Over the past decade, Ezemvelo has been under significant political pressure to transform. In the process, it has “fast tracked’ the appointment of a number of young managers who have great potential but very little experience. It has also actively reduced its law enforcement and investigations ability, by not replacing key staff and equipment. In the absence of the Rhino poaching onslaught these strategies made some sense. However, in the presence of this onslaught these two strategies have totally undermined Ezemvelo’s law enforcement and wildlife protection mandate. Ezemvelo are custodians of over 2 700 White Rhino and 370 Black Rhino. Alive, the collective value of these Rhino is around R 750 million. The rhino horn value of these animals is closer to R 7.5 billion!

The Hluhluwe massacre takes the total rhino lost in KZN this year to 46. The vast majority of these were from Ezemvelo reserves. Opathe Game Reserve no longer has rhino, with the entire population having been poached. Ndumo Game Reserve is fast heading that way. This is simply unacceptable and can be stopped. There are a number of private reserves in KZN that have similar size populations that are intact and growing. The simple reality is that these reserves have “locked” down their Rhino. They have invested significantly in their security systems and have limited reserve access to individuals whose credentials have been verified. By contrast, Ezemvelo has not done this. A simple example is Ezemvelo’s regulation of its Hluhluwe – Imfolozi Park (HIP) Alien Plant contractors. These contractors do not go through any form of standard criminal or fraud record checks. Their identities are not verified and their drivers’ licenses are not checked. Yet they are provided with gate passes and allowed to move freely throughout the park, and their vehicles are not searched when they enter and leave the park. Thus it is really not surprising that Rhino are being poached in this reserve. In fact, rumours abound that Rhino poaching is simply the tip of the iceberg and that HIP is home to a vibrant bush meat trade with local staff illegally harvesting and selling meat.

I believe that the Hluhluwe massacre needs to be investigated by an independent team who have the ability to advise the KZN Provincial Government on the actual security status quo in Hluhluwe (and other Ezemvelo reserves). This needs to be followed by the prosecution of any corrupt officials, the establishment of effective access controls systems and a significant investment in Ezemvelo’s law enforcement ability. At the moment, Ezemvelo is relying on the public and non-government sector to enable its efforts to stop rhino poaching. Whilst this collective effort is laudable, it is inappropriate that Ezemvelo’s sees this as the solution. The KZN Provincial Government should be investing in this ability, as it is the legal and moral custodian of these rhino. The public and NGO sector can simply support Government in this process.

So I’d like to invite you to Petition our Premier to appoint an independent team to investigate the Hluhluwe massacre and poaching in Ezemvelo reserves in general. Please email or phone his Office to make your voice heard – 033 341 3407 / 3329, bhekin@premier.kzntl.gov.za or dindien@premier.kzntl.gov.za or madlalac@premier.kzntl.gov.za. I challenge all the individuals and organisations who are working to stop this scourge, to collectively focus efforts at mobilising this investigation. Mobilize petitions and send them to the Premier. Keep me posted – andrewv@wildlands.co.za and I will do what I can to co-ordinate efforts. andrewventer.wordpress.com.

The first of these Ambassadors is Pat Lambie. Pat heard about the Rhino Parade concept and volunteered to be an Ambassador. He is only 21, yet is already recognised as one of South Africa’s greatest sporting prodigy’s. I met him a few weeks ago and was totally blown away by how humble he is, his “proudly South African” commitment and his determination to be part of the fight against rhino poaching. Pat has been joined by two other great South African’s, namely, Shaun Pollock and Ray Phiri. Shaun is one of South Africa’s all-time greatest cricketers and Ray Phiri is a legendary musician, lauded throughout the world.

Both Shaun and Ray recently spent time with students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), inspiring the designs for their Rhino. DUT had very enthusiastically agreed to support the Rhino Parade by tasking their third year Graphic Design students to turn these blank rhino sculptures into true works of art. This was an experience that these students will never forget. Shaun’s humour captivated the students, as well as his honesty around being in the process of changing his life from being “successful” to becoming “significant,” doing things that really count and making a difference. How ironic that Shaun Pollock is trying to make a significant contribution! He has achieved more than most of us will ever achieve in a lifetime. I have no doubt that he inspired every student to find ways in which they can make a “significant” contribution to South Africa. As with Shaun, Ray’s humble and honest engagement enamoured the students. His commitment to being a “great citizen” and the entertaining way in which he urged the students to get back in touch with their heritage, was truly unforgettable. Here was the great Ray Phiri talking about how important it was to care, love, inspire, nurture and cherish nature, our family, friends and communities. Wow!

Pat, Shaun and Ray are undoubtedly Ambassadors in every sense of the word. Their Rhino Parade commitment is a message to all of us. We all need to stand up and become great South African’s. We need to rediscover the magic and dreams which we embraced in 1994. Perhaps the growing and collective outrage towards the scourge of Rhino poaching will be one of the triggers that helps us do this. I know this sounds incredibly romantic. However, I see and feel it every day. Freshlyground, Oscar, Nthathi, Lee, Pat, Shaun and Ray are simply flag bearers for the hundreds of thousands of South Africans who are rallying together to stop rhino poaching. Perhaps this movement will unlock collective action and effort to deal with the other social and environmental scourges which we have allowed to undermine the rainbow nation. Let me know what you think. andrewventer.wordpress.com.

However, behind the glossy sustainability reports and slick Powerpoint presentations, I’m beginning to sense a deeper understanding of sustainability amongst the ever increasing ranks of “sustainability practioners”. This understanding is reflected through a slow shift from the drive for sustainable growth to a focus on nurturing a sustainable legacy, which will enable these very businesses to comfortably endure, in the face of climate change, growing resource constraints and social instability. These are very real challenges which are the direct consequence of the rampant population growth, environmental rape and economic growth at all costs, approaches which have characterized human behaviour this past century.

The shift to a focus on nurturing a sustainable legacy is very exciting. To use the Jenga analogy again, the approach is about building a tower and then progressively strengthening it through the replacement of the weak social, economic and environmental blocks, and then identifying and filling the gaps. This approach also recognises that whilst profit sits at the heart of business, long term profit requires the nurture of the communities that are involved in and affected by the business, and the stewardship of the natural environment which supports and is affected by the business.

A classic bad example for me is SASOL which is clearly one of South Africa’s most profitable businesses. It is also one of South Africa’s worst environmental polluters and has a shocking social record – simply visit the Embalenhle community outside Secunda to experience first hand this legacy. Imagine if SASOL had set out from the very beginning to shape a world class sustainability legacy. The SASOL brains trust would today undoubtedly be at the forefront of green technology and the SASOL shareholders would be credited with some of the most progressive social development models in the world. Unfortunately, they didn’t and so today it is amongst the most vilified companies in the world. The day that SASOL’s profits start sliding it will be in very serious trouble as there is little doubt that its many environmental and social enemies will turn on it. There will be little understanding or empathy. Rather, it will be treated with the same disdain that it has demonstrated. I’m not sure that the SASOL Board gets this or that its shareholders care at the moment. I do know that there are limited efforts underway to try and find ways of addressing its social and environmental legacies. Time will tell whether these efforts will be enough.

By contrast UNILEVER presents an interesting alternative. On the one side there is little doubt that UNILEVER is one of the prime drivers of global economic, environmental and social change around the world – over 1 billion people use a UNILEVER product each day! They have been widely criticised for their impacts and have not always responded as progressively as they should have. However, once they have responded they have done so forcefully and with intent, as demonstrated by their engagement in the sustainable fisheries and palm oil debates. Every UNILEVER manager is under intense pressure to find ways of improving the social and environmental legacy associated with their operations, and this is catalysing an incredible wave of innovation. By contrast with SASOL, UNILEVER’s clear sustainability intent and commitment has earned them significant “understanding” and empathy when they have had problems.

I’d like hear about your views on the “Sustainability” game and would particularly like to hear about examples which you feel are really bad or really good, and deserve to be profiled accordingly – andrewventer.wordpress.com.

The Fairbreeze mine impacts will be very visible in the short to medium term. The mine itself will be a huge opencast mining pit, right next to the highway and bordering on the edge of Mtunzini town and the Siyaya Coastal Reserve. It will be supported by new roads, pipelines and powerlines. It really doesn’t matter what mitigation efforts are put in place by KZN Tronox Sands. There is simply no way to hide this operation and the associated noise, dust and health impacts will change Mtunzini from being an agricultural and eco-tourism based town to being a noisy, dusty mining town.

In addition, to these medium term impacts the Fairbreeze mine will leave behind two massive “residue storage facilities”. These will also be highly visible. The one facility will cover an area of 166ha and the other 373ha, and will effectively be mountains of fine clay particulate. The larger facility will be 12 stories high, 5 km long and 1 km wide! The Environmental Authorization makes very little mention of these facilities and their long term care and management. It does say that “the accepted EMPR (Environmental Management Programme) will adequately mitigate negative impacts that may arise during construction and operational phase of the Fairbreeze mine project”. What about the post-operational phase, especially given that KZN Tronox Sands’ Trevor Aryan has publicly admitted that they are not sure how they will facilitate the restoration of these two facilities?

If you’re also worried about the Fairbreeze mine and the real legacy which it will leave us then I encourage you to visit the ACER website to access the application and authorisation (www.acerafrica.co.za) and then send your concerns in writing to the KZN MEC of the Department of Environmental Affairs by the 31st July 2012 (!) – Private Bag X9059, Pietermaritzburg, 3200 or to haresh.inderlall@kzndae.gov.za. If we don’t stand up and voice our concerns then we can’t sit back and complain if a disaster unfolds – andrewventer.wordpress.com.

The landscape of this small landlocked country in Southern Africa is almost completely dominated by vast sugarcane plantations. In fact, sugar is the base of the economy of Swaziland, employing nearly35% of the workforce. Softdrinks is one of the primary exports of Swaziland and most of the country’s trade (90%) is with South Africa. While driving through the sugarcaned landscape I kept searching for remnants of un-transformed bushveld areas. Driving northwards from the Golela border post the first sign of inspiration is the new Royal Jozini Big 6 Reserve. Here, a group of visionary businessmen and conservationists are returning degraded cattle lands around Lake Jozini to pristine bushveld. The area is now fenced and a modest amount of game has returned. It should eventually link to the Pongola Nature Reserve in South Africa as part of a Transfrontier Conservation Initiative. In South Africa this could include the Zululand Conservation Corridor and run as far south as Phinda, but let me stick to the Swaziland story for now! A few kilometers north of Royal Jozini communities along the Lubombo Mountains are also trying their hand at brining areas under conservation and establishing Eco-tourism ventures. Further north along the Lubombo Mountains lies Swaziland’s largest conservation areas – Hlane Royal National Park and Mlawula.These reserves have also been earmarked to form part of a Transfrontier Initiative – in this case linking with a conservation area in Mozambique.

When I visited Swaziland last month I met with a group of visionary conservationist who feel it would be possible to create a conservation corridor that would link all these areas on the eastern side of of the country into a mega- protected landscape. As crazy as this may seem, it just might work and it would also link three Transfrontier Parks thus establishing a mega-reserve,linking the Lubombo Mountains and the Indian Ocean! This remains long-term planning – for now the aim is to create a Protected Landscape along the Lubombo Mountains. These Mountains are home to some of the rarest cycads and other endemic flora, yet are not protected in any of the three countries for which the Mountains form a natural border. We have been able to partner with our group of visionaries, and this is the first grant ever of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund in Swaziland. I am going to visit the area various times over the next three years and will report on progress made in acheiving a considerable conservation impact in southern Africa. Good luck to  all involved!

Does this mean that these processes are a total waste of time and that there is no chance of our leaders ever demonstrating the vision and commitment required to craft a sustainable future for us? Clearly this is a real possibility. However, I remain positive and believe that there is a whole lot more to these processes than we realise. Fundamentally, the outcomes of these gatherings reflect the shift in global power and influence. In the 1990’s, gatherings of this nature were substantially funded by the USA and European Union, who led discussions and were able to “incentivise” outcomes through promises of aid and investment. This influence has waned over the past decade as a group of the “developing” nations have grown in stature and the economic and political woes of the USA and Europe have accelerated. The shift in this balance has allowed these nations to challenge the old “colonialist” type agenda’s.

Explicit in this process are a number of real ethical dilemmas. How can developed nations prescribe a low carbon economy, when theirs is a high carbon economy? How can they prescribe the protection of forest resources when they have deforested their landscape? The developing nations argue that their citizens have the right to enjoy the same quality of life that the citizens of developed nations do. They are also clearly pursuing this dream. Unfortunately, there is increasing evidence that our planet can simply not support the achievement of this vision on a business as usual basis; Hence the growing panic in the environmental sector.

Personally, I don’t believe that a global compact is going to make a difference. I believe that civil activism will. These gatherings are very important in this regard as every gathering lifts the debate, generates greater awareness and nurtures increasing activism. I also believe that the Governments of the Nations pursuing the “developed” dream are acutely aware of this growing activism, and are thus actively innovating and piloting solutions that could enable this dream without us reaching an “environmental tipping point”. This is a high risk strategy, as it will probably involve pushing the limits of global warming and climate change. I’d like to know what you think

125 years later, Johannesburg is sitting on a toxic time bomb, known as Acid Mine Drainage. Acid Mine Drainage is caused when water pumped out of the gold mine operations seeps back into the underground aquifers and rises to the surface. This water is contaminated with uranium and other heavy metals and is also extremely acidic. This water is starting to seep out and kill the rivers and wetlands that underwrite life in the greater Johannesburg area. Effectively, the South African Republic’s 1886 blessing has turned out to be a curse, and will be a drain on our economy for decades to come.

The Witbank area has inherited a similar legacy from coal mining. Witbank Town (Emalahleni) was established in 1890. The coal harvested from the Witbank Coalfield has underwritten energy generation and South Africa’s industrial development for the past century. However, as with Johannesburg, the Witbank Area is an environmental war zone. Acid Mine Drainage, heavy metal contamination and air pollution make this an extremely dangerous environment to live in, with allergy, cardiovascular, lung and kidney disease likely.

There is mounting evidence that the Fracking “blessing” could be a curse as well. The process generates waste water which is toxic, contains carcinogenic chemicals and radioactive elements, and needs to be disposed of – somewhere! There is also very real risk of aquifer pollution through chemical spills and cracked well casings. So, do we really need this blessing? Minister Peter’s believes so. I’m not convinced and believe that we need to learn from our own history. Let me know what you think: andrewventer.wordpress.com.

The resource dilemma has been at the heart of the environmental lobby for decades. The reputational risk dilemma is relatively new and is becoming increasingly “real” as social media finds its feet. The Fracking debate in South Africa is a classic example of this phenomenon. The ‘Treasure the Karoo Action Group’ is a small Non-Government Organisation established less than two years ago (www.treasurethekaroo.co.za). Yet it has been able to use Social Media platforms to mobilise an ever growing and extremely impressive  movement of concerned citizens, that has already caused significant embarrassment and possibly, reputational damage, for SASOL, SHELL and the South African Government.

Globally, ‘Greenpeace’ are the masters of this universe. They have evolved from being an environmental “right wing” organisation to being one of the most respected environmental organisations in the world. Over the past decade they have been directly responsible for some of the most dramatic and significant environmental breakthroughs. Their incredible use of Facebook, Twitter and You Tube to drive and feed campaigns has humbled many governments and companies. UNILEVER has direct experience of ‘Greenpeace’. In 2008, ‘Greenpeace’ activists dressed as Orangutans “mobbed” a number of UNILEVER facilities, including their London Head Office, with a view to explicitly linking UNILEVER to the destruction of Rainforests and associated Orangutans slaughter. This was followed by a Social Media campaign structured around a viral video – “Dove Onslaught(er) – YouTube”, which triggered an unprecedented flood of e-mails from around the world. Within weeks UNILEVER was meeting with ‘Greenpeace’ to shape a strategy that would enable them to become leaders in the move to save the Orangutan from extinction by supporting the Sustainable Palm Oil drive.

They subsequently pursued a similar campaign against Nestle, anchored by a number of KitKat videos that went viral on You Tube and Vimeo. Nestle initially responded by attempting to block the videos and threatening legal action. This simply added fuel to the fire, triggering an even larger response, including some very creative takes on the KitKat logo. In 2010, Nestle capitulated and undertook to work with ‘Greenpeace’. ‘Greenpeace’ have just forced Facebook itself to commit to using green energy and are currently targeting Apple.

‘Greenpeace’s’ advocacy is not confined to the Corporate community. They have driven a number of campaigns targeting Governments, including their current campaign against the Brazilian Government – “Dilma: save the Amazon, veto the new Forest Code – YouTube”. In a few weeks Brazil will host one of the most significant environment conferences of our time, Rio +20. It follows the inaugural Earth Summit in Brazil (1992) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2012). Despite this, the Brazilian Government has just passed a controversial bill that will effectively result in a 50% increase in Amazon Rainforest destruction. The bill has been passed in response to years of intense lobbying by the agribusiness sector and will enable the additional clearing of over 22 000 000 ha’s of rainforest, the equivalent of 10 Kruger National Parks!

Brazil’s President Dilma has 14 days to veto this Bill. ‘Greenpeace’ have joined a number of local organisations to drive a campaign, urging her to veto the Bill. 160 000 Brazilians have already signed a petition and there is little doubt that life is going to become incredibly uncomfortable for President Dilma and her government. I’d like to challenge you to join this campaign – www.greenpeace.org – and to use the Social Media world to stand up for a sustainable future to us, our children and the many species that share our planet. Let me know what you think: andrewventer.wordpress.com.

Since 1992 a lot of effort has gone into re-uniting the elephant population and,  more importantly, developing a comprehensive Management system for Maputaland that is not based on political delineations, but on the ecology of the area. Chief amongst these is the plan to create a Transfrontier Conservation Area that will not only link Tembe and the Maputo Elephant Reserves, but that will also incorporate the community conservation areas between and around these reserves (including the troubled Ndumo Game Reserve). Major achievements include the proclamation of the Futi-corridor and the Ponta do Our Marine reserve and the incorporation of some 10,000ha of communal land on the South African side of the border into the Mega-reserve. However, in Mozambique especially, more effort has gone into getting official proclamations signed than ensuring community participating and support for the process. This could prove disastrous as there are so many case studies from across the world that show that Parks are for People and without community consent and support they are doomed to failure. The time is right to mobilise civil society action at a community level in Mozambique and I was extremely fortunate to meet some of the local groupings doing just that when I visited the country last month. My biggest surprise was running into Geraldo Palelene from LUPA, a newish NGO in Mozambique that traces its roots to years of work done by Helvetas in the country. Geraldo and I met when I was a young Masters student studying human-elephant conflict in southern Mozambique. Geraldo was a community development worker with Helvetas and introduced me to the intricacies of a country that has since become my second home. He and his associates are working with a series of other small civil society organisations to give the local community a voice in the development of the Transfrontier Park, ensuring they support and benefit from the proposed developments. This is radical in a country where civil society had no role to play, and was in fact illegal, as little as 15 years ago! They are making amazing head ways and have partnered with Wildlands and the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund to support their work. This gives me great reason to visit the country more often to celebrate the proof that it is a country according to Frank Zappa and hopefully to also see the finalization of work I was fortunate enough to play a starting role in when I started my professional career.