WESSA Annual Review 2020

with Coastwatch KZN, Conservancies KZN, BirdLife and the Botanical Society, as well as many other civil society organisations that support Caring for the Earth. Currently, most of the membership activity of WESSA’s Eastern Cape Region takes place in the Port Elizabeth and Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) metropolitan areas, and their immediate surrounds. The region’s two branches and other affiliated groups organise and support many activities such as conservation, rehabilitation, education, clean-ups and community involvement. The Algoa Bay Branch has been playing a leading advocacy role in facilitating informed citizen engagement on local issues, most notably the recent fish farming proposals, as well as oil bunkering in Algoa Bay. The Makhanda Branch is finalising its long awaited Guide to the Natural and Cultural History of Grahamstown/Makhanda. The Western Cape Region of WESSA membership is home to 25 friends groups and three branches, which are involved in a wide range of activities. The region’s biannual ‘Big Friends Group’ events enable networking and exchange of ideas between the local friends groups. The region has been taking the lead in encouraging public participation in citizen science, and in April 2020, Cape Town again won the international City Nature Challenge in the global number of observations recorded. This year the Garden Route also contributed to the challenge adding 31% to a South African total of 56 839 observations recorded in southern Africa. The region has also supported the filming of the Kamfers Dam flamingos. The video will be shown at this year’s online AGM and will also be used to promote membership in the Northern Cape. Across regions, members have been using the lockdown to reflect on how best this crisis can enable new ways to care for the environment, and we look forward to renewed commitment and vigour from our Earth Carers as lockdown restrictions are lifted.

In keeping with the times, WESSA’s much-loved quarterly magazine AfricanWildlife & Environment is now fully digital , and we are encouraging digital communication wherever possible. Importantly, membership is now playing a key role in the strengthening of WESSA’s environmental governance arm. And, lastly, at the end of August, we say goodbye to our Head of Membership and wish her well.

To join or support WESSA membership, to subscribe to African Wildlife & Environment, and to find out more about our work, go to our membership portal www.wessalife.org.za

Annual Review 2019-2020

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