Die Kwêvoël, Thabazimbi

Rico, the two year old Belgian Malinois dog is SA’s latest weapon in the fight against rhino horn smuggling.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is proud to welcome its newest member of staff – Rico the Wildlife Sniffer Dog! Rico, who is being trained to detect wildlife products, is funded through the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust and will be deployed as part of a partnership between the EWT and the African Consultants for Transport Security (ACTS), a cargo screening company that uses sniffer dogs to detect explosives in cargo.

Rico, a two year old Belgian Malinois, arrived in South Africa from Germany on Tuesday the 6th of March to take up duty as a Wildlife Sniffer Dog at OR Tambo International Airport’s cargo and baggage sections.  The canine is physically ideally suited for the task as he has a high work drive, immense confidence and intense focus, coupled with an extraordinary sense of smell.

The dog forms part of the EWT’s strategy to quell the rampant rhino poaching and illegal wildlife trade. The rhino poaching crisis has demonstrated that there is no single solution to addressing illegal wildlife trade, which is an increasing global phenomenon, estimated to be the third largest illegal industry worldwide after drugs and human trafficking, and often has its roots in organised, trans-boundary crime. For this reason the EWT is implementing interventions at several stages in the poaching and wildlife trade chain, including the deployment of highly trained sniffer dogs specifically trained to detect wildlife products like rhino horn, at various ports of exit through the country.

Rico will be housed and cared for by ACTS at their canine facility in Kempton Park, with generous sponsorship for the animal also coming from BIDVest and the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Fund. Once he has acclimatised to his new environment Rico is to be introduced to his future handler.  While he already understands the principles of searching for and detecting scents he will now be imprinted on the specific scents –  particularly rhino horn, ivory and abalone – that he needs to detect before being put to work. As he matures, new scents of other threatened species affected by illegal trade and smuggling will be added to his olfactory repertoire.

The EWT will facilitate the deployment of a further five dogs at various high risk border points of entry and exit during 2012. This will contribute to increasing the detection rate of wildlife contraband in transit and therefore, the risk associated with wildlife crime and rhino poaching specifically. With increased detection comes improved arrest and prosecution rates and hopefully, a reduction in poaching through deterring individuals involved in organised crime.

For further information about the EWT’s Rhino Project please contact Kirsty Brebner at kirstyb@ewt.org.za

Kaapstad – Dit gaan nie gebeur dat die renosterspesie uitsterf terwyl ons die lot van die renosters in ons hande hou nie, het adv. Johnny de Lange, voorsitter van die portefeuljekomitee oor water en omgewingsake, gesê.

Openbare verhore oor hoe renosterstropery stopgesit kan word, word tans in die parlement gehou. Landbou.com berig 333 renosters is in 2010 en 448 verlede jaar gestroop. Vanjaar trek dit al by 28.

Die portefeuljekomitee het 14 skriftelike voorleggings oor die kwessie gekry.

Fundisile Mketeni, adjunk-direkteurgeneraal gemoeid met biodiversiteit en bewaring by die departement van water en omgewingsake, het gesê hulle sukkel om inligting oor die opgegaarde voorraad renosterhorings te kry.

’n Amnestietydperk sal waarskynlik ingestel moet word sodat mense die aantal horings wat in hul besit is, bekend kan maak.

-Media24

Cara de Bruyn from Gitta-Martula with Tokolosh, from Smashblock, who called them after seeing a tortoise being traumatised by local children.

MAROELASFONTEIN – Gitta-Martula has been open for over a year now, and is extremely happy that they are slowly being recognised by the community as a safe haven for injured and orphaned wild animals in the Thabazimbi area.

They have had many success stories over the last 12 months, their most recent being the release of a juvenile Black Breasted Snake Eagle. This magnificent bird was found on the side of a road and taken to Care Four Paws veterinary clinic where Dr Andrea Farrell examined him. Dr Farrell then called them and asked if they could look after him at the Re-hab Centre.  The eagle had injured his wing and he was with them for four weeks, he settled very quickly and with gentle care and encouragement he was successfully released back into the wild.

They are also extremely pleased at the support which they are receiving from the residents in the informal settlement of ‘Smash Block’  -  Tokolosh, called them when he saw a tortoise being traumatised by some local children, he took the tortoise away from the children and called Gitta-Martula. They were able to collect the tortoise and keep him for a few days to check that he was not injured or too stressed before he was released back into the wild.

It is warthog piglet season again, and Gitta-Martula has three piglets in the Rehab. They were brought in when they were about 4 days old. When they are this tiny they need to be fed little and often, so it was back to the 2-hourly feeding programme. They are doing really well and have the prospect of a long and happy life ahead of them.

Gitta-Martula would like to thank everyone in Thabazimbi who have passed around their name. Do not hesitate to call them, if they can be of assistance, they will collect animals. This is a free service to the animals in this area.

Natasha Nienaber is the new Assistant Project Manager of the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project.

MABULA – Good rains and good people have ensured that 2011/2012 Southern Ground-Hornbill harvest season of the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project, was a success.

A total of 11 chicks are safely in the capable hands of Delecia Gunn from Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency at Loskop Dam Municipal Reserve and Lara Jordan, Elaine Bratt and Christine Giannone at Johannesburg Zoo.

Hand-rearing these chicks requires skill and immense stamina for the long hours and is not an easy task by any means and for their commitment, the Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project are eternally grateful.

This annual initiative, during the breeding season (December to January) is conducted mostly in the Kruger National Park and the Associated Private Nature Reserves (APNR). The hornbills lay on average two eggs about three to five days apart in natural hollows in larges trees like figs, baobabs and leadwood. If the first chick is healthy, the second one is always doomed to dehydration and starvation due to parental neglect, if there is something wrong with the first chick, the second will be raised to fledging instead, this is nature’s insurance scheme. In collaboration with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, SanParks, APNR, Makalali Private Reserve, and the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, the project harvest these doomed second-hatched chick. Each chick is stabilised and carefully transported to hand-rearing facilities. This effectively doubles the productivity of wild nests and a means to increase the Southern Ground Hornbill numbers. This is needed to safeguard the declining wild population and rebuild locally extinct population, through both the captive breeding programme and release back into the wild.

The Mabula Ground Hornbill Project also welcomes Natasha Nienaber to the board. She brings a wealth of new experience to the Project as Assistant Project Manager. She has excellent bush knowledge, has hand-reared white rhino and been the lead on a very successful cheetah release.

A very easy way to support the Ground-Hornbill conservation at no extra cost is to register at various outlets, like Woolworths, and every time you swipe, a percentage of your spend will be donated to the Project.

For more information on the project or to add them as a beneficiary, email project@groundhornbill.org.za.

THABAZIMBI – Die inwoners van Thabazimbi en omgewing het heerlike reënweer gedurende die hittige Desembermaand ontvang. Ben Alberts Natuurreservaat het 240mm vir Desember tot Donderdag 12 Januarie 2012 ontvang terwyl Wachteenbietjesdraai sowat 220mm sterk staan. Thabazimbi dorp het tussen 150 tot 180mm op verskeie plekke gemeet terwyl Faan van Vreden van Obaro Thabazimbi-tak hul reënmeter op 144mm leeggemaak het. Volgens statistiek kry Thabazimbi hul meeste reën in Januarie maande met ‘n gemiddeld van 109mm.

Farmers and other community groups in the Lephalale area had mixed feelings when they received a leaked report from the Inspection Panel (IP) of the World Bank this week.

The IP report was expected in the first quarter of 2011, but was only just handed over to the World Bank Management.

According to Tristen Taylor, of Earth life Arica the report states quite a few critical points initiated by local community members.

The report states that the World Bank management failed to consider critical environmental Issues in approving a $3.75 Billion loan to Eskom to build one of the largest coal power plants in the World, Medupi, near Lephalale in Limpopo.

According to an expert’s summary of the Inspection Panel (IP) report, the report reveals significant environmental, social and climate impacts. The IP visited the area about 18 months ago at the request of concerned community groups. The report found that these impacts, including an estimated release of CO2 emissions of 26 million metric tones every year, were not adequately addressed by the World

Bank. It suggests that the Management may have been overly optimistic that their support for one of the largest coal power plant would, “enable the country to achieve a low carbon economy”. It notes that the emissions did not violate Bank policy only because the Bank did not have

a policy on greenhouse gas emissions.

The findings could not have come

at a worse time for the World Bank, where on the same South African soil, it is angling for a prized role in the $100 billion green climate fund (GCF).

The report also highlights the failure to consider impacts on water, sand mining, air quality, and the wider environmental impacts of the associated complex of coal-based economic activities (such as coal

mining) on the environment and human welfare in the region. Perhaps most worrisome are impacts on water in a region that struggles with existing water scarcity. Local community members have been challenging the illegal sand mining used for the construction of Medupi as it has affected the water flow from the local river.

“The report validates what we already know” says Niranjali Amerasinghe from CIEL. “The Bank failed to comply with its own policies by not adequately considering the very real costs associated with the project’s impacts on water, human health and the environment.”

Earth life Africa Jhb and groundWork met with community representatives on Monday and Tuesday to report back to them on the outcomes of the IP report. The communities are demanding that immediate action be taken to ensure that the negative impacts of Medupi are stopped. “We are of the opinion that the long overdue report of the Inspection Panel had a big impact on local people’s lives and human rights. Damage done to our

water supply, infrastructure and land could have been controlled and prevented were it not for the slow action taken by the World Bank,” says Susan Goosen of Mogol River Tax Payers Forum.

“We were always concerned that this project was flawed and undemocratic, and the IP investigation has proven our case. The World Bank must take urgent action and withdraw the loan as it contradicts the stated intention of the funding,” says Makoma Lekalakala, Programme Officer at

Earth life Africa Jhb.

As local groups demand redress, global civil society is arguing that the report is just the latest in a long line of destructive projects financed by the Bank. Given the World Bank’s role as interim trustee of

the Green Climate Fund, they are shining a spotlight on its destructive activities such as the funding of Medupi.

Projects like Medupi suggest they can’t be trusted to support the urgent need to move society towards a low carbon future,” says Justin Guay of Sierra Club, USA. “Their rhetoric, and reality are worlds apart.”

Whatever happens in Durban at COP 17, the World Bank’s core energy lending will continue. The next project in the pipeline is a new coal plant and strip mine in the tiny republic of Kosovo. Nezir Sinani, of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and Development, is using the lessons learned from Medupi to fight World Bank approval of the plant; “It is now evident that the World Bank has not learnt lessons from the debacle of Eskom, and thus we call on the Kosovo government and the World Bank in particular to stop pushing the coal power facility.” He visited the Lephalale area with a camera team to document the impacts of the construction of Medupi on a first hand basis.

Groups in South Africa are expressing their solidarity in what increasingly looks like the next controversial project in the World Bank pipeline.

“The World Bank has financed an incredibly destructive project here in South Africa,” says Siziwe Khanyile of groundWork. “It wasn’t the first, but we need to make it the last.”

“We call on negotiators at COP 17 to recognize the important role of agriculture in addressing climate change.  In particular, farmers are key to providing essential services needed for life, including: food, feed, fibre, energy and ecosystem services,” said Johannes Möller, president of Agri SA.

Möller added that farmers interact daily with the environment.  They are thus well placed to implement sustainable agricultural practices that can help to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

According to Möller, agriculture is different by nature and must be differentiated from other sectors.  Most of agriculture’s green house gas (GHG) emissions are directly linked to natural biological cycles.  Farmers cannot be held accountable for emissions resulting from natural biological processes, especially since the latter are required for food security.

It is also difficult to compete with other sectors in terms of cost efficiency in reducing GHG emissions, unless there are monetary incentives aimed at carbon sequestration and displacement potential along with energy efficiency improvements and supply of renewable energies peculiar to the agricultural sector.

Many studies acknowledge that GHG sequestration by agriculture is a quick and cost-effective means to mitigate emissions.  Significant benefits associated with soil organic carbon storage make sustainable land management a solution to the inter-related issues of poverty, resilience and sustainable development.

Rewarding farmers for carbon sequestration will enhance the carbon storage potential of the agricultural sector and economic incentives are needed to enable farmers to implement ‘climate smart agriculture’ practises.  There is a need to establish voluntary carbon credit systems to reward farmers for their contributions to climate mitigation through carbon sequestering activities and other agriculture emission reductions.

Securing GHG-savings and energy supply through sustainable bio-energy and other embedded renewable energy technologies should be included in the analysis of the agricultural sector.

“Given the peculiar position of the agricultural sector in relation to climate change, the following should be addressed as part of a future process,” said Möller.

Official recognition of agriculture as a sector that is adversely affected by the effects of climate change and, at the same time, as a sector with a huge potential to provide solutions to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A commitment for substantial increase in investments in and support for agriculture.  The sector must be prioritized in international and national policies and strategies as well as in budgets in order to increase agriculture’s resilience to climate change, while boosting economic growth.

Recognition of the specific characteristics and needs of agriculture in a future agreement in order to take full advantage of the mitigation and adaptation potential of the agricultural sector as the current Kyoto does not deal with this to the required extent.

Establishment of appropriate financial mechanisms to reward farmers for the carbon sequestration, ecosystem services and permanent reductions that mitigate climate change, providing them with the right financial incentives to adopt the most sustainable practices and to supply low-carbon services (energy and materials) alongside food, and fodder products.

Recognition of Farmers’ Organizations as partners linking farming communities and the international carbon market, and as a link to the international institutions.

Photo by Jakobus van der Merwe

THABAZIMBI – One of the many great tourist attractions for Thabazimbi, is the Marakele National Park, only a few kilometres from town.

A narrow tar road takes visitors up to the top of the Waterberg massif. Views and scenery are spectacular. One is also in the proximity of the vulture colony and these large birds will soar past at close quarters.

There is five special things to seek when visiting Marakele National Park: • Cape Vulture – the park hosts one of the world’s largest breeding colonies of this endangered species. While birds may be seen in the air catching thermals anywhere in the park, the drive up to the Sentech Towers is nearest to the colony and close encounters with these enormous birds will leave visitors breathless.  • African Elephant – while some elephant had been previously reintroduced into the park, it was the release of the Tuli elephants in 1999 that captured the public’s and media’s imagination. • Rhino – Marakele has a high density of both rhino species and most visitors should see these animals, particularly the more gregarious and diurnal white rhinoceros.  • Kudu – as browsers these antelope are in their element at Marakele. Look out for the bulls with their magnificent spiral horns. • The not-so-often-seen-elsewhere antelope species such as reedbuck, mountain reedbuck, eland and tsessebe can be found here.

Contact Marakele National Park for bookings on 0147776929.

Patience while the feeder passes the meat over the fence into the lion camp.

THABAZIMBI – Marakele Predator Centre - situated 9km outside Thabazimbi on the R511 road to Marakele National Park, is one of the latest tourist attractions in this part of the bushveld.

The magnificent animals you can see there include mainly White lions, Tawny Lions, Bengal tigers as well as a mini zoo with Pot Bellied pigs, Marmoset monkeys and Meerkats. The latest addition is three white lion cubs that were born on 4 December. So far, from the little bit that one can see of them, they seem well and healthy.

For the ultimate adrenalin rush – the lion mobile of Marakele Predator Centre is now ready. Join the lions on their own premises in the drive through camp. For as little as R50 for adults and R30 for children you can go into the lion camp with the mobile. For photography lovers this is your change of taking pictures up close and personal.

You are welcome to bring your own cooler with refreshments (no alcohol allowed), and spend some time there. Braai facilities as well as a jungle gym for the kiddies are available to visitors.

The centre is open daily from 09:00 to 16:00. The entrance fees are R75 for adults and R35 for kids under R12 years.

Feeding times are on Wednesdays and on Sundays at 12:00. Please book in advance for the lion mobile. Phone Emma on 071 597 7752.

DURBAN – The eThekwini municipality has given swimming at Durban’s beachfront the green light after heavy rains late last month prompted the city to issue a bathing ban.

The city issued the health warning last week after flooding of its sewerage system.

The city said the sewage posed a health risk because of high levels of bacteria, and advised people to avoid swimming at beaches near river mouths, in river water and in storm water drains.

However, on Sunday the acting head of the city’s health unit, Dr Ayo Olowolagba, said the weather had stabilised and no adverse results had been noticed through continuous efforts. “We are less worried about the risk,” he said.

Olowolagba said the city’s pipe-borne water was safe for drinking. However, he warned that using water from rivers or any other open source could not be considered safe for drinking unless such water was made safe by boiling and/or using bleach in the recommended measure.

“The municipality is continuously monitoring the situation,” he said.

Meanwhile, to accommodate the large volumes of waste generated during the Cop17 conference and the festive season, the municipality has put together a comprehensive cleaning programme.

Municipal spokesman, Thabo Mofokeng, said Durban Solid Waste (DSW) had increased the number of bins in all areas and had employed additional staff and extended the working hours to three shifts.

The programme would focus on areas from the inner city to the beachfront, operating a 24-hour service. “Street sweepers are deployed in all major routes and will be operating in the CBD and beachfront areas.

“In addition, high-pressure washers will be in operation during the night on the beachfront, CBD, Warwick Avenue and outlying areas,” he said.

There will also be quick response teams comprising a driver and six staff on standby to react to complaints that may be of a sensitive nature or require urgent attention.

-IOL.co.za