(Work)shop until you drop

Baviaanskloof-Gamtoos Valley (SA): Shop until you drop. It is a saying synonymous with the Christmas consumer craziness. For PRESENCE’s Wageningen University students, they have been somewhat shielded this year from that mayhem in the rural Baviaanskloof-Gamtoos valleys. However, they and the EarthCollective enablers weren’t without their own share of continuous activity in the form of back-to-back stakeholder and community workshops.

Read more and see the pictures…

It started early on the 5th of December (also known as ‘Sinterklaas’ (St. Nicholas Day) in The Netherlands) with Wageningen Univeristy (WUR) geo-information students Marco Nocita and Marian Vittek presenting the practical applicability of their research to project implementers form Gamtoos Irrigation Board. A highlight for attendees was a demonstration of the ‘spectrometer’ technology given by Marco and a visiting technician from the German Space Agency (DLR).

Later the same morning, EarthCollective and the PRESENCE students presented to the Working for Water/Woodlands (WfW) workers currently based at the Kouga Dam Restoration Nursery. The session was emphatically opened with a stirring gospel song sung by the team of Michael Ruka. After that, EarthCollective, the students, visitors from other restoration projects and the WfW nursery teams themselves all presented the work they have been doing to each other. A feature of the morning was the sincere gratitude and loving appreciation that the teams expressed toward the opportunities they have been given, the activities they are involved with and most of all to the their fellow team members who they cooperate, work, laugh and sing with on a daily basis. The formal presentations were followed by a typical South Africa ‘braai’ (barbeque) at the Kouga Dam park. Everyone – black, coloured and white – joined in with the spontaneous dancing, ball games and feasting. The perfect Friday afternoon simply summed up with, “It was amazing” from WUR student Arjan Hassing.

A change of pace – or at least the context – ensued the following day (6th Dec) with a trip into the western Baviaanskloof. After a 5am start and stunning four hour 4 x 4 journey, EarthCollective enablers and five WUR students arrived ready to present at the PRESENCE Feedback Day. In a show of appreciation for all the time, help and ‘braais’ that residents of the Baviaanskloof have genersously given in recent times, the students each prepared a typical dish from their home country for the attendees’ lunch. This was followed by a series of presentations showcasing the practical results of their research so far. It wasn’t just a rehash of their presentation the day before: A different audience requires a different approach and the students adapted superbly. Their presentations were also complemented by talks from the Dutch Government’s (LNV-DLG) Water for Food & Ecosystems and the Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme – both partners to PRESENCE. Again, the afternoon was followed by a splendid evening braai and enjoyable festivities – this time to Afrikaans music. Three students stayed in the Baviaanskloof to continue their research –and organised a ‘get together’ with farmers’ wives to discuss possibilities and potential for linking to tourism and environmental education to socio-ecological restoration.

It didn’t stop there: the workshops kept coming. On the 8th & 9th of December, EarthCollective organised a geo-information workshop for scientists and PRESENCE students involved in the field of remote-sensing. Between workshop sessions and field visits, the participants gained a better understanding of what needs to be ‘ground-truthed’ in terms of mathcing features of subtropical thicket vegetation ‘on-ground’ with the characteristics of satellite (remote-sensing) images obtained from far above ground. Silvia Weel – spatial analyst with EarthCollective – said, “The workshop went well because we were able to bring disciplines together which, whilst related, usually speak a completely different language ( in a scientific sense). Everyone seemed to appreciate the informal relaxed environment. For our visiting students, they benefited from a ‘multi-supervisor’ experience with each expert giving their own complementary view to better guide the students’ research”.

The succession of workshop days gave all the

Wageningen Univeristy students hosted by PRESENCE the valuable experiencing in interacting with a number experts in their field of research. More importantly, it enabled them to gain practice in communicating research and results back to highly diverse stakeholder groups.

Whilst it was not exactly planned this way, it was clear that in the space of a few days, PRESENCE had successfully engaged with implementers, poverty-relief workers, farmers and scientists. Upon that realisation, PRESENCE Coordinator Dieter Van den Broeck reflected, “I think that is something we can be proud of.”

And it also became clear that (work)shopping really can become addictive.