One story which got a lot of attention was Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Makasa rhino hunting story. Makasa Game Reserve is a 1 700 ha reserve adjoining Phinda Private Game Reserve in northern KZN. I was personally involved in the establishment of this reserve, helping facilitate the negotiations with the KwaMduku community, the custodians of the land, which saw them agree to set aside a significant piece of their land for conservation. This was nearly 20 years ago. At that time the KwaMduku community bought into a vision for their future, which saw “their” game reserve underwriting their sustainable development. They bought into a partnership proposal which saw the old Natal Parks Board stocking their land with game, including rhino, with a view to sustainably harvesting this game to generate income for their schools, clinics and other development needs.

At the time this partnership was negotiated, the KwaMduku community was much smaller than it is today and their lands were relatively wild. Today, Makasa Game Reserve represents the last wild area under their custodianship and there is no doubt that it would be densely populated today if it wasn’t for the Makasa partnership. Thus, the fact that they are able to secure R 1 million through the hunting of 1 of their rhino should be celebrated as a massive conservation success. Their vision is coming to reality. Not only have they helped secure an important conservation area, but it is generating meaningful income for their community.

Now, I am not a hunter but I am firmly in favour of hunting where it is fair, ethical and in support of conservation. At least 50% of the land currently conserved in South Africa owes its existence to hunting, and South Africa’s rhino conservation success story has been underwritten by White Rhino hunting. This is a reality, albeit it an uncomfortable reality in the light of the campaign to stop rhino poaching. At first it appears contradictory to be promoting the hunting of rhino whilst promoting efforts to stop the killing (illegal) of rhino. Surely a dead rhino is a dead rhino!. Yes it is, but we have been successfully and sustainably harvesting White Rhino in South Africa for decades. This has placed a significant commercial value on White Rhino, allowing conservation agencies and private farmers to expand rhino range and invest in their security. Banning hunting game simply strips White Rhino of their value, making it very unattractive for private farmers to keep their rhino and virtually impossible for existing rhino custodians to secure their animals. They simply won’t have the funds to cover the exorbitant security costs. So the banning of hunting will actually speed up the demise of this magnificent species.

I’m well aware that a small element of the hunting fraternity have been involved in poaching. However, a knee jerk reaction to their activities makes no sense. What we should be doing is addressing the core issues whilst investing in the business of conservation. This is happening. Over the past two years the State have invested heavily in conservation law enforcement, investigation and prosecution, and we’re starting see the impact. The number of rhino poached from Provincial reserves dropped from 105 animals in 2010 to 58 last year, in direct response to the significant reinvestment in the Provincial agencies law enforcement abilities. The number of rhino poached in the Kruger National Park increased from 146 to 250, illustrating the vulnerability of this park through its extensive Mozambique border. However, the army is back in Kruger and the South African National Parks are also investing heavily in their anti-poaching ability. I have no doubt that we will see the impact of this investment this year.

Unfortunately, the number of rhino poached from private reserves increased from 82 to 121 animals. This is a worrying statistic, as the ability of private reserves to protect their rhino is directly linked to the return they get from their rhino. So banning hunting will reduce their ability to protect them and is likely to lead to even more rhino being poached from these reserves. This is tragic as it will deter private land owners from investing in rhino. It will simply will make no financial sense for them and thus, in the absence of significant philanthropic investment, we’re going to see a progressive reduction in rhino range. By implication our ability to continue growing a healthy and robust rhino population will be stymied. Let me know what you think

I thought I’d start this journey by figuring out how to take our house “off grid”, i.e. use solar and / or wind energy to provide the power we’re using. I started this process with an internet search for solar panels, wind turbines and DIY installation advice. I’m no electrician, and so I was rapidly befuddled by the many websites offering me panels, turbines, batteries, invertors, regulators and all the other bits  and pieces available to the “green” enthusiast. I realised that I was out of my depth, or literally in the dark. One of the websites pointed me at local expert, who very kindly agreed to come out to my house and to walk my wife and I through the basics of alternative energy. He had a quick look around and then sat us down to break the news that it was going to costs us upwards of R 300 000 to take us off grid, if we continued to use energy the way we were. This made no sense as it would take us over 15 years to recover this investment through our ESKOM savings. Chatting to him it became apparent that we should focus on reducing our consumption before worrying about going off grid.

Now I’m one of many environmentalists who promote energy “reduction”, so it was rather embarrassing when he began to point out the many ways in which we could reduce our energy use! We thought we were doing quite well. We’d changed the majority of our lights to CFL’s bulbs, adjusted our geyser thermostat and switch off lights and appliances when we’re not using them. What we’d never done was actually try to understand our energy use.

This is where the WATT comes into its own. Energy use is measured in watt’s, more specifically, 1 watt is the use of 1 joule of energy per second. Every appliance is labelled with a watt use indicator. Now we’ve used the term for many years, e.g. we’d often talk about the light difference between a 60 watt and 100 watt light bulb. We just never understood what it actually meant. In practise, if we use a 60 watt light bulb for 4 hours each day, we’ll use 240 watt hours per day or around 7 200 watt hours per month (7.2 kilo watt hours (kwh’s). In Pietermaritzburg we pay around R 0.52 per kwh, so we’d pay 7.2 x R 0.52 to use this bulb, or around R 3.50 per month per bulb. A TV uses around 150 watts per hour, so 4 hours TV per day is the equivalent of 18 kwh’s or around R 9.00 per month. A kettle uses 2 000 watts per hour, so assuming we use a kettle for 30 minutes each day, then we’re talking about 30 kwh’s per month or around R 15 per month.

I apologise if you already know this, but understanding this was definitely a “light bulb” moment for us. In fact it helped us understand why we’d taken out all the old style (60W and 100W) light bulbs and replaced them with CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs. We knew we were saving energy and simply did the “sheep” thing. CFL bulbs are commonly 15 watt bulbs. So we save around 5 400 watts and R 2.50 per month per CFL bulb that we use for 4 hrs per night. The latest innovation is LED lighting, which allows us to replace the 15 watt CFL bulb with a 4 watt bulb. This will save us a further 1 800 watts and R 0.68 per month.

So we’re now working on our lights, making sure that we minimise our lighting related energy use. Next step geysers and then appliances. At the moment we use around 3 000 kwh’s per month and hope to have reduced this by at least 60% by the end of our “reduction journey”. We’ll then go back to figuring out how to go off grid. I’ll keep you posted and would like you to share experiences, advice and guidance on my blog: andrewventer.wordpress.com.

194 Nations have spent the last 2 weeks working on a number of global compacts ranging from efforts aimed at improving our collective understanding of global warming and Climate Change, limiting global warming to 2 degrees and supporting country efforts to adapt to the inevitable impacts which will accompany warming. COP 17 is simply a step along the tortuous journey towards shaping and implementing new global compacts. The Kyoto Protocol was one of the first of these compacts. However, it only addresses for 25% of CO2 emissions and does not enjoy global support. It was also concluded in 1997, during a period when the euro ruled and “developing nations” were at the mercy of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and bilateral aid. Today, China is the new superpower, Europe is bankrupt and a number of the old order “developing” nations are emerging as real global powers. A new generation of compacts are being shaped, which will come into place over the next 5 – 10 years. Clearly, this delay is frustrating but I personally believe that the growing impact of global warming on weather patterns places real pressure on the negotiators, and that the new compacts will be far more effective and binding than the Kyoto Protocol is.

What was particularly intriguing and encouraging was the incredible diversity of pioneers and activists that COP 17 drew to Durban. Very few of these individuals actually participated in the formal negotiation process. Rather they came to Durban to share their ideas, to learn from others and to inspire a grass root movement. This is a broad based movement of individuals championing a mix of social, economic and environmental issues. This movement is well represented by the UNFCCC’s ‘Momentum for Change’ initiative which profiled 10 projects identified on the grounds that are Mitigation and /or Adaptation projects which measurably improve the quality of Life for the people they benefit, and are replicable and scalable (www.unfccc.int). Christiana Figuerez, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, describes these “Lighthouse Projects” as “beacons of opportunity”, that demonstrate our ingenuity and the way forward.

One of these projects is Durban’s very own Buffelsdraai Community based Reforestation project. Driven by the eThekweni Metro, this project is restoring 520 ha’s of forest on the outskirts of Verulam. eThekweni could easily have established a nursery to grow the 500 000+ trees that are being planted through this project. Rather they backed a partnership with the Wildlands Conservation Trust around our Trees for Life model, with a view to using this climate change mitigation and adaptation project to stimulate development in the KwaMashu, Buffelsdraai and Osindisweni communities. Catalysed through seed funding from DANIDA, UNILEVER and the Bonitas Medical Fund, this project has already created 23 full-time jobs, 649 temporary jobs and supported the establishment of over 580 tree-preneurs. 215 000 trees have already been propagated and planted, and another 300 000 will be planted over the next 3 years. Adopted as the official offset project for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the Buffelsdraai forest will capture over 45 000 tons of CO2 over 20 years. Not only is this a great “Lighthouse Project”, but it has already catalysed 2 more restoration related initiatives in the Metro, namely, the Inanda Mountain Restoration project and the uMbilo ‘Community Ecosystem Based Adaptation’ project (CEBA), which was the official offset project for COP 17 (www.durbanceba.org).

However, whilst the ‘Momentum of Change’ initiatives are encouraging they are still a very small part of the response required to deal with the coming challenges of Climate Change. The scale and intensity of COP 17 clearly demonstrates this. There is no other annual conference and negotiating process that draws together such a distinguished gathering of political, scientific, business and civil society leadership. I believe that this is the most important “take home” message for South Africa. World leadership is very worried about Climate Change! If they’re worried then we should be worried. Let me know what you think….(andrewventer@wordpress.com).

EXXARO has responded by threatening me with  the “damages” which may arise from my column. Specifically informing me that they view my opinions as “injurious falsehoods”, that “I will be liable for any damages (they) may suffer” and “I should be aware that such damages would be very substantial”. They precede this threat with a paragraph in which they state that “(EXXARO) respects that any corporate entity or action group (like the Mtunzini Conservancy) is entitled to oppose (their) application to allow mining in the area provided such opposition is lawful”. The implication being that their letter has been sent to me because I’ve acted unlawfully.

Their letter triggered a vivid memory of my time as a student at the University of Witwatersrand, where I experienced firsthand the inequalities and injustices of the “old” South Africa. This was a period in our history when our freedoms were curtailed by draconian legislation that punished any opinion that didn’t favour and support the elite few. It also triggered renewed enthusiasm and commitment to the Fairbreeze campaign. I’d like to be explicit about what I mean by this.  In my opinion, EXXARO owe it to all South Africans to undertake a comprehensive and cumulative EIA for their proposed Fairbreeze mining operation. The operation is huge, will change the landscape around Mtunzini forever and will leave us with a 30 m high, 4.5 km long, 500 m wide slimes dam which our children will inherit. Over 36 000 000 m³ of slime!

EXXARO should not be trying to push through approval for this operation through a Basic Assessment Report. I believe this is unconscionable  given the impact that this mine will have. 2 years ago a smaller version of this project was deemed – by EXXARO – to not be viable. Now they are proposing a mining operation that is 4 times the size of the original proposal and are pushing hard for a Record of Decision which will allow them to mine. I believe that this is driven by their proposed “New Tronnox” partnership. According to EXXARO’s own statement (26^th September 2011), their partner in this venture, Tronnox Inc. “emerged from bankruptcy on 14 February 2011, two years after it filed for  Chapter 11 protection in the United States. The filing was primarily due to certain environmental liabilities which were related to its former corporate parent , and from which Tronox has since been relieved”. In practise, Tronnox Inc. was required to pay US$ 270 million towards the costs of cleaning up contaminated sites in 22 states! As such, I’m really concerned that once this new company has extracted its value from the Fairbreeze operation, the South African public will be left with the liability of the Fairbreeze slimes dam.

I’d like to challenge EXXARO to come clean. Explain to South Africa’s public why a comprehensive and cumulative EIA is not required, or do the right thing, and undertake this study. Explain how you’ll guarantee that the South African public will not inherit your environmental liabilities. I believe that these liabilities will be significant and will cost billions to manage (I don’t believe that the damage can actually be “repaired”). Let me know what you think.

slow and steady, but

definite in its path

lighting the world on its way

I want to be like the seasons

changing,

like autumn inevitable

into winter and spring again

like the leaves gracefully falling

without resistance to their changing colours, and their ultimate end

I want to be like the sun setting

In bright pinks and reds and pale blue’s bright turning the trees into their most beautiful black shadow’s In the evening light

- Simone and all the world

This is a blog for you! Tell us what YOU think about what it means to be a Green Leader! Send me your musings, poetry, favourite quotes and anything else you think describes the kind of people we need to be to ensure a sustainable future on this beautiful planet! E-mail Simone on simoned@wildlands.co.za with your contributions.

It was from here that his son, a commander in the Royal Air Force, wrote letters home that inspired the creation of Mirkwood Forest. The area remains home to magical creatures such as the Amathola Toad and the Hogsback Frog. It is also home to the critically endangered Cape Parrot – the ‘king of the forests’. However, as in Tolkien’s trilogy, the ‘king’ is losing ground and the kingdom is under attack. The Cape Parrot’s existence is so intertwined with the health of the Yellowood Forests that its numbers are plummeting at an alarming rate. They feed on a variety of seeds and nuts, but in certain months are almost completely dependent on Yellowood trees for food. Unfortunately, Yellowoods make sought after furniture and were also hacked down in large numbers to make railway sleepers.

Mirkwood Forest might indeed not have been such a magical place had Tolkien junior visited there today. Most Yellowoods, the matriarchs of the forests, have disappeared and other trees, such as the Lemonwoods, now dominate the forests. Desperate for food the little parrots are forced to feed from nearby Pecan nut plantations. Despite the obvious conflict this has caused with local farmers, the nuts are actually making the birds ill. This is due to the high tannin and fat content of these nuts. A diet rich in these fatty nuts weakens the birds, leaving them vulnerable to disease and eventually causing a further decline in their numbers.

The only way to save the Cape Parrot is to restore ‘Mirkwood’ forest. This might seem a daunting and overly ambitious task, but if we learnt anything from Tolkien it would be that we should never underestimate the collective power of a small band of dedicated people, such as the team that Frodo led to the ends of the earth. I visited Hogsback last month and found such a team of people. Called the Wildbird Trust, this relatively small organisation recently received funding through the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund to support their restoration work in ‘Mirkwood’ Forest. They are making great strides in getting local communities involved in bringing back the Yellowoods and securing habitat for the magical creatures of Hogsback. Next time you visit Hogsback, look out for small Yellowood saplings rising through the forest floor – a promising sign that the ‘return of the king’ (of the forest) is close at hand.

I believe this is good news as we’re stretching our planets
ability to sustain us. In fact, in many regions of the world we’ve pushed it
too far. According to www.worldometers.com,
over 916 million humans are under nourished, over 848 million have no safe
drinking water source and around 10 million people already die of hunger each
year!.

South Africa’s population has grown from around
13 million in 1950 to just under 50 million today. Over the next 100
years, South Africa’s population is projected to only increase slightly. This
should be great news for South Africans as it means that we should be able to
get on top of our development challenges by using our existing resources more
effectively, rather than having to feed, clothe, educate and employ an ever
increasing population. Unfortunately, this scenario is complicated by the rapid
urbanisation of our population. In 1950, around 42% of our population lived in
urban areas. Today this figure is around 62% and by 2050 it will be around 80%.
This is a real challenge as our cities are already creaking as they battle to
house, feed and employ 30 million urban dwellers. Add to this scenario the
vagaries of climate change and we’re faced with some real development
challenges.

Underwriting service delivery in these cities are seriously
stressed and damaged ecosystems. Rivers, forests, wetlands and grasslands.
These ecosystems provide water, food and energy, they trap CO₂,
purify the air we breathe and buffer us from extreme weather. These are just a
few of the services that our ecosystems provide. eThekweni estimates that its
ecosystems provide services worth the equivalent of 15 – 20% of its annual
operating budget, and thus has started significantly investing in the
restoration and protection of these ecosystems. This is not about parks and
green areas. Rather it is about recognising that these ecosystems underwrite
the survival and welfare of eThekweni’s communities.

I believe that this “ecosystem infrastructure” is as
important as built infrastructure, including roads, housing, energy
reticulation and sewerage and waste management systems. eThekweni’s investment
in its ecosystem infrastructure is still modest. However, it has grown
significantly over the past few years, and is likely to continue to do so,
especially given the momentum generated through COP 17. The challenge is now
for the rest of South Africa’s Cities and Towns to follow and build on this
example, as they respond to the combined pressures of rapid urbanisation and
climate change.

In justifying this renewed energy and enthusiasm for the
Fairbreeze expansion, EXXARO have been outspoken about wanting to extend the
life of their local operations by 12 years so that they could save “1 000”
jobs, continue to underwrite local development, stimulate South Africa’s
economic development and many more similar platitudes. These are all
contradictory, as two years ago they were not worried about any of these
issues. Rather their primary concern was their shareholders bottom line!

EXXARO’s ability to manipulate public sentiment is well
known, and hence the growing scepticism about their actual agenda. The New
Tronox deal raises a huge red flag. Firstly, Tronox have just emerged from
bankruptcy (14 February 2011). According to EXXARO’s own announcement, Tronox’s
filing was “primarily due to certain historical environmental liabilities which
were related to its former corporate parent and from which Tronox has since
been relieved”!  So here we have EXXARO,
which is proposing an operation which will cause immeasurable environmental
damage which they have no demonstrated ability to repair or mitigate, merging
with an International company that has demonstrated that it will use the
bankruptcy escape clause to avoid its environmental liabilities.

Furthermore, despite EXXARO’s claims that it is a
responsible South African citizen, cares about empowerment and local community
development, it has stated that it will only stay involved in the South African
operation as long as it is required to do so in terms of current Empowerment
Period commitment.

So, my reading of EXXARO’s renewed interest in the
Fairbreeze mining operation is that they have an opportunity to make a
substantial short term profit if they secure the rights to proceed with the
Fairbreeze mine. These rights will add significant value to their offering in
terms of this Tronox deal. EXXARO has no intention of actual mining Fairbreeze.
New Tronox will mine it and they will repatriate their profits to Australia.

The Fairbreeze mining proposal is loaded with environmental
risk. This risk is largely being ignored in the interest of commercial and
development gain. This is a very real dilemma. However, I believe that the New
Tronox twist in the saga changes the picture totally, as it makes a mockery of
EXXARO’s responsible citizenship claims. The profits from this operation will
not benefit our economy, beyond the short term local investments and royalty
payments. Once New Tronox have extracted their value, they’ll be gone, leaving
South Africa with a real mess and environmental liability that will be there
forever. Let me know what you think.

Over the past 12 years, the N3TC has worked with a number of partners to support a range of Social and Environmental initiatives. Bundled together under the banner of their Touching Lives campaign, this work presents an admirable portfolio of Corporate Social Investments. With 18 years to run on their concession, the N3TC plans to build on this foundation, bringing their partners together to expand their impact. This is significant as the N3TC has focused on identifying real change makers, and thus they have some developed some amazing partnerships.

St Dunstans and Treverton College are world renowned schools that are working with the N3TC to improve school governance and teaching ability. The Midlands Meander Environmental Awareness Program, is a cutting edge environmental education initiative working with poor rural and farm schools. Singakwenza is an amazing Early Childhood development organisation, working with the poorest preschools along the route. The N3 Gateway project has brought together 22 Tourism Associations to develop a common marketing platform, with a view to ultimately enabling a Responsible Tourism corridor. These are just a few of the N3TC’s partners, but they’re indicative of the potential that is vested in the N3TC communities.

Recognising their environmental impact, the N3TC has always had a strategic environmental focus, aimed at trying to minimise their impact. The 2029 Vision Campaign will build on this legacy, harnessing the potential of their existing and future partners to drive an aggressive environmental change process. This will be rooted in the transformation of the communities living along the route into clean, green and sustainable communities, whilst focusing efforts on minimising the routes direct environmental impact.　 This is going to be a massive challenge, but I believe that South Africa’s growing environmental consciousness will aid and drive this process.

What is unique about the N3TC approach is that they have taken a long term view and want to embed positive environmental change in everything they do. This contrasts sharply with most of South Africa’s Businesses’ Social Investment initiatives. Most of these initiatives are now geared to meet their companies BBBEE scorecard requirements, they’re generally short term and still treat environmental interventions as a separate rather than integrated focus. Hopefully, the N3TC example will translate into a new benchmark, which will inspire South Africa’s business communities to work with local change makers and embed positive environmental change into everything they do. Let me know what you think.

Standing 1 m tall and with a wingspan of over 2.5 m, this Monarch of the sky is a truly magnificent bird. The southern African sub-species is similar to the Ethiopian Bearded Vulture but smaller than the European and Asian sub-species. Ironically, the plight of “our” Bearded Vulture mirrors the historic plight of its European cousins which were hunted and eventually eradicated from the Alps due to its reputation for “attacking lambs and small children”, hence its German moniker of Lammergeier. Following a lengthy and expensive captive breeding and release initiative, the European Bearded Vulture flies again today, with around 100 breeding pairs in the wild.

As we speak there are discussions underway with regards to the establishment of captive breeding populations in South Africa, so that we can restore the Bearded Vulture to wild if it goes extinct. The alternative would be that we would have to source birds from Ethiopia which I find totally ironic. How is it possible that South Africa population is disappearing whilst the Ethiopian species isn’t?

Over the past decade, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has lead a world class project aimed at developing a better understanding of this species and supporting its conservation. Since 2007 they have been using satellite tracking devices to track individual birds. In addition to demonstrating the amazing foraging range of these birds, this exercise has also provided critical insight into the threats which they face, as the tracking devices have allowed for injured and dead birds to be recovered. Unfortunately, it is increasingly obvious that our Monarch faces a number of challenges, including injuries sustained through collision with power lines, starvation and poisoning. It is also clear that whilst the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg World Heritage area provides critical roosting habitat for these birds, their foraging range is far larger and thus they will continue to succumb to these threats, suggesting that we are going to be forced to supplement the wild population with captive bred birders sooner or later.

A potential death knell for our Monarch could actually be one of the “icons” of the green movement, namely alternative energy. Lesotho is in the final stages of authorising the establishment of a massive wind turbine plant in the heart of Bearded Vulture foraging territory. The company involved has already acknowledged that their development will have collateral impact on these vultures, i.e. they will be chopped out of the sky. In South Africa, the Bearded Vulture’s conservation status would force these project developers to find an alternative site, even if it was less “viable”. Unfortunately, whilst the Lesotho Government is sympathetic, they are explicit that the nett social and economic impacts of this project far outweigh its potential nett negative impact on our Monarch. Thus the project will (most likely) proceed. Let me know what you think