Don Yunnie
7 Chalet Drive, Hilton, 3245, South Africa Local Tel & Fax (033) 343 1534
Int. Tel & Fax (+2733) 343 1534 cell 082 377 7562, E-mail dyunnie@xsinet.co.za
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Dear friends and colleagues,
The International Ranger Federation (IRF) and IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) call for nominations for the prestigious
YOUNG CONSERVATIONIST AWARD
The award aims to recognize and raise awareness of the outstanding contributions made to the management of protected areas, and leadership shown, by young conservationists. It also seeks to encourage young professionals and help them develop networks by inviting winners to join WCPA.
Nominations/applications are invited for/from: young people working in conservation and actively managing protected areas. This includes all people working in protected areas, such as (but not limited to) rangers, interpreters, people working with local communities, policy makers, scientists, and, includes people working for government agencies, the private sector, non-government organizations, local communities, etc.
Nominations/applications must be submitted for/by:
The young professional’s work must show:
The Young Conservationist Award Review Panel will judge the degree to which the candidate demonstrates:
Applications should be sent preferably via e-mail to:
Djinn Pourkiani
Programme on Protected Areas
The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Rue Mauverney 28
Gland, CH-1196, Switzerland
Phone: + 41 (22) 999-0161
Fax: + 41 (22) 999 0025
E-mail: djinn.pourkiani@iucn.org
Deadline for submissions: 28 April, 2008
David Zeller
President
International Ranger Federation
David Sheppard
Head, Programme on Protected Areas
The World Conservation Union (IUCN)
For more information on the
International Ranger Federation (www.int-ranger.net) , World Commission on Protected Areas (www.iucn.org/wcpa)
--- Media Release: South African National Parks Responds to Reports Against Auction of 50 White Rhino, Date: 2008-02-19 Today South African National Parks (SANParks) responded to statements that have been made through the media regarding the possible auction of 50 rhino by representatives of Campaign Against Canned Hunting.
“It must be made clear that SANParks has not announced the auction of the 50 white rhinos but has rather called for expressions of interest from possible buyers”, said Dr Hector Magome, Managing Executive of Conservation Services.
“We find it ironic that the first objections against this sale were purported to be on the grounds of “flooding the market” and therefore providing competition to the private sector and yet the objections that appear in the media are based on assumptions that animals that are sold in auctions end up being hunted,” said Dr Magome.
“Allegations against SANParks auctioning rhinos for hunting are rather in poor taste and preposterous. SANParks has committed in the past and still commits today to ensuring that known violators of the law in as far as the hunting of wildlife is concerned would be barred from purchasing any of our animals on auction. It is the role of law enforcement agencies to prosecute offenders.”
“SANParks would also like to draw the attention of the public to the fact that hunting is not an illegal activity in South Africa and to also state that as a state organ we will not allow anyone to use the organisation in discrediting a legal activity which has been sanctioned through proper legislative processes. However, SANParks made a policy decision not to allow hunting in National Parks.”
“It should be made abundantly clear that SANParks does not regulate hunting in the country and any protests about hunting, canned or otherwise, should be directed to the relevant authorities. Individuals who have approached SANParks have been informed of this as and we hope they will do the right thing.”
The Board of SANParks approved the sale of wildlife, specifically high value species, in 1997. The reasons informing this decision were that funds raised from the sales would be channeled into a Park Development Fund (PDF) that would assist in expanding the National Parks system.
Further to this, the decision by the Board, was also informed by the fact that though white rhino are a listed species for South Africa, they are not endangered species. From a founding population of 100 in the early 1900s and reintroduction in the KNP in the 1960s, the population has grown to over 5,000 in KNP alone and over 12,000 in the country. This number excludes white rhino that has been exported to other countries and removed by other means.
“The PDF funds are used to purchase new land to be incorporated to the National Parks system as well as other high value species which are rare. So far the PDF has contributed some 500,000ha of land since its establishment.”
South Africa has committed to increasing the land under conservation to 8%, from the current 6%, by 2011. Currently state land under conservation is about 7,000,000ha, with National Parks constituting 4,000,000ha of the total. Therefore, another 3,000,000ha of land is needed by the state in order to meet the meet target. Registered Private Game reserves have some 20,000,000ha of land under conservation, a phenomenal contribution to the country’s conservation efforts.
The sale of white rhino for improving the National Parks system is a perfectly legitimate exercise and SANParks may only review its decision to go ahead with the sale if there is extenuating evidence which may lead us to the conclusion that our rhinos may be used in illegal or illicit activities.
Issued: Corporate Communications, South African National Parks
Inquiries: Head of Communications, Wanda Mkutshulwa,
Phone: 012 426 5201/5170, Fax: 012 426 5501
--- South Africa in the dark about global warming, February 12, 2008 Edition 1
It is tragic but understandable that South African society ranks - with the United States and China - at the bottom of a recent worldwide climate-consciousness survey by polling firm Global Scan: only 45% of us believe global warming is a "serious problem".
Latin Americans rank above 80%, and Europeans near 70%, while the US's consciousness is at 48% and China's is at 39%.
It is understandable that we have been kept in the dark, because even in the midst of the worst national energy crisis in South Africa's living memory, the simple act of questioning who abuses our coal-burning power generators is off the agenda. Instead, to get a meagre conservation reduction of 40MW, energy minister Buyelwa Sonjica tells us: "Switch off all lights in the home when not in use and go to sleep early so that you can grow."
Critics rightly call this a trivialising blame-the-victim game, whose broader aim appears to be distracting attention from those who are most to blame: the government and crony corporations like BHP Billiton.
In a presentation he delivered to big business on January 21, Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga bragged that at $0.03 (23c) per kiloWatt hour for industrial customers after 2007 increases, his prices still remained competitive.
That's the understatement of the year, given that US electricity is three times and Danish electricity eight times more expensive than what the average firm here pays.
South African households pay more than double the industrial rate; with BHP Billiton trying to take over Rio Tinto, which is taking over Alcan, Eskom's smelter incentive at Coega will offer even cheaper power, less than $0.02 (15c) per kWh.
So it is not surprising - though something of a secret from the public - that measured by carbon dioxide emissions per unit of per-person economic output, South Africa emits 20 times more carbon dioxide than the US. That's correct: Our economy's carbon intensivity is 20 times worse than that of that Great Climate Satan, the US.
Smelters
Although most electricity consumers, the service industries, manufacturers and some gold mines have taken a hit, it appears that the foreign-owned electricity-guzzling aluminium smelters have been untouched by the crisis. According to business journalist Mathabo le Roux: "For the duration of the power cuts, BHP Billiton's Bayside, Hillside and Mozal smelters received their full electricity complement - a formidable 2 500MW."
The smelters' consumption of electricity is hedonistic; their metals prices are 10% higher for local consumers than for international markets; they employ only a few hundred workers; their profit streams go to Melbourne; and their employees have, in the past decade, included former finance minister Derek Keys, former Eskom treasurer Mick Davis, and former national electricity regulator Xolani Mkhwanazi.
That wide a revolving door with the state tells you something about what academics term "captive regulation".
What's worse, these men are having the party, they are making the carbon dioxide mess, and now they hope to profit from the main Kyoto Protocol clean-up strategy, which is known as "carbon trading".
Recall that in 1997 at the Kyoto negotiations, US vice-president Al Gore told delegates that in exchange for adopting carbon trading as a central climate strategy, Washington would adopt the treaty - but US support never materialised.
Instead of cutting emissions at the rate we need to avoid climate disaster, large foreign corporations like BHP Billiton are taking advantage of Gore's gimmick.
Big greenhouse gas polluters have, in effect, been given trillions of dollars in historic property rights to keep polluting, so long as they gain an overall cap in emissions and kickstart the trade in clean air.
Interviewed by Responsible Investor magazine last October, financier George Soros ridiculed this approach: "The cap and trade system of emissions trading is very difficult to control and its effects are diluted. It is pretty much breaking down because there is no penalty for developing countries not to add to their pollution."
According to Newsweek magazine's investigation of third world carbon trading - through the clean development mechanism - last March: "It isn't working . . . (and represents) a grossly inefficient way of cutting emissions in the developing world."
The magazine called the clean development mechanism trade "a shell game" which has transferred "$3 billion (R23.4 billion) to some of the worst carbon polluters in the developing world."
Lacking an emissions cap at present, South African policymakers like former environmental minister and Eskom chairman Valli Moosa - who now makes money from the clean-development-mechanism trade (not only through conflict-of-interest-ridden ANC-Eskom deals) - were wooed by big capital and strongly support the mechanism as primarily a "commercial opportunity", as the 2004 climate policy paper put it.
Encouraged by Moosa, South African cities generated a variety of clean development mechanism projects - some attractive, like energy retrofitting in Khayelitsha township, but some dreadful, like keeping open Durban's vast Bisasar Road dump so as to extract more methane - whose overall effect will exacerbate not solve the climate crisis.
Throughout the electricity crisis, big smelting companies are protected with reliable supply and the world's cheapest electricity; and throughout the climate crisis, the government is negotiating hard on behalf of big capital so they receive a lucrative property right to pollute, which they can then trade for more profit.
In Durban, Sajida Khan fought carbon trading before her death by cancer last July.
Struggles
There are similar struggles in many parts of the world, generating a wholly different strategy and demand by civil society activists: leave the oil in the soil and the resources in the ground.
In my own neighbourhood, which includes two of Africa's largest oil refineries, the South Durban Community and Environmental Alliance mobilises strenuously against corporate and municipal environmental crime, including three explosions and fires since September and a massive fish kill.
The highest-stake cases in South Africa at present are the vast Limpopo platinum fields and the titanium and other minerals in the Wild Coast dunes.
Communities are resisting multinational corporations, but will need vigorous solidarity, because the extraction of these resources is extremely costly in terms of local land use, peasant displacement, water extraction, energy consumption and political corruption.
The recent Bali conference featured an alternative movement-building component outside the main jamboree, a Climate Justice Now! coalition, which criticised carbon trading and called for genuine solutions.
These included "reduced consumption; huge financial transfers from North to South based on historical responsibility and ecological debt for adaptation and mitigation costs paid for by redirecting military budgets, innovative taxes and debt cancellation; leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy; rights-based resource conservation that enforces indigenous land rights and promotes peoples' sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water; and sustainable family farming and peoples' food sovereignty".
As our climate consciousness hopefully rises to levels found in politically-alive societies, we should take advantage of renewed attention to electricity justice, to ask why the big, well-connected smelting and energy firms get such an insanely good deal from politicians who claim to be building a "developmental state" - not merely crony capitalism.
• Patrick Bond is director of the UKZN Centre for Civil Society and co-editor of the recent UKZN Press book Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society.
--- Greenwashing
What is Greenwashing? Well everyone has heard the expression “whitewashing”, which is defined as “a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts, especially in a political context.” ‘Greenwashing’ is similar, but has an environmental context. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush.
A brand new website, www.greenwashingindes.com, is now set to evaluate the green marketing claims of manufacturers and suppliers trying to align themselves with the ‘real’ green industries.
Launched at last November’s Global Climate Change Conference in Bali, the website was created through a partnership between the US-based EnviroMedia Social Marketing and the advertising faculty of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. The site invites consumers to post advertisements and then offers their own assessments of the credibility of the message.
“It’s greenwashing when a company or organisation spends more time and money claiming to be ‘green’ through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimise environmental impact,” says University of Oregon’s Dr Deborah Morrison.
“A classic example might be an energy company that runs an advertising campaign touting a ‘green’ technology they’re working on – but that ‘green’ technology represents only a sliver of the company’s otherwise not-so-green business,” she explains.
“Or a hotel chain that calls itself ‘green’ because it allows guests to choose to sleep on the same sheets and reuse towels, but actually does very little to save water in the gardens or install energy saving lighting. Or a bank that’s suddenly ‘green’ because you can conduct your finances online,” explains Morrison.
Why is this all so important? In 2005, a US poll discovered that 42% of Americans are willing to pay more for products labelled ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘organic’. As such, environmentally conscious consumers are reshaping the US marketplace in their desire to buy everything from lipstick to lemons packaged with marketing that suggests the product is somehow healthier for your family and/or kinder to the planet.
“We’ve been witnessing a tidal wave of green advertising over the past year,” said EnviroMedia President Kevin Tuerff (www.usnews.com). “It’s our hope the Greenwashing Index will help eradicate bad environmental marketing claims and, at the same time, shed a positive light on companies making measurable reductions in carbon emissions related to climate change.”
Already there are victims. In a November 2007 study entitled The Six Deadly Sins of Greenwashing (www.terrachoice.com), researchers found 1 753 environmental claims on 1 018 common products found in a US chain store. The claims were categorised into six categories, which ranged from vagueness, fibbing or no proof to ‘the hidden trade-off’.
Green consumers in South Africa are only just beginning to question greenwashing in local adverts. Are local businesses that incorporate ‘green’ marketing in their adverts ready for judgement day?
Taken from the Editorial, SA Gardening, March 2008
--- Rest camp should not be allowed
RE: Cleft Stick 21 of 2005
Dear Mr Yunnie
Many years ago I picked up your information about the impending development proposals in the Agulhas National Park at Pietie se Punt and have, since then, been trying to get hold of information on what is going on. Anyway, despite all efforts, SANParks has again chosen to ignore the public participation process and have steamrollered ahead with their plans to rape and destroy a pristine area.
I don’t know if there is anything anyone can do about alerting the public or anyone in authority to such misappropriation of public funds and our natural heritage, but I wrote a few letters and thought I would let you know too. Perhaps you can send it so anyone you know who might have some sort of clout?
The Pietjie se Punt site is just so inappropriate for a rest camp - it is an unspoiled, and beautiful site, with no existing infrastructure or road access, and as such should be preserved and maintained in this state for posterity. A massive new road (2-and a half km minimum) would have to be built through pretty much pristine dune fynbos (a few scars from past uncontrolled 4x4 activity that is recovering well), water piped from far away as there is no water anywhere near there, electricity brought in, sewage and waste disposal would impact on the site, and the many other evils of development - even the most sensitively executed one - would impact negatively on this fragile area of limestone fynbos.
There are many other areas - most notably at the southern tip or close to it - that are already impacted by humans, have an existing infrastructure, would mean more to tourists coming to the southernmost tip of Africa, and would be close to amenities and therefore good for local trade. Why they are targeting this wild and remote place I cant imagine. It is in easy walking distance along the beach for anyone who appreciates the incredible sense of wilderness that you get there.
I attach my letter to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.
Yours sincerely
Caroline Voget,
20 Avery Ave,
Constantia,
Cape Town 7806.
Info: http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2008/08021815451001.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: voget
To: raucamp@deat.gov.za
Cc: ministry@deat.gov.za
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 4:02 PM
Subject: An assault on our biodiversity!
RE: Statement by the office of Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on 18 February 2008 that the appeals lodged against the department's decision to grant an environmental authorization for the construction of a rest camp in the Agulhas National Park be overthrown.
Dear Mr van Schalkwyk
I am shocked and disappointed that you, in your capacity of Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, have discarded the wise council and heartfelt pleas by environmental groups and individuals to reconsider the sighting of a rest camp in the Agulhas National Park at 'Pietjie se Punt' near Cape Agulhas. This is an insane idea to wreck what is an indescribably beautiful and wild place at the southern tip of Africa - one of very few places left on our much degraded coastline that has no road access to bring destructive humans and their litter, waste and sewage, no water pipelines or electricity cables to upset the natural balance of nature, in fact absolutely no 'development' save for an old abandoned building and a ruined old shack, both once used for recreational fishing expeditions.
The attitude of SANParks in this regard is so reminiscent of the kragdadige tactics of the former nationalist-driven Parks Board, that I wonder why they even bother to go through a 'public response' charade when they are going to ignore all reason anyway.
There is a unique, beautiful, natural rock pool the size of a lagoon - surely it must be one of the natural wonders of out coastline? And the custodians of our natural heritage want to destroy it all. Can't you do something to stop this? Even the most environmentally sensitive construction will just mess it up forever.
For God's sake - it has just been given a reprieve from the 4 x 4s that used to crunch through the oystercatchers, the strandloper middens and fragile dune flora! And I thought that it was safe from development in a national park!
There are so many other sites for rest camps in the immediate vicinity; areas that already have an infrastructure and a road. Even the tip of Africa itself would be a better bet, and is an area that is impacted upon by tourists already and is crying out for "improvements". Why on earth do these insensitive and deluded decision-makers in SANParks want to muck up a beautiful wilderness area, which is already under threat from climate change and rising seawaters, when there are so many other options in places with an existing infrastructure? Over-inflated egos perhaps? Just thinking of the construction of a "70-bed rest camp" (and presumably many more beds for staff) and all the accompanying human impacts including a "convenience store"(!), road access, telephone cables and sewage management in this pristine, fragile, yet amazingly biodiverse area makes we want to cry. Have SANParks no idea of the meaning of "a sense of place"?
And another thing - I wonder if the decision makers have even spent much time there? Have you ever been there? It is one of the wildest and windiest places in South Africa with weather that will absolutely flatten tourists, and force them to get into cars and go driving over the very expensively produced 2 and a half kms of newly built road through the once pristine dunes that support an endangered limestone fynbos vegetation, to look for entertainment in the nearby towns. Anything rather than hunkering down for days on end in the teeth of the famous winds and storms that pummel this coast.
(The old building at Pietjie se Punt would be infinitely better suited to being a trail hut than an "eight-bed accommodation unit" for pampered tourists. It is meters from the loudest pounding surf that I have ever heard and is continually blasted with windblown sea-sand! Recently a great log washed up in high seas, nearly knocking right into the front of the house - see my accompanying photo.)
Shame on you! Future generations will not think much of this decision.
Yours sincerely
Caroline Voget,
20 Avery Ave,
Constantia,
Cape Town 7806.
PS: I attach photos to illustrate my point, all taken by me.
1. The unique natural rock pool, the blue lagoon, with the building at Pietjie se Punt in the background. Agulhas National Park.
2. The log that was washed up right to the door of the building at Pietjie se Punt in high seas three years ago.
3 Pietjie se Punt from the Suiderstrand side, with the Soet Anysberg in the distance. Wild, wonderful, remote and soon to be messed up by the so-called custodians of our natural heritage and biodiversity.
The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
3 Pietjie se Punt from the Suiderstrand side - Soet Anysberg in distance.
I have not attached the photos in the interest of saving bandwidth – it you want to see them give me a shout – ed
--- What's New with the US Forest Service International Programs?
US Forest Service International Programs invites you to visit our website for the latest activities:
? The International Programs newsletter, Global Leaflet, is now available online and in hard copy. This latest issue focuses on disaster and how the Forest Service's longstanding experience with wildfire response enables it to work with other countries in responding to or in mitigating their own disasters. View http://www.fs.fed.us/global/news/ to peruse this newsletter.
? Also available online is information on the 2008 international seminars, which are intensive and interactive workshops for natural resources professionals from around the world. These seminars include: watershed management, forest and natural resources administration and management, and protected area management. A field course on protected area management, conducted in Spanish, will also take place this year. View http://www.fs.fed.us/global/is to explore the various international seminars.
? In the What's New section of our website (http://www.fs.fed.us/global/wsnew/), one can read about the latest activities from International Programs, including
--- INVITATION FROM SWC
Dear All
Please join us for a networking session in Port Edward.
This will be an informal gathering where we hope various stakeholders in the ‘Wild Coast Story’ can share thoughts, concerns and ideas.
We hope this will also provide SWC an opportunity to hear about any projects in the area that are unfamiliar to us, and that we can share with you some of the community initiatives that SWC has undertaken over the past year, as well as to engage with various community leaders, and to share idea’s on the way forward to a sustainable Wild Coast future.
DATE – SATURDAY 15 MARCH 2008, TIME – 2.30 PM, VENUE – CLEARWATER, PORT EDWARD
Directions from Durban:
Travel approx 170kms on the N2 South Coast (which becomes the R61 from Port Shepstone) towards Port Edward.
At the 4-way junction with traffic lights (left to Port Edward), turn RIGHT and travel 5.5kms on the tar road sign posted to ‘Izingolweni’.
You will pass the turn off to the Old Pont Rd (opp. Banners Rest Bottle Store, the Space Centre (on right) and Beaver Creek Coffee Estate (on left).
Turn LEFT onto the D595 (dirt road) – sign posted (Coastals Co-Op will be on your right as you turn).
Travel 2km to end of road. At the split in the road turn RIGHT and follow driveway to CABINS & TRAILS.
PLEASE STAY ON FOR A BRAAI AFTERWARDS. Braai packs will be on sale, and salad and rolls provided. (Bring your own drinks.)
Please RSVP for braai for catering purposes. swcoastval@gmail.com or tel 083 4416961
--- Ranger Badges
Hi
My name is Andre Desjardins, I’m a wildlife protection officer in the province of Quebec, Canada,
I collect uniform patches from the wildlife protection officer, ranger, fisheries officer, forest ranger, national park ranger...
Do you have any to trade with me, i have my agency patch to trade with you...
you can see my collection at this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andred584/sets
thanks to answer me
have a good day
André Desjardins, Québec, Canada
--- Tailpiece
Why men don't write advice columns......
Dear Peter:
I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't gone more than a mile down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help. When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was in the bedroom with a neighbour lady making passionate love to her. I am 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that he'd been having an affair for the past six months.
I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was retrenched from his job some six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don't feel I can get through to him anymore.
Can you please help?
Sincerely,
Mrs. Sheila Usk
Dear Sheila:
A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber.
I hope this helps.
Best regards
Peter