordes who specializes in deep sea science and co-leads the DOSI Oil and Gas Working Group, whose 45 scientific members have written a letter to the Minister urging a precautionary approach, stated in his expert report that ‘a large spill or blowout would have major consequences for the marine environment, from the shoreline to the deep sea’ and noted that the consultants for Eni-SASOL failed to consider important information about the behaviour of oil spilled from such depths, which have been gained over the past 10 years from the Deepwater Horizon incident. Prof Claire Paris, a biological oceanographer in Miami with extensive experience in oil spill modelling, also expressed surprise that the Eni-SASOL EIA oil spill modelling did not use this Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a relevant frame of reference, and considers the oil spill modelling dangerously presented by the Consultants to be ‘highly unrealistic with the predicted outcomes presented as a worst case scenario, actually being closer to a best case scenario.’ Prof Annalisa Bracco, a physical oceanographer from the Georgia Institute of Technology whose research has been instrumental in understanding oil and methane patterns following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also raised major concerns regarding the realism and reliability of the modelling simulations used in the Eni-SASOL EIA. She highlights that outdated nature of the model and its application biases could impact hugely on the assessment of the oiling predictions and the impacts on the KZN shoreline.

In their appeal to the DEFF Minister to set aside the decision taken by DMR, WILDOCEANS contends that the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) prepared by Eni and SASOL’s consultants (EMR) is “fatally flawed and cannot serve as a lawful basis for a reasonable and rational environmental decision.”  Grounds for this appeal that are put forward in the lengthy appeal document include that the public participation process was procedurally unfair, the EIA Oil Spill Model predictions are unrealistic, potential environmental impact is under-estimated, and there is no climate risk assessment.

The Appeals Directorate of DEFF have now given DMR and Eni and SASOL’s representatives until 11 November 2019 to respond to the all “grounds for appeal” submitted by 47 appellants, that have been collated into a 331 page document. The appellants include the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) and the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR). “Our initial objections to the EIA report have not been adequately addressed,” wrote Dr Sean Fennessy of the Oceanographic Research Institute (ORI).

In considering this appeal, DEFF Minister Barbara Creecy, responsible for protecting the environment, may well feel caught between the drillers and the deep blue sea.

South African marine conservation programme  WILDOCEANS (of the WILDTRUST) recently presented ongoing research at the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) Madagascar and Indian Ocean Hotspot Grantees meeting in Nosy Be, Madagascar –  attended by more than 80 representatives from NGO’s who are leading a variety of biodiversity conservation projects in the region.

Simone Dale, WILDOCEANS’ Projects Director joined representatives from NGO’s in the West Indian Ocean region, including from Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros and Mauritius on a three-day workshop, hosted by the Regional Implementation Team (RIT), Tany Meva.

The Critical Ecosystems Partnerships Fund have funded 104 projects in the region over the last 5 years and will be extending their support to selected existing grantees until 2022. Some of the achievements to date include increased terrestrial protection and improved management of these areas, improved livelihoods with communities receiving tangible benefits from conservation, and increased local participation and collaboration in conservation action.

In October last year, WILDOCEANS and project partners conducted the first ever visual mesophotic surveys in the deeper habitats (depths between 40m and 200m) in the West Indian Ocean off their Research Vessel, Angra Pequena. These surveys made use of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and Stereo Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV), equipment provided by the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP). The NPO is currently executing the second of a two-year grant from the CEPF to build knowledge around biodiversity in the Comoros Archipelago, and build capacity in local research institutions to continue this important research in the future.

Dale says that the NPO intends to apply for an extension of their current grant which ends in June next year and are hoping to continue research in the mesophotic ecosystems off the Comoros Island till June 2022, covering areas that have not yet been researched. “We want to be able to provide the knowledge gleaned from our research in these important habitats to local research institutions including the Department of Fisheries and the University of Comoros for use in planning and management of Marine Protected Areas and fisheries management.”

Dale says that the key component of this project is to build the capacity of local research institutions through training, site exchanges and mentorship to enable scientific, technical and institutional capacity to continue this work.

“We have already provided some initial training to enable key staff to be able to deploy the equipment and analyse the data so that it can be used in management planning. We handed over 3 sets of BRUV equipment consisting of frames, buoys, ropes, cameras, etc, to the University of Comoros team members so that ongoing BRUV surveys can be done when we’re gone.  The project extension we are hoping to secure will build on this work.”

Grantees paid a visit to the Tanihely National Park, a Marine Protected Area in Madagascar. This forms part of the only 0.1% of the countries territorial waters protected at present (www.mpatlas.org). The island is home to an incredible diversity of marine life and is consistently cited as a global conservation priority.

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the MacArthur Foundation and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.