The two fieldtrips were successful. The knowledge, gathered during the two fieldtrips, was needed to support the ongoing implementation of the ‘Water for Food and Ecosystems Programme’ in the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve. This forms part of the PRESENCE networks’ participatory and integrated catchment restoration programme in the area. Representatives from the following PRESENCE partners joined the fieldtrips:  Eastern Cape Parks (ECP); Gamtoos Irrigation Board (GIB); Rhodes University (RU); the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI); local land-owners and Living Lands.

The initial field trip during the first week of July was organized to obtain scientific-based information about the scale of degradation of the catchment system and what is actually needed to restore it. During the two-day outing, participants such as RU Professors Kate Rowntree and Fred Ellery engaged with the farmers whose land is under consideration for the alluvial fan* restoration. During the two days, a number of alluvial fans* were visited and the key questions discussed. Piet Kruger, a local land-owner supporting restoration remarked: “The restoration of alluvial fans on my land is the best present I can receive”.

The following field trip during the second week of July provided information about actual the measures which could or should be implemented. For example, should a water blocking structure be placed to restore the hydrological system of the alluvial fan* and what kind of structure should that be? Implementers from SANBI and GIB were present, along with an Eastern Cape Parks representative and an implementer of the environmental impact assessment. Also participating in the field trip was Tim Jan Huldman, an international water management student doing his internship with Living Lands fieldtrips. Tim reflected afterwards, “I am really impressed by the knowledge and collaboration of the PRESENCE partners, together they gained the core data that is needed.”

Contact marijn@earthcollective.net for further information.

*Alluvial fans are, like their name suggests, fan-like deposits of soil, gravel, silt or rocks which form at the exit of narrow gorges/canyons/’kloofs’ when fast running water slows and spreads out over a floodplain.

The Dutch embassy is supporting three initiatives in South Africa by offsetting C02 emissions generated by their nation’s participation in the 2010 World Cup. This move by The Netherlands is in response to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the South African Department of Environment (DEA)’s call for all participating World Cup nations to reduce and compensate their CO2 emissions.

UNEP has made the carbon calculations for the Dutch team’s participation in the First Round (Group Stage). The DEA offers all World Cup participants the opportunity to offset their CO2 emissions with selected projects. A number of Dutch-linked projects feature prominently in this selection. The Embassy of The Netherlands believes that this illustrates the nation’s contribution to a greener society in South Africa through innovative, energy efficient and sustainable solutions.

UNEP and the DEA have selected two Dutch projects in South Africa to meet the challenge of offsetting the Dutch football teams CO2 footprint. These are: Soil & More International which converts urban green waste into environmentally friendly compost; and Dutch company Lemnis which replaces existing inefficient lighting with energy-efficient and durable LED lamps. This project aims at large scale energy efficient lighting in homes, streets, public buildings, hotels, etc.

The Embassy of The Netherlands will be further greening by planting enough ‘spekboom’ trees to fill a World Cup football field. This will be done in the Baviaanskloof through Living Lands’ recently launched Elemental Equity fund.  The charitable fund substitutes poverty for employment, saves soil erosion, and scores goals for biodiversity and landscapes.  And when it comes to netting CO2,  ‘spekboom’ is a star player.

Living Lands – through its Elemental Equity fund – is delighted to be associated with the Embassy of The Netherlands’ ambitions to green their ‘Oranje’ football teams’ road to World Cup glory.

“When the Dutch win the World Cup we look forward to welcoming them to the Baviaanskloof to take a break and help plant their own ‘spekkies’ [spekboom]” hopes Marijn Zwinkels, Elemental Equity coordinator. “Actually, I’m more than happy to drive the team back down here with us after the final…”

Article based on: Original Press Release (in Dutch)

In this 4-page issue:
-  Hitting targets & scoring goals: How can Team Biodiversity create more chances?
-  Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve celebrates the International Day of Biodiversity
-  PRESENCE Network Updates
-  9 Questions in 99 Seconds with Yvon, Martijn & Heleen
-  eyes4earth: sharing meaningful nature experiences
-  Revealing Research: Blue Whales change frequency
-  Healthy Parks, Healthy People: a movement begins…
-  Fotos from the Field
-  Poetry Piece
-  Quotes of the Quarter
-  News in a Nutshell
-  Agenda & Activities

At Delos III, the presentation will focus on three different sacred sites in Mayo territories that come under different governance arrangements and land tenures which leads to a variety of conservation opportunities to be explored.  Delos III focuses on conserving the integrity of sacred natural sites in technologically developed countries’ and will be helt from the 1st till the 3rd of June in Inari Finland.

The following objectives have been agreed for this third Delos working meeting:

• Respecting sacred natural sites related to indigenous and minority faiths in technologically developed countries (based on the Sámi people in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia).
• Guidance for sustainable management of mainstream holy / sacred lands.

Pronatura and CVNI’s joint presentation aims to contribute to discussion on the two objectives above. Sacred sites in Mexico have known long periods of syncretism and  Pronatura’s experience with the methodology it has developed will be key for delivering advice on developing further guidance on this matter.  The Delos Initiative on ‘sacred natural sites in technologically developed countries’ was launched in 2004, in the framework of the Specialist Group on Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas of IUCN/WCPA. The Initiative is co-ordinated jointly by Thymio Papayannis (Med-INA) and Josep-Maria Mallarach (Silene). Two other Delos workshops have been organised up to now. Delos1 in Montserrat (Catalonia), Spain on 23-26 November 2006 and Delos2 in Ouranoupolis (Mt Athos), Greece on 24-28 November 2007. Their proceedings were published in 2007 and 2009.

Article Source: CVNI Website

The conference was held on 22 May, the International Day of Biodiversity within the International Year of Biodiversity 2010, and was attended by about 60 participants including landowners, officials from national and provincial departments, NGO members, economists, scientists and students. Addressing the conference, CEO of Eastern Cape Parks, Nokulunga Maswana, said that the Baviaanskloof was “blessed to have such a large pristine wilderness area – one of few in the world.”

Launching the new Eastern Cape Parks Biodiversity Stewardship Programme, Maswana said that the farming community were key partners in conserving biodiversity and ensuring effective catchment management, which would have the downstream effect of making more clean water available for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

Biodiversity stewardship was a major theme of the conference, with Tracey Potts of Eastern Cape Parks and Willeen Olivier of DEA addressing participants on the options available to landowners. The conference also heard about progress made on payment for ecosystem services – finding creative ways to generate financial returns for biodiversity management practices, such as replanting spekboom, that have water and carbon benefits.

In addition to the conference, 130 schoolchildren took part in educational activities at Terra Pi around the themes of Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Participants stayed in tipi tents, and family members attended parallel workshops on pottery, permaculture and plant propagation.

For more information, contact Tracey Potts on tracey.steyn@ecparks.co.za

Source: C.A.P.E Action

Wageningen (NL): Artistic results of “What did nature do for you today?” in South Africa are on show for the coming two weeks in the Forum Building at Wageningen University. In this fantastic initiative aimed at celebrating next week’s International Day of Biodiversity, former PRESENCE student Lucie Chuchmakova is presenting the results of her thesis which asked children of the Baviaanskloof about their relationship with nature…

During the exposition, Lucie will display the colourful drawings made by school children from the Baviaanskloof. These drawings formed part of the responses obtained by her research which focused on the children’s perceptions of – and interactions with – ecosystem services and biodiversity.  The results of Lucie’s thesis research are being used by Living Lands, PRESENCE partners and the eyes4earth initiative to help guide the design of future environmental education programmes as part of a broader strategy to help reconnect youth to nature and further support restoration efforts in the area.

Lucie’s initiative needs to be congratulated as an excellent outreach effort for communicating scientific understanding of ecosystem services into the public domain in a simple and attractive way.

Lucie’s thesis research and internship was supervised through Wageningen University’s Environmental Systems Analysis Group and hosted by the PRESENCE  network and Living Lands in South Africa. Her reserach was co-funded by the Anne van den Ban Fund.

The 21st May will provide a fun environmental education programme for 120 children from four local schools. TerraPi with partners has organized an exciting day which provides environmental learning opportunities themed around  the elements of earth, water, wind and fire.
The 22nd May focuses on landowners and communities as key stakeholders of the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve a conference sessions on current biodiversity-related issues and activities (e.g. landowner stewardship) as well as parallel workshops on eco-tourism, permaculture and propagation. There will also be a third session giving children of families in attendance to experience the beautiful outdoors with a variety of fun learning activities. Outdoor markets and information stalls will be scattered across the area.
Staff and students from Living Lands will be closely involved with activities: from assisting with youth environmental education to delivering presentations and facilitating market stalls.

The Living Lands stall will showcase developments at the PRESENCE Learning Village as well as short overview of PRESENCE activities such as the Water for Food & Ecosystems project and recent reserach / implementation outcomes.  there will also be a large map of the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve available for land-owners to pinpoint the benefits/challenges presented by biodiveristy in the area.

Living Lands will also present and launch the Elemental Equity Fund during the counference.

It is hoped the event will be a prime opportunity for diverse stakeholders and interested residents in and around the Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve to engage with new ideas and activities for sustainably managing the land, its biodiversity and its people.

Venue:  TerraPi  (Langkloof, off R62)
Date: 22 May 2010
Time: 10:00am
Contact: Colwyn Loggenberg  / colwyn.loggenberg@ecparks.co.za

The massive journey is a partnership between the Samoa Voyaging Society, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Programme (SPREP) and the Coral Reef Initiative for the South Pacific (CRISP).  Seven other Pacific islands groups  from American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga and Western Samoa are mounting a joint effort to  both raise awareness about (marine) biodiversity conservation as well as working toward revive their cultural traditions of ocean voyaging by using a double-hulled canoe and the lost art of navigating by the stars.

The SPREP reports that “over the next few months, seven of the Samoan “Va’a Gaualofa” crew will sail to French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tokelau as part of the Pacific voyaging expedition. During the Pacific voyage the Va’a Gaualofa crew will act as observers by documenting all rubbish, oil spills or any forms of marine life that they sight upon a geographical information system. They will take images of their sightings and mark their findings on a map to explain and show their results while the va’a is docked in the different harbours throughout the region.”

These voyage sightings as well as results to their visual survey of “What did nature do for you today?”  will be made into short awareness films which will be on show during an interactive learning exhibition at each stop that the Va’a Gaualofa crew makes.

The Va’a Gaualofa crew departed on the 18th April and as of 3rd May (Day 13) found themselves soaking wet as they continue to battle mountainous seas. They are having to bail out 3 – 8 buckets of water a day from their canoe in what has become a high pressure situation only made easier my plenty of jokes amongst the crew to keep spirits up. In their own words they reflect that they have been “pretty much been battered, beaten up and smashed by mother nature for the past week. We’ve been through her washing machine, and so far we haven’t seen much of a gentle cycle…”

These intense and life challenging and changing experiences certainly put a different but yet equally important spin on “What did nature do for you today?”

Click here to follow the Pacific Voyage blog of the Samoan Voyaging Society

Click here to see the article in the Solomon Times about the voyage and asking of “The Question”

Click here to follow the Pacific Voyage blog of the Fijian Voyaging. The Fijian’s have just arrived to a wonderful warm welcome in Raivavae. Click here for news and photos.

Credit: Images sourced from fijivoyaging.com

“eyes4earth as an initiative was first launched on this day back in 2006” explains coordinator Matthew Zylstra. “Back then it was primarily driven by the ‘What did nature do for you today initiative?’ which was focused on providing communication and outreach for the concept of ‘ecosystem services’.”

eyes4earth 2010 has now evolved from purely focusing on how people perceive ecosystem services to including how people are reconnecting to biodiversity nature through meaningful nature experience.

“A primary focus of this new website – and eyes4earth in general –  is to link ecosystem services, biodiversity and climate change through people’s personal and meaningful experience.” explains Matthew.  “Stories are an ideal way of doing this and something we can all relate to. In this International Year of Biodiversity we feel it’s critical to allow people the opportunity to tell us about the powerful and unusual encounters they have had with wildlife of all shapes and sizes.  People resonate with that kind of thing.  So we’re doing that through the ‘Where’s my Whale?’ theme.  Ultimately, it’s about understanding how people find themselves re-connecting to nature through direct and meaningful experience …”

eyes4earth acts as a two-way communication channel for current transdisciplinary research on human-biodiversity interactions (being carried out with Stellenbosch University & the TsamaHUB). The current PhD research is primarily gaining insights into people’s perceptions of ‘meaningful nature experiences’ (e.g. peak nature experiences and synchronistic wildlife encounters) and how learning derived from such events can be better integrated into education programmes for sustainability. The research is also assessing how exotic weeds and pests (e.g. invasive alien plant and animal species) are perceived to affect meaningful nature and wilderness experience. A further aim is to investigate how environmental education may shape such perceptions and what strategies can be employed to facilitate a more.

Inside this issue:

• PRESENCE Workshop 2009
• PRESENCE Network Pages
• 9 questions in 99 seconds
• What’ll the Wattle say?
• Revealing Research
• Hishuk-Ish Tsawalk: CVNI
• Spot the differences: Part 2
• A Road trip with Reverence
• News / Poetry / Pictures