Hi again,
Herewith, some snippets from various sources.
I appeal to you to send me items to distribute to our members for the Cleft Stick, the Game Ranger magazine and to be posted on the web site. These are your magazines and website, so ensure it gets the news that you would like to see in it.
Please let me have any changes to your physical address, phone no. or e-mail address to keep the database up to date. Remember this is the address we will send your Game Ranger Magazine to.
Thanks to all of you who have made the effort. Please will any of you who know of members who do not get this “electric” Cleft~Stick, & have access to e-mail, pass their address along to me.
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
If you do not wish to receive this e-mail newsletter please send a blank e-mail to me at the above address with the word “Unsubscribe” as the message heading.
Please feel free to write to express your views on the content or the subject of any of the articles in this magazine – to the address above.
GRAA Annual General Meeting Minutes
Held at Shamvura, Caprivi on Thursday 19th February 2009
Start at 11:00
Present
See attached list
Apologies
See attached list
Domestic arrangements
Declaration of vested interests - none declared
As everyone had assembled, the Chair asked that the meeting be opened 15 minutes before time. He then declared the meeting open.
Corrections to previous Minutes - no corrections were raised
Confirmation of Minutes - The previous minutes were proposed by Arrie Schreiber and seconded by Cedric Dallas
An Annual Report booklet was made available to members, including all of the portfolio reports.
Matters Arising
Strategic planning meeting – covered in Chair report
Patron – covered in Chair report – members were asked to think about other possible names for our Patron
Chairman’s Report-back
AB
See Andrè Botha’s report – a minute’s silence was requested to remember passed members.
Applause for Drummond Densham & Janet Snow for their management of the Finances portfolio
Points raised from Andrè Botha’s report
Portfolio report back
MS
Mission Statement – modified description of the Game Ranger’s profession was read out and approved by the floor. Jim Feely commented that in the past we used to do all the mentioned tasks! This issue was put to the vote - 30 for – unanimous
MS
Membership categories – floor approved the abolition of the Associate category and current Associates will all be included in Member category in future.
MS
Student category of membership also approved.
Committee members – as Drummond Densham was not standing for another term, a vote was taken and Sandra Basson was elected to the committee, and Nic Funda was co-opted. Sandra was welcomed to the Africa Committee.
Conservation Issues
Rhino poaching – info requested by Dr. I C Player so as to give international press coverage of the abuse of the hunting permit system and the upsurge in rhino poaching. Any information should be emailed to Dr Ian Player at icplayer@eastcoast.co.za
ICP
GRAA Profile
GRAA 40th anniversary – details can be found in the annual report
DD
Membership
Portfolio Report-back – details can be found in the annual report
DY
Joining fees and Membership fees increase - DY proposed that membership fees be increased to R200.00 per annum. He gave some background costs. This was approved by the floor. It was also explained that we would waive the existing joining fee.
Student category - this was discussed briefly and Africa Committee mandated to finalise a tariff
Finance
Portfolio Report-back
DD
Financial report 2007 – signed copy as approved at last years meeting was available for scrutiny.
DD
Financial report 2008 – John Turner took the meeting through this document and highlighted some of the more important achievements. There were no queries raised. Timing of the financial year end was discussed but it was felt that Feb was the most suitable time to hold the AGM and that the financials must be ready by then. It was possible to move the financial yearend to October. Malcolm Taylor stated that auditors were happy to move it earlier so that they had less pressure on their staff during the festive season. Cedric Dallas asked that this report be published on the web site. If it is possible to move the payment for the Golf Day back from 1 Dec to Nov this will clarify those expenses.
RP
SB JS
Fundraising
Portfolio Report-back – details can be found in the annual report
JT
Communications and Media
Portfolio Report-back – details can be found in the annual report
Game Ranger – Paul Phelan has asked that members contribute articles to the editor – he cannot write the entire magazine himself!
PP
Brochure – we still have a supply
DY
Cleft Stick – as in 9.7.2. above
DY
Website – Ron Physick was thanked for his continuing valuable contribution.
DY
Marketing & Promotions
Portfolio report back
GG
Trading & Business
Portfolio Report-back – details can be found in the annual report JO
Vehicle magnetic decals – a vote was taken to see what size members wanted and what cost members were prepared to pay. Ron Physick undertook to investigate an alternative supplier. Most popular request was for 20cm, which will cost +/- R50.00 ea
JO
RP
Training & Projects
Portfolio Report-back see Arrie Schreiber /Craig Hay report. R1.1M pledged annually over 5 years by Liberty Wildlife Foundation for training.
AB/AS
Youth
Portfolio Report-back – see Marius Fuls report
MF
Africa region reports
Angola
Botswana
DRC
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Mozambique
Namibia - new Chair John Kasaona was congratulated on his appointment. He undertook to spread the word and form a group.
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia – William Soko has been transferred out of Lower Zambezi Park
Regional Report-back
Eastern Cape
Free State – Mornè Pretorius was congratulated on his appointment to the Chair.
KZN – see BH report
Lowveld – see RS report
Western Cape
AGM
Portfolio report back
Approval of arrangements
A list of past AGM venues was handed to Jim Feely who undertook to check it for accuracy.
JF
Awards
Awards will be made to the following
New national park unveiled in Knysna
6 March 2009, 10:23
A Garden Route National Park (GRNP) has been established in Knysna, the Department of Environmental Affairs said on Friday.
The 121 000 hectare GRNP will consist of about 52 500 hectares of newly proclaimed land, as well as 68 500 hectares of the Wilderness and Tsitsikamma National Parks.
The individual parks will retain their identity and become camps in the greater GRNP, known as Tsitsikamma and Wilderness.
"The establishment of the new GRNP is part of a long term strategy to expand the protected areas in South Africa under formal protection from six percent to eight percent of the total area of the country," said Environmental Affairs Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk in a statement.
"As our parks are some of our most important conservation and tourism assets, we have been steadily increasing spending on parks."
The department had invested R411-million in park infrastructure and a further R245-million is being earmarked.
Other financial assistance had increased from R85,6-million in 2004/2005 to R205-million in 2009/2010.
Van Schalkwyk said the Garden Route was an important conservation area and an attractive tourist destination.
"The diverse biomes in the Garden Route include indigenous forests, the Knysna estuary, the Wilderness lake areas, marine protected areas, lowland fynbos and mountain catchment areas of national importance.
"The new National Park is unique, as its administrative and ecological boundaries vary considerably. In this context, multi-stakeholder partnerships will be instrumental to successful conservation management," he said. - Sapa
AGM Reminder (Again)
This is a reminder that all of you who are planning to attend the AGM in February (16 – 20th) must make your bookings by 25th January 2009, so that hire of tents, equipment etc. and the catering can be finalized. Please discuss with colleagues, and plan to share transport. If you will have a spare seat or two in your vehicle, let us know as soon as possible and we can advertise here in the Cleft Stick for you. All non-Namibian bookings should be made via me, and all Namibian bookings directly with Charlie Paxton at Shamvura. If you have mislaid the AGM information, it is on the website and in Cleft Stick 19 or, failing that, let me know and I will send it to you again.
Worldwide Coverage of Protected Areas
According to IUCN/WCPA data, as of 2007, there were 106,000 protected areas covering some 18 million km2, or about 11.63% of the Earth‘s surface. While estimates of marine areas under protection are complicated because country reports may contain some land area, best estimates as of 2007 were that there were 4,435 marine protected areas covering 2.35 million km2, or only about .65% of the ocean surface. Particularly alarming from those figures was the fact that critical marine ecosystems were severely under-represented.
Overall, however, significant progress has been made in growth of protected areas over the past decade. IUCN records show that in 1962 there were 9214 sites covering 2.4 million km2. By 1992 these figures had grown to 48,388 protected areas covering 12.3 million km2. As of 2003, the UN List of Protected Areas (the most recent issue at this writing) contained 102,102 protected areas covering more than 18.8 million km2, or about 12.65% of the Earth‘s land surface (UN List, 2003, p. 21), notably slightly more than the 2007 in terms of surface coverage but less in terms of numbers. As these data show, growth between 1992 and 2003 was significant, with a doubling by number and surface area. As noted above, 2007 shows further growth in numbers.
Rick Smith
4620 N. Avenida Ronca
Tucson, AZ 85750
Tel: 520-529-7336
Cell: 505-259-7161
rsmith0921@earthlink.net
Five Hippos Are Relocated to Gorongosa National Park
Jan 25, 2009 - Gorongosa National Park
Following the relocation of six adult male elephants in September 2008, from Kruger National Park, Gorongosa National Park introduced five hippos from Isimangaliso Wetland Park in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal on October 7, 2008.
The transfer of the five hippos – one adult male, two adult females, one adolescent female, and one young male – represents the first shipment of a group of 30 hippos offered to GNP by Isimangaliso along the Eastern Coast of South Africa.
According to the Director of the Department of Conservation, Dr. Carlos Lopes Pereira, the remaining hippos will only be introduced after a study shows that these first five hippos can cohabitate peacefully with the Park’s native population of hippos. This waiting period is necessary to ensure that the new hippos do not clash with the native population, as problems among the animals could lead to fatalities.
Hippos play a very important role in the rehabilitation and restoration of the entire Gorongosa ecosystem. In 1972 more than 3,000 hippos were recorded in the Park and in 2007 only 160 were found. Their low numbers are affecting the ecosystem because they keep grasses short and palatable for other herbivores that do not or cannot feed on very long grasses.
Historically the hippo population fed heavily on the grasses of the Urema floodplain. This helps to expand the area that gets flooded during the rainy season, promotes the retention of grassland, and fends off encroaching woodland. Despite spending much time in the water, hippos feed on land. They have muscular lips up to half a meter wide that enable them to graze a broad swath and harvest short grasses. They quickly consume 40 kilograms of grass at night with little noise. Hippos play an important role in the ecosystem, as they create important pathways to water sources for other, smaller animals.
Relocating wild animals, especially hippos, is a delicate operation that is logistically challenging. Because of this, every care was taken in order to ensure the survival of the animals in their new habitat. The process of capture, transport and unloading of the animals generally went smoothly. However, one adult male hippo arrived at the Park with a slight injury. “When we let the animals go along the bank of the Sungué River, in the heart of the Park, we confirmed that one of the hippos had swelling in the left rear hoof. It got off the truck limping and went to submerge in the water, but it’s a minor injury. In fact, two days after unloading, the sick animal was still to be found somewhere near the place it had been unloaded, with progressive improvement of the swollen foot,” Dr. Carlos Lopes Pereira, Director of Conservation Services said.
The four other hippos were all healthy when unloaded and upon leaving the convoy they immediately moved calmly towards their preferred habitat. They drank water and immersed themselves for some minutes before leaving the water to feed on vegetation growing on the other bank of the river. Two days later, the relocation team returned by air to the release zone to confirm that the new hippos had followed the Sungué riverbed towards deeper waters. Presumably they had already joined the larger established group of hippos in Lake Urema.
The hippo relocation is part of the Gorongosa National Park Project’s goal to restore the Gorongosa ecosystem. Hippos, along with other important species, were seriously devastated by civil war and illegal poaching in the years that followed the General Peace Accords. Likewise, introducing hippos with different characteristics will improve the genetic pool of future generations because of genetic mixing that will occur between relocated animals and native hippos.
For more info on Gorongosa or to sign up for their newslette rvisit http://www.gorongosa.net/
Wilderness Conference 1989
Thank you very much for the last issue of Cleft Stick.
Please could you ask your readers:-
Thank you,
Rosanne
Rosanne Clark,
P.O. Box 122,
Himeville 3256
South Africa
+27 (0)33 7021061
+27 (0)82 3596736
Tailpiece
A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn’t seem to be breathing; his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: “Just take it easy. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then, a shot is heard. The guy’s voice comes back on the line. He says: “OK, now what?”