African Wildlife and Environment Issue 64

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

• create sustainable employment for marginalised rural communities in land restoration work and carbon farming; and • develop carbon sequestration as a potential alternative income stream for land users through carbon farming. At least 300 ha of degraded Spekboom veld are being rehabilitated. By reviving natural capital and eco system services through the planting of Spekboom, the restoration of degraded thicket builds ecosystem resilience and therefore plays a role in enabling local communities to adapt to climate change impacts. As the young Spekboom plants grow and begin to restore the vegetation structure on degraded land, other shrubs and trees are able to establish, and thicket recovers with time. Topsoils will be conserved by a healthy vegetation cover and as a consequence, there will be less silt deposition in rivers and dams. This will lead to improved water infiltration into soils and aquifers, thereby replenishing groundwater and sustaining water quality for the benefit of water-scarce communities. In terms of job creation, 60 unemployed people from the Vanwyksdorp community are developing their skills and experience through training and employment in the restoration effort. The project is building three independent restoration teams and equipping them with skills and practical experience so that they will be capable of taking on similar contract work on other restoration sites to be identified over the course of the project. By facilitating rural development, the socio-economic benefits of the project include job creation in the restoration industry, improved sustainable livelihoods through the generation of alternative income streams, and training the rural poor in business skills and environmental management practices. A final result is that by testing the possibility of carbon farming as a carbon sequestration mechanism, the project seeks to support South Africa’s transition to a lower carbon economy. Long term environmental sustainability is the essence Spekboom is a succulent that occurs in very dry areas, growing rapidly because it is able to ‘shift gears’. It has the ability to photosynthesise during the day and night, absorb carbon dioxide from the air, release oxygen and store carbon in the earth underneath the plant. The plant’s stomata open at night and close during the day in order to save water. This slows down evaporation and in the end, the Spekboom grows faster during the day as it also uses the carbon dioxide it needs at night. It is able to ‘change gears’ depending on its wet or dry state. Few plants around the world can do this. Spekboom restoration holds a wide range of ecological benefits, from the micro conditions of a farm to the macro conditions of global climate change. Reducing the CO2 content in the atmosphere is critical to preserve a liveable planet. One way of doing this is by adopting land use practices that increase carbon storage in plants and soil. Plants naturally pull carbon dioxide out of the air and convert it into soil carbon, to be safely stored in the ground for long periods of time. Spekboom is uniquely good at this and because it is drought resilient, it can maintain flows of ecosystems services and ultimate goal of this project. Benefits of Spekboom restoration

in a drier and warmer future. Besides taking carbon out of the atmosphere, it also adds to the land’s fertility and its capacity to hold water. Jobs for Carbon helps landowners improve the soil and the condition of their veld, making farming more sustainable. In a nutshell, the environmental benefits are: • capture of carbon from the atmosphere, helping to reduce South Africa’s carbon footprint; • it is drought resilient and can maintain flows of ecosystem services in a drier and warmer future, helping to adapt to climate change; • greater water infiltration into soils, therefore replenishing groundwater and restoring the soil’s ability to retain and slowly release its moisture which in turn revives the natural flow of water courses; • conserves topsoils, therefore less silt deposition in rivers and dams; • improved carrying capacity of the land for judiciously managed livestock or wildlife; and • return of biodiversity, i.e plants, animals and their natural systems. Improving landscape and tourism opportunities In the bigger scheme of things, it is necessary to fix the million hectares that goat farmers have degraded by planting Spekboom back into the landscape and ensuring that landowners take proper care of it. The key is to improve the landscape and soil quality so that animals will return due to there being more water in the soil and more plants growing in the area. The return of biodiversity to transformed thicket landscapes and the improved carrying capacity of the landscape for wildlife opens up new opportunities for ecotourism and recreational development. If one can return the barren, dry desert landscapes across the Klein Karoo to the lush green carpet that used to exist in the past, it can only be good for the tourism potential of the area. This in turn will generate greater public support for the protection of natural assets. Restoration should be seen as an indispensible element of a broader economic development strategy, rather than an initiative supporting conservation or biodiversity. Natural capital needs to be recognized as a form of capital that yields a stream of benefits almost impossible or too costly to create artificially. These benefits, called ‘ecosystem services’, deliver productive veld for livestock and wildlife, improved water quality and flow, carbon sequestration, tourismand recreational opportunities. Restoration of natural capital can act as a catalyst for sustainable economic development that addresses peoples’ needs. The project is managed by WESSA in partnership with the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) and Rhodes University. Funding gratefully received from the European Union and Department of Environmental Affairs.

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Jim Taylor & Vivo Venter

Since the 1970s WESSA has had an active commitment to environmental education (EE) as the key long-term driver of change for a more sustainable future.

The outflow of the Howick waste water treatment works represents a major risk to water quality in the Umgeni river. Enviro-Champs monitor the water quality using a clarity tube that was developed through a WESSA, GroundTruth and the Water Research Commission citizen science tools project. These tools guide the ability to take action for a more sustainable future.

AmaKhosi, in KwaZulu-Natal had attended courses at the Centre and each course included studies of sustainable agriculture, ecology, conservation as well as land and coastal management (Taylor, 1997). The establishment of Twinstreams was followed closely by Umngeni Valley where, by 1995, 15 000 participants were attending organized courses each year. Bushpigs, an EE Centre north of Johannesburg, and Treasure Beach, in Durban, are two other centres, managed by WESSA, that continue to provide good quality, action based, learning courses. Does the learning lead to meaningful change? Although thousands of schoolchildren and adults are attending the WESSA courses (WESSA is now an accredited training service provider with the Education, Training and Development Sector Education and Training Authority - ETD SETA) the question is often asked as to whether the courses really do lead to change for a more

Theunanimousapproval of theSustainableDevelopment Goals 1 by 193 countries in September 2015 represents one of the most significant policy shifts in recent history. Officially, at least, the environment movement and actions towards sustainability are at the forefront of global policy. For the environmental movement is this a dream come true or must the real work now begin? Since the 1970s WESSA has had an active commitment to environmental education (EE) as the key long term driver of change for a more sustainable future. Projects such as the Twinstreams Environmental Education Centre at Mtunzini are reputed to be the first established EE centre in Africa and one of the first world-wide. This environmental education centre, established by Ian Garland and his family, has offered practical and applied training courses for hundreds of school pupils, teachers and many leaders in society. By the 1990s over 70% of all traditional leaders, Chiefs or

Wendy Crane Project CO Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve

36 | African Wildlife & Environment | 64 (2017)

37 | African Wildlife & Environment | 64 (2017)