WESSA - 90 Years of People Caring for the Earth

a brief history of WESSA FRIENDS By Renata Harper

It is very often concerned members of the public who identify natural or degraded environments that need improved management and ongoing monitoring. Coming together as a Friends Group is a powerful way to be more effective at preserving the natural areas they are passionate about. These committed bands of volunteers also strengthen the environmental movement by networking and actively working in communities at a grass roots level. We briefly explore the history and value of the WESSA-affiliated Friends Groups. •••1985: Back to the very beginning… The concept of Friends Groups was the brainwave of one Anne Bean, a Committee member of the Western Cape Branch of WESSA in the early 1980s (when the organisation was still called the Wildlife Society of South Africa). An M.Sc. graduate and botanist whose career had spanned the Western Cape and Bulawayo and included dairy farming, teaching and working at UCT’s Bolus Herbarium, Bean had become concerned: lack of money, human resources and interest on the part of provincial and local nature conservation authorities were leading to degradation and, in some cases, even the de-proclamation of important nature reserves. She believed the public had to become involved in safeguarding these resources and working with the owners or managing authorities. WESSA was suitably inspired and, in 1985, ‘Friends of Nature Areas’ was born – initially with only nature reserves inmind. Supporting the establishment of the first three groups (in Cape Point, Helderberg and Riverlands) got the ball rolling. Selling the concept to the authorities was not without its challenges though, reflects Bean (now 87). “Back then, a botanist, and a female botanist on top of that, was not really welcomed by conservation officials! I hoped that by offering to help the reserves, they would see us not as interfering but as extending genuine support.” “Some of the authorities were quite autocratic and it was difficult for volunteers to get involved,” remembers John Green, founder of Friends of Tokai Forest (1996), former WESSA President/National Chair (2003–2009) andWestern Cape Chair (1999– 2002) and current regional representative for the Western Cape. “Having ‘friends of’ the authority – rather than what they often saw as ‘complaining volunteers’ – helped smooth the path ahead.”

18 | 90 years of people caring for the earth

19 | 90 years of people caring for the earth