2018 WESSA Annual Review

TWINSTREAMS

The coastline at Twin- streams is truly unique. Dune succession here is regarded as being one of the best ex- amples in South Africa and has amazing education op- portunities. A key feature of the Twinstreams Education Centre, situated near the village of Mtunzini is that it is only one of two places in South Africa with a pro-grad- ing shoreline i.e. the coast is advancing seaward at two to three metres per year as a result of the Thukela River depositing sand north of its mouth. The endless, pristine sandy shoreline is superb for edu- cation activities and one can walk for kilometers without encountering another per- son. Twinstreams Education Centre is the oldest environ- mental education centre in Africa; is the most success- ful example of dune forest rehabilitation in Africa; was founded by one of South Af- rica’s environmental educa- tion pioneers Dr Ian Garland; has the headwaters of the Siyaya River passing through it; has unlimited access to mangroves, grasslands, wet- lands, dune forests, sandy shores, streams, raphias and

swamp forests; has a depend- able, mature staff comple- ment; has a wide range of accommodation facilities. Our research projects are all CAPS curriculum based – research students have a wide variety of topics such as river catch- ment management; mining; biodiversity and many others that can be conducted in and around Twinstreams in com- plete safety. Twinstreams has attracted funded projects amounting to more than R3 million over the past 10 years primarily from corporates and the DEA. The funding received from the De- partment of Environmental Affairs covered the costs of transport, accommodation, meals, environmental edu- cation and activities within the Umlalazi Nature Reserve. Twinstreams is constantly seeking additional funding to enable us to make this expe- rience accessible to the thou- sands more in disadvantaged schools. Many of these learners have made life changes, which have resulted in diminishing their environmental foot- prints whilst increasing their environmental handprints.

Our future plans for Twin- streams include increasing the number of beds from 74 to 100 and to upgrade one of our camps. Highlights of the year in- cluded many repeat book- ings, with 12 schools having visited Twinstreams every year for more than 10 years.

In 2017/2018, 15 355 learners visited WESSA’s four Education Centres (Twinstreams, Treasure Beach, uMngeni Valley and Bush Pigs).

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