Dear colleagues Here’s an update on some of the things that kept us busy during the past week: SEABIRD CONSERVATION PROGRAMME The Seabird Conservation Programme spent the start of the week on a team retreat in Ceres. This was the first time the team had done anything like this and they found it extremely useful to have a professional facilitator assist the team to understand each other and all aspects involved in good communication with all stakeholders we work with. Christina Hagen and Bronwyn Maree attended an Offshore Environmental Forum meeting attended by around 70 stakeholders involved in all forms (NGOs, fishing, government and mining) in one room to discuss offshore Marine Protected Areas and offshore oil and had exploration going forward. Chrissie Madden worked on her talk for the upcoming conference in Senegal. Ross Wanless left for Senegal on Friday. TERRESTRIAL BIRD CONSERVATION PROGRAMME Hanneline Smit-Robinson and Sam Ralston met with Candice Gilbert, Investec, to discuss highlights and outcomes as well as priorities for 2015 for the Birds and Renewable Energy work undertaken by BirdLife South Africa, made possible through the sponsorship from Investec. Hanneline and Sam also met with Kish Chetty, Eskom, and Constant Hoogstad and Lourens Leeuwner, Wildlife Energy Programme, Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), to discuss joint priorities for the birds and renewable energy work programme. Hanneline met with Andre Botha, Constant and Lourens at the EWT Head Office for a general raptor conservation discussion and thereafter attended an NGO social hosted by EWT. Hanneline also attended the Department of Environmental Affairs’ National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan workshop in Pretoria. Hanneline joined ACSA (Airports Company South Africa) staff, East Rand Bird Club members, and Albert and Marietjie Froneman for Birding Big Day at OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday. An amazing 96 species were recorded in and around the airport. A number of other ACSA airports around the country also participated in Birding Big Day. Ingula project Robin Colyn conducted forest surveys within the escarpment forests within Ingula. Additionally, breeding evaluations were conducted on the Southern Bald Ibis, Martial Eagle and Secretarybird active nests sites at Ingula. Robin initiated and coordinated the summer power line surveys at Ingula, commencing with the Ingula 400 kV lines. Data analysis on the monthly avifaunal count data was concluded for inclusion into the Ingula Monthly Report compiled by Robin this week. The permit process was also finalised for the proposed Ingula small mammal study. IBA NATIONAL Daniel Marnewick completed the IBA staff appraisals this week. The IBA staff once again worked exceptionally hard to achieve their targets. They can all be proud of themselves and deservedly look forward to the upcoming holidays. Daniel and Ernst Retief met with Bryony van Wyk about the design of the IBA directory and IBA Status report. Daniel attended the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) workshop hosted by the Department of Environment Affairs in Pretoria. Daniel completed IBA texts for the Free State. Candice Stevens spent most of the week doing IBA text editing and other admin. REGIONAL CONSERVATION Gauteng, Mpumalanga & Free State Ernst Retief spent most of the week drafting IBA texts and submitting them for comments. Ernst accompanied Team Hamerkop as an external observer on Saturday. Team Hamerkop attempted to break the world record for the most bird species seen in 24 hours. This record is 354. KwaZulu-Natal Nick Theron spent time this week planning the Rudd’s Lark surveys his team will be undertaking next week in Matatiele. This included the identification of potential sites with the help of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. Nick also visited Impendle Nature Reserve which is an IBA that supports important populations of Blue Swallows and Cape Parrots. Exciting research work will be undertaken at Impendle focussing on Blue Swallows. On Thursday Nick visited the Harding area to attempt to locate Blue Swallow nests at sites identified during the surveys which were conducted in September. Nick has also been finishing a proposal to combine IBAs in the Karkloof area with the help of the Karkloof Conservancy. The rest of the week was spent writing IBA texts. Western Cape Dale Wright attended the BirdLife South Africa Western Cape Golden Bird Patron lunch hosted by Gaynor Rupert at L’Ormarins wine farm on Monday, and provided a brief update on the progress of the Western Cape Regional Conservation Programme. Dale and Kevin Shaw, CapeNature’s Ornithologist, met on Tuesday in Stellenbosch to discuss major revisions to the Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas Directory, as well as other potential conservation projects for the Province. On Wednesday a meeting was held with Bruce Baigrie and his academic supervisors at UCT, to discuss progress on his MSc investigating the value of the False Bay Nature Reserve IBA to various communities who utilise the space. Dale spent the remainder of the week drafting, circulating and finalising various IBA directory texts for the Western and Eastern Cape, as well as sitting in on a planning meeting for the Verlorenvlei Protected Areas Project. On Saturday Dale gave a talk at the regional AGM of the Field Guides Association of South Africa, reflecting on the differences and similarities in his conservation work previously in Tanzania and now in South Africa. Verlorenvlei Samantha Schroder started the week with numerous desktop tasks including: assisting the Verlorenvlei Estuary Management Forum with the design of an information brochure for Verlorenvlei; updating the management plan for the proposed Moutonshoek Protected Environment; editing the Moutonshoek Landowners Constitution; working on the progress report for WWF Green Trust and following up with the landowners in Moutonshoek regarding the signing of MoUs. On Wednesday Samantha attended the Verlorenvlei Estuary Management Forum and assisted the chairman with secretarial duties and presented a progress report on the Verlorenvlei Protected Area Project. Unfortunately there was lower attendance than normal due to the end of year meeting overload and a number of meetings happening on the same day. The Sandveld EMF (Environmental Management Framework) Reference Group meeting was held on Thursday. This was a very informative gathering, where they presented a synopsis of the progress of the project so far as well as the challenges faced by the project. On Friday a project management skype meeting was held with Dale Wright and Philippa Huntly. Grassland Environmental Education Project On Monday Kristi Garland completed her annual appraisal with Daniel Marnewick. On Wednesday Kristi attended the Gert Sibande Environmental Health Departments Awareness Day in eSizameleni together with the Working on Fire team. The aim of the day was to look at the various forms of pollution in the community and the impact thereof on the wetland and associated biodiversity. Kristi was asked to present a talk on the impact of waste on wetlands and specifically on birds. The focus was on how each community member could make a difference. She also met with the local Youth Centre to discuss a potential recycling programme in eSizameleni, following on from the Wakkerstroom Centre’s programme. SPECIAL PROJECTS PROGRAMME Martin Taylor spent three days in Maputo, Mozambique, working with AACEM staff on the wrapping up of the CEPF project. He also held a Skype call with Ademola Ajagbe regarding a visit to Maputo in December where Ademola will be presenting a workshop on IBA monitoring as well as engaging with AACEM regarding their development within the BirdLife partnership. Some time was spent working on the logistics behind a waterbird survey at Umhlatuze Estuary as well as iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal. Martin completed work on several human resource related documents on behalf of BirdLife Zimbabwe. Bryony van Wyk completed further work on the draft layout of the State of the Nation’s Bird Report in preparation for a progress meeting with Tris Allinson and Ian Burfield on 1 December. Martin attended a Golden Bird Patron event at the Oyster Box hotel, KwaZulu-Natal. WAKKERSTROOM CENTRE The Wakkerstroom Centre has seen guests in and out this week, and Lucky Ngwenya has been out in field on an almost full time basis. He is almost fully booked for the December period. Daphne Pyott has been fielding accommodation enquiries for both the December period as well as into 2015. It has been great to see regular guests returning to the Centre. Kristi Garland met with the Working on Fire Regional Manager regarding plans for 2015 as well as a few team members’ logistics. Two of the team attended the provincial sports day in Nelspruit this week. All 21 fire-fighters participated in a door-to-door awareness programme this week in eSizameleni; Kristi assisted them in preparing for this activity. On Friday, Kristi attended the Wakkerstroom Tourism Association’s breakfast meeting. The main focus of the meeting was to start planning for 2015, as well as discuss the “add on” activities that could have potential in Wakkerstroom. On the recycling side, the following are totals for the year thus far: paper 590 kg, glass 1143 kg, metal/tin 108 kg and plastic 455 kg. EVENTS Three Golden Bird Patron events were held during the past week: L’Ormarins (Franschhoek), Oysterbox (Durban) and Ritrovo (Pretoria). Birding Big Day was held on Saturday, and it seems as if there was extensive participation. The Vote for South Africa’s Favourite Bird poll was launched on 50/50 on Sunday. HEAD OFFICE Mark Anderson and Tanya Caldwell met with Woolworths to discuss the sale of African Birdlife magazine in its stores. Patrick Seager, Plascon’s CSI Manager, visited BirdLife South Africa’s head office on Thursday. On Thursday, Mark was interviewed on flamingos and Vote for South Africa’s Favourite Bird by People’s Weather, chaired the Council for Africa Partnership fundraising meeting, and met with Garden Shop. The monthly Marketing Committee meeting was held on Friday. Regards Mark Mark D. Anderson Chief Executive Officer
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 10:55:03 +0000
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