Gauteng Conservancies in the News

The bullfrog tannie

By Sheree Béga

Anne Mearns remembers her childhood spent playing in the wetlands on Gauteng's East Rand, surrounded by her "living friends" - frogs. But today most of those wetlands have vanished along with their gentle, croaking inhabitants.

"Many of the wetlands are built up into roads and cluster homes," says Mearns from her Benoni plot.

"These wetlands were the treasure fields of birds, animals, mammals, fish, amphibians and many species of plants that are gone."

Now Mearns, a recipient of the UN Environmental Global 500 Role of Honour for her work on wetlands, is leading a one-year frog identification and awareness campaign with the Gauteng Conservancy Association, which hopes to gather data on the status of frogs across South Africa.

"For this frog identification census we want information on all kinds of frogs, where they occur, what type, what numbers, from all over the country. Call it a national frog count," explains Mearns, adding three-quarters of SA's 110 species are dependant on disappearing wetlands.

The initiative started in March. But frogs have spent the past few months in hibernation and will start to emerge to breed and feed only with the first spring rains.

Mearns is urging residents to identify frogs in their gardens and in local wetlands and grasslands, and report back to the project. She has already received hundreds of phone calls and e-mails. "There's a very big awakening about frogs. We started as a provincial project but people all over South Africa are involved. This is a way to make people aware that there's a place for nature - and for frogs too," says Mearns, who is compiling information booklets on frogs for nursery, primary and high schools, to be delivered within weeks.

In the late 1990s Mearns led a wetland count in the Benoni region that identified about 135. Few remain. Mearns reserves her scorn for property developers destroying the region's wetlands, and questions the authorities who continue to approve development in sensitive areas.

"These people couldn't care less about wetlands or frogs. It's all about money. I've had developers chase me out of their developments, or who laugh at me and call me the 'old bullfrog tannie'. But if you take out a wetland, you destroy so many different kinds of life."

Frogs are vital indicators of the health of ecosystems. "Our water is so polluted, and if frogs are no longer there, it's a sign of how bad it is. I've put myself in the place of these thousands of frogs. If my home is polluted, I have to leave." Mearns is enamoured by the area's giant bullfrogs that live and breed in the surrounding Bullfrog Pan and Sand Pan, which is increasingly encircled by housing developments and major roads. "If you pick up a dead adult giant bullfrog that has been driven over, it's very sad. It can live for 30 years. Last [rainy] season, we rescued 105 adult bullfrogs. We're so happy when we find them because it means they're still around.

"When the first rains come I know I'm going to be so busy. Last year, people arrived at our plot with hundreds of frogs in their car boots that they rescued from being squashed on roads, and we reintroduced them to the wetlands in Benoni."

Conservationists declared 2008 the Year of the Frog because, globally, one in three of the 6 000 known amphibian species, including frogs, toads and salamanders, faces extinction from habitat loss, climate change, pollution, pesticides and invasive species.

A deadly parasitic fungus called amphibian chytrid, believed to have originated from the export of African clawed frogs in SA for use in pregnancy tests abroad, is having a catastrophic effect on global frog populations.

Martin John van Rooyen, an aquarist at Johannesburg Zoo, which is running a breeding programme for local frog species, says places like Boksburg used to be "frog country". "It's amazing how habitat destruction and development have not only changed the life of frogs but also that of birds like the blue crane, which used to be in the wetlands in Midrand. We need to protect these places and invest in our future."

Contact Mearns on 073-210-3340 or

a.mearns@mtnloaded.co.za

This article was originally published on page 8 of The Star

on September 13, 2008

Jozi to get its own green thumb

21/06/2008 17:38  - (SA)

A planned conservancy along Joburgs southern edge will link the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve with the hills of Roodepoort, writes LUCILLE DAVIE.

JOZI’s distinctive ridges are to be the links for a huge conservancy that could connect Ekurhuleni’s green spaces in the east to the tall koppies of Roodepoort in the west.

The initiative is being driven by development consultant Andrew Barker and Clem Kourie, the honorary chairperson of the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve Association (KNRA), together with Johannesburg City Parks.

“The KNRA, City Parks and other interested parties believe that the rural nature of the south should be preserved. To do this, landowners around the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve will be enticed to register their properties as conservancies,” Kourie says.

This project will include the stretch of land from the N12 southern bypass to the Klip River in the south and from the N1 in the west to the R59 and the Vereeniging highway in the east. In total the area is approximately 150km².

A conservancy is a registered voluntary association between land users and landowners who wish to cooperate to manage their natural resources in an environmentally-friendly manner without changing the land use of their properties.

“The establishment of conservancies gives the ordinary member of a community the opportunity to get involved in the conservation and management of the local environment,” says the KNRA’s website.

There are 32 conservancies in the province registered with the Gauteng agriculture, conservation and environment department.

Kourie says residents of the southern suburbs, including Glenanda, Glenvista, Mulbarton, Mondeor and Kibler Park “appreciate living around and among the large open tracts of unspoilt land” in their suburbs.

“A critical component of this proposal is the sustainable promotion and development of the natural environmental resources and rehabilitation of areas located along the Klip River through Soweto and the environmental corridor of the Klip River and Klipriviersberg ridges located in the southern areas of Johannesburg,” says Barker.

The conservancy will focus on the 680ha nature reserve south of Mondeor. Game has recently been introduced to the reserve, making it possible for residents to hike and watch game just 10km from the city centre.

“The area is rich in natural resources, varying from the beautiful wooded Klipriviersberg range of hills to grasslands and wetlands and to prolific birdlife along the Klip River, a tributary of the Vaal River,” explains Kourie.

“It contains red-data species as well as numerous heritage sites such as the ruins of the dwellings of Sotho and Tswana people who lived there 300 and more years ago, an old Voortrekker farmstead, Boer War fortifications and sites of interest from the goldrush days.”

Kourie says the wider area has “considerable tourism, recreational, cultural, educational and developmental potential”.

The initiative has the backing of many of the players in the area. The South of Johannesburg (Sojo) Business and Tourism Forum has also said it is keen to be involved.

Sojo’s main aim is to promote business, tourism and the environment across the southern side of the city.

The Sojo Development Band, established in 2001, is a key focus in Region F’s spatial development framework. The aim is to maximise the value of existing economic and tourism nodes to enhance job creation and investment in the south.

This will incorporate business, tourism and heritage facilities in Soweto, including tourism drawcards such as the Regina Mundi Church, the Mandela House Museum, the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Soweto Shebeen Route and restaurants.

This initiative is to be called the Sojo Business, Tourism and Recreation Loop and will benefit from the establishment of the conservancy.

The nearby Afrisam quarry and the Calvary Christian College, private landowners to the west of the reserve, are also interested in being involved. Other plot owners in the immediate west of the reserve also want to be included.

The conservancy will also include the Soweto wetlands and the Klip River, extending through to the ridges of Roodepoort.

To the east is the Rietvlei Zoo Farm, the Thaba Ya Batswana and Stonerivers Arches developments, Rand Water property and, further east, the wetlands and pristine hillsides of Ekurhuleni. The estates across Meyersdal to the east will be a valuable addition. All these parties are interested in the new development.

To the north, the Mondeor and Ridgeway hills will also be part of the conservancy and various residential and agricultural holdings will be included.

These areas have valuable recreation facilities already in place. These include cycling, mountain biking, golf and canoeing and extend to micro-lighting and model airplane activities, says Barker.

The agriculture department and City Parks are helping to push the process. City Parks’ conservation specialist, Kenneth Mabila, has been driving the initiative on behalf of the city.

He says the conservancy ties in with the city’s grasslands project and Klip River clean-up.

The grasslands project entails the preservation of the biodiversity in the Klip River and Kyalami and Roodepoort areas. It is part of the national grasslands programme of the South African National Botanical Institute, under the auspices of the national environmental affairs and tourism department.

The conservancy has been incorporated into the city’s integrated development plan and spatial development framework. Once established, it will be the city’s second conservancy.

A conservancy was launched in March 2007 in the northern reaches of Joburg. Called Gekco or the Greater Kyalami Conservancy, it encompasses 4 500ha of mostly agricultural land west of the N1 in Midrand.

Its goal is to “conserve, sustain and share the ecology and natural character of the greater Kyalami area”, says the Gekco website.

Close to a thousand landowners are members of the conservancy and their activities have so far included cleaning up the Jukskei River, planting indigenous trees and removing alien species, keeping an eye on irregular developments and monitoring cellphone tower erections, the rehabilitation of three wetlands in the area, and caring for endangered fauna and flora red-data species.

They are working on creating an eco-trail that includes cycling, hiking and horse paths.

The area contains a major equine industry which creates thousands of jobs. Gekco aims to protect this industry and the main open spaces in the conservancy.

The first public meeting to take the southern conservancy proposal forward was held on Wednesday at the Klipriviersberg Recreation Centre in Kibler Park.

Johannesburg City Parks, the Gauteng Conservancy Association, and the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve Association both gave presentations. – Johannesburg News Agency

Uitroeiers van indringerplant ‘nie xenofobies’

Jun 12 2008 09:24:28:247PM

Die “Slag van Lantana-laagte” is die naweek geveg toe sowat 30 inwoners van die Seringveld Bewaria, noord van Pretoria, meer as 400 van dié indringerplante uitgekap en -gegrawe het.

Elise Tempelhoff

Die “Slag van Lantana-laagte” is die naweek geveg toe sowat 30 inwoners van die Seringveld Bewaria, noord van Pretoria, meer as 400 van dié indringerplante uitgekap en -gegrawe het.

Volgens mnr. Jan Visser het 12 grondeienaars en helpers besluit om dít te doen omdat lan-tanas (Lantana camara) die hele gebied inneem en inheemse plantegroei “dooddruk.”

Volgens dr. Alan Urban van die Landbounavorsingsraad (LNR) se instituut vir plantbeskerming, en lantana-kenner, is dié struik een van die mees geharde indringers wat die meeste skade, veral aan weiding, aanrig.

Urban het gesê as al die lantana in die land “skouer aan skouer” staan, sal dit ’n gebied van 70 000 ha beslaan.

Op plekke waar lantana dig bymekaar groei, is die gebied ondeurdringbaar omdat hulle dorings met mekaar ineenvleg.

Die Seringveld Bewarea het die lantana-oorlog die naweek gevoer op die Boekenhoutkloof-grondpad se padreserwe en 1,2 km pad skoongemaak.

Volgens Visser is die struike afgekap en die stamme daarna met ’n goedgekeurde gif geverf.

Visser het vertel toe hy 20 jaar gelede in die Seringveld Bewarea kom woon het, was daar nie ’n enkele lantana op sy grond nie en hy het toe nie geweet wat dit is nie. Hy het wel op ’n dag een struik op ’n buurplaas raakgeloop. Iemand het toe aan hom gesê dit is lantana.

“As ek vandag op my grond loop, trap ek heeltyd op lantanas of loop teen hulle vas.”

Visser meen die pes het sedert die laat jare tagtig in dié omgewing vertwintigvoudig.

Urban het gesê ’n lantana is ’n hibried wat ontstaan het weens die kruising van twee verwante spesies. Die moeder- en vaderplante kom oorspronklik van Sentraal- en Suid-Amerika. Iemand het in die 1700’s die twee verwante spesies na Europa geneem en dit gekruis.

“Daar is tans 650 lantana-hibriede en hulle is wêreldwyd vervuil. Feitlik die hele wêreld voer tans ’n stryd om van hulle ontslae te raak,” vertel Urban.

Hy het gesê in die 1800’s was dit mode om ’n lantana in jou tuin te hê en die (hibriede-)plante is opsetlik wêreldwyd versprei.

“Vandag voer ons ’n stryd teen die lantana omdat hy ons inheemse plante verdring en beeste van weiding ontneem.

“Ons is dus nie xenofobies nie en voer nie ’n stryd teen alles wat vreemd is nie, maar hierdie plant bedreig ons eie veld en plante se voortbestaan,” het Urban gesê.

Die LNR het al sowat 12 natuurlike agente vir die biokontrole van lantana landwyd vrygelaat. Dié biokontrole is suksesvol aan die kus van KwaZulu-Natal, maar in die res van die binneland is nog min welslae behaal. As deel van ’n aanvoorprojek is ’n snuitkewer wat sy hele lewensiklus in die lantana se blaarstingel voer en die plant se natuurlike vyand is, asook ’n siekte wat die plant se wortels aanval, in Richardbaai en Nelspruit losgelaat.

eliset@beeld.com