28

November

0

PRESENCE

Restoration of a different kind

Western Baviaanskloof (SA): Living Lands employees and students currently based at the PRESENCE Learning Village spent a few days hard at work doing work of a different kind: restoring an old cottage to become a future PRESENCE Field Station. The owners of the hut (who currently reside outside of South Africa) have asked Living Lands help with the restoration and in return will be able to make it available as an informal base for Living Lands and PRESENCE students to stay during their field trips into the Baviaanskloof.

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11

November

0

PRESENCE

Picking the priorities

Picking the priorities in the Baviaans

Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve (SA): Living Lands participated in the informally titled Baviaanskloof Restoration Field Trip with a few other PRESENCE partners. The purpose of the two-day outing was to assess on-ground where the current priorities for spekboom revegetation (a catalyst for broader restoration) lie within the Baviaanskloof Nature Reserve. In addition a site was selected which will serve as the ‘planting ground’ for current and future donations made to EarthCollective and its eyes4earth initiative ‘Climate Culture.’ “It was a very useful day for getting a feel for the areas which require our urgent attention. I also enjoyed getting to know our partners better and meeting the current contracting teams carrying out the planting.” said Marijn Zwinkels as participant for Living Lands.

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09

November

0

Courses

Sundowners

Wildlands Wrap-up

Port Elizabeth (SA): EarthCollective members Matthew Zylstra & Dieter Van den Broeck farewelled a fantastic group of U.S students who had been under their guidance during the previous six weeks. Since late September, the EarthCollective members had acted as co-instructors for 14 U.S university students completing their Wildlands Studies Course ‘Preserving Biodiversity in South Africa”. The dynamic course had taken the group across stunning landscapes and ecosystems and allowed them to make contact with an array of projects and perspectives all linked to challenges and opportunities for managing and conserving wildlife in South Africa. For everyone involved, it was a memorable life learning experience. Matthew Zylstra reflects: “Being involved in this course delivered more than I could have expected. It was much more that just sharing my own ‘knowledge’ and helping to give students exposure to range of project-based fieldwork and the people involved in them. It was about being part of a mutual learning process – watching the students evolve as individuals and as a group and at the same learning a lot more about myself as a budding educator.”

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07

November

1

Events

PRESENCE in the Baviaanskloof Workshop

Cambria (SA): The third annual PRESENCE Workshop was successfully held at the Baviaanskloof World Heritage Interpretative Centre during 5th-6th November. The workshop brought together an energetic groups of stakeholders including researchers, government, implementers, parks managers, consultants, land owners and students.

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01

November

0

Weblog

eyes4earth site under review

Global: EarthCollective regrets to inform that the eyes4earth.org site has recently been taken offline due to technical difficulties. A decision has since been taken to migrate and rebuild the site rather than upgrade the existing site.  Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused. This extends to all users wishing to visit the site – particularly [...]

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