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Issue 10 the Urban Wildlife Edition September - October 2018

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Issue 10 the Urban Wildlife Edition September - October 2018 Issue 10 The Urban Wildlife Edition September - October 2018 Conservation Matters- Issue 10: The Urban Wildlife Edition 1 A WORD FROM THE CEO 2 Showcasing our supporters: Annual support from Assore Limited 35 NOTICEBOARD MEET THE PacK 35 • Events 3 • Emily Taylor • Boaz Tsebe FEATURES • Shumani Makwarela • The birds of Delta Park – observing changes over more than 40 years 4 Ways to give: Every swipe counts! 37 • Creating owl-friendly children 7 • Wildlife-friendly gardening – a return to nature 8 PUPS’ Place 38 Showcasing our supporters: Celebrating an anniversary with E-SHOP 39 11 Signature Lux by Onomo IN closing: MWITU’S MISSIVE 41 • There’s a bat in my kitchen, what should I do? 11 • Green spaces 15 • Shark mystery: Where have South Africa’s Great Whites gone? 17 • Win! Wildlife on your doorstep photography and drawing competition 20 Ways to give: A will to preserve our true wilderness areas 21 TAILS FROM THE FIELD • Farm planning: on the path to sustainable land management 22 • Making the most of a tough situation 23 • Wildlife and Energy training project spreads wings to Lesotho 24 • Opening the door to a world of knowledge 24 • Oil and gas development and its implication on Grey Crowned Cranes and wetlands 26 Showcasing our supporters: Q20 supports carnivore conservation 27 GREEN heroes • Giving hope to wildlife 28 Ways to give: Donating is now as easy as snapping your fingers… or your phone! 29 WALKING THE talK • Greening an urban environment 29 SCIENCE SNIPPets • Big data for biodiversity 30 • A safe haven for Wild Dogs near Kruger National Park 30 Showcasing our supporters: Leasing this property will lead to R10,000 for the EWT 31 WILDLIFE fact FILE 31 • Giant Bullfrog • Barn Owl • African Grass Owl • Spotted Eagle Owl • Large-spotted Genet • Brown House Snake/Common House Snake Physical Address: Building K2, Ardeer Road, Pinelands Office Park, Modderfontein 1609, Gauteng, South Africa, Postal Address: Private Bag X 11, Modderfontein 1645, Gauteng, South Africa Tel: +27 (0) 11 372 3600 Fax: +27 (0) 11 608 4682 NPO 1 Conservation Matters- Issue 10: The Urban Wildlife Edition Among the many issues and perspectives that serve to fragment the THIS is what the Constitution of South Africa, in Section 24 actually conservation sector, rather than unite it, perhaps the greatest is the says: concept of ‘Sustainable Use,’ and where one positions yourself or your Section 24 - Everyone has the right – organisation along this rather long and winding spectrum. From the a) To an environment that is not harmful to their health or well- one extreme, which says that humans cannot use any element of our being; and natural world for their benefit at all, to the other end, which claims b) To have the environment protected, for the benefit of that full exploitation of nature and all its components is a human right present and future generations, through reasonable legislative no matter the form this use may take, or its impacts on nature going and other measures that – forward. i. prevent pollution and ecological degradation; ii. promote conservation; and Thankfully, most conservation organisations in South Africa sit iii. secure ecologically sustainable development and use of somewhere far from the edges of these extreme views, and this helps natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social to maintain a balance on most platforms. The EWT firmly believes in development. the use of nature to the benefit of ALL species, humans included, so essentially we stand FOR the concept of Sustainable Use. The trouble is not with the principle, but rather, in our view, how it is being adapted What’s so fantastic about this Constitution of ours is that it not only to suit the needs of a small but increasingly influential pool of ‘special affords humans the right to a clean and healthy environment, but that interest’ groups that stand to benefit from use that is sustainable only this applies to future generations: those not even born yet! This right, insofar as it can be sustained, and not for the persistence of a healthy it states, will be realised through conservation (first and foremost) and environment for all other creatures. then the “ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources”. It is quite clear that the application of sustainability (or In 1992, the World Bank stated that their interpretation of the term persistence if you will) is in relation to the environment and not its Sustainable Development was “… development that lasts”. With no use. Simply put, the environment must be sustainable, not just our reference to the environment being the entity that should in fact last, use thereof. which is more to the heart of what the Rio Convention (at which the term gained global traction) undoubtedly meant. Ironically, nearly Therefore, seeing as the Endangered Wildlife Trust so firmly believes 30 years later, we see some sectors of society interpreting the term in the power of this true environmental right and the ability of our Sustainable Use in much the same way. And you argue with them at natural resources to sustainably and equitably transform and uplift your peril, for the very first thing they like to quote is the South African human lives, we are driving a process to re-examine the narrative Constitution which allegedly enshrines the right of all people to use around sustainable use (as it is currently being interpreted). A better natural resources in any way that they like. The trouble is, it doesn’t. interpretation of the Constitutional Right, we would argue, would be to truncate section 24(b)iii to be simply SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION Conservation Matters- Issue 10: The Urban Wildlife Edition 2 in which “ecologically sustainable” is positioned appropriately Sustainable Conservation exists when the conservation of biodiversity, alongside environmental use. with all its various wildlife components existing naturally in a functioning ecosystem, becomes the driving factor. Ecological In short, the EWT: sustainability requires functioning systems and balance and we hold 1. Holds that sustainable use as is sometimes applied in South that this underpins the environmental right in our Constitution. Africa is currently NOT in line with the spirit or even the language, of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa; To achieve Sustainable Conservation, various forms of both 2. Has become increasingly concerned with the narrow and consumptive and non-consumptive use can and should be employed misguided approach to sustainable use currently being taken as a means of sustaining the system, and ensuring equitable benefit in some quarters, leading to industry-scale abuses based sharing for those who contribute to, are impacted on, or who co-exist on the use of a single entity with no value to the broader as part of these systems. The use of nature in a balanced, holistic and ecological or social systems; and instead equitable manner is indeed the way in which humans realise their 3. Supports and promotes sustainable conservation as follows: environmental right. This would be to the benefit of the “everyone” to which our Constitution refers, including those generations not yet Sustainable Conservation embodies the true spirit of the environmental born. Above all, the conservation of our natural world remains central rights of all people in South Africa – ensuring that the point of departure to any use thereof, for without these systems, there is no future. in any decision, policy or system is that the environment (as a complete and holistic system) is protected for the benefit of present and future Yolan Friedmann generations. EWT CEO [email protected] 1 OCTOBER: WORLD HABITAT 13 OCTOBER: DAY MIGRATORY BIRD DAY 21 NOVEMBER: WORLD FISHERIES 4 OCTOBER: DAY WORLD ANIMAL DAY EWT EVENTS 24 October: Country Club Johannesburg Talk – Book launch: The Game ranger, the knife, the lion and the sheep – David Bristow, in conversation with Dr Harriet Davies-Mostert. For more information, contact [email protected] 12 – 16 November: Raptor Research Foundation 2018 Annual Conference, Skukuza, Kruger National Park. For more information, contact [email protected] 3 Conservation Matters- Issue 10: The Urban Wildlife Edition walk around the sanctuary, and also where I gave my first public bird talk to WBC members. It is no exaggeration to say that “I cut my birding teeth” in the park. On 10 December, 1981, Cynthia and I moved in to the flat in the Delta Environmental Centre, and Delta Park became my “garden”, birding patch and study area. I can still remember looking out the window on that first day in our new home and seeing a male Eurasian Golden Geoff Lockwood, Resident Manager of the Delta Environmental Oriole moving through the trees around the main sanctuary dam. Centre The 37 years since then have brought a succession of amazing bird [email protected] sightings, and have allowed me to document the changes in the local urban bird population – initially through submissions to the first My first memory of what is now Delta Park dates back to 1964, when Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP 1) and, currently, to SABAP I was attacked and repeatedly stung by a colony of paper wasps that 2. Since January 2002, 234 species have been recorded in Delta Park, I had disturbed whilst clambering over a dry-stone walled kraal on with a further 29 species having been recorded historically, but not the property. I was back a few times during the early 1970s, dodging again since the start of the intensive survey in 2002. security to bird in what was then being developed as the Florence Bloom Bird Sanctuary, and then later when I joined the monthly Being based in the park has also allowed me to undertake a long- outings of the Witwatersrand Bird Club (WBC) held on the third term study of aspects of the biology, diet, breeding, longevity and Saturday afternoon each month.
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