Conservation

Rhinos are increasingly appearing in the media due to the relentless and brutal onslaught against them that is driven by greed and the ridiculous belief that they hold miraculous cures against a number of diseases. Sadly, they are only one of countless species under threat, with crimes against wildlife listing in the top three of global crimes and falling just below illicit arms and drug dealing.  

Veteran of a previous ‘rhino war’, Dr Ian Player has a special connection with these charismatic animals and is following efforts to combat poaching with great interest.

This world respected conservationist has valuable insights into how we can tackle the current crisis, and shares them with Africa Geographic’s Rachel Lang.

Cousin Island is a special nature reserve, in the Seychelles, managed by Nature Seychelles. Wildlife and conservation photographer Peter Chadwick had the privilege of spending some time working on Cousin Island recently. 

In today’s society there is much debate about the importance of protecting the environment and deciding how best to restore critical areas to their natural state.

Cousin Island stands out as a global conservation leader, demonstrating that it is possible and that the benefits are well worth it.

As someone who has a passion for marine conservation, Peter Chadwick is always on the look out for innovative ideas to reduce our negative impacts on the oceans. One of his biggest bugbears is the amount of fishing line that gets irresponsibly discarded along our coastlines.

This line is non-bidigradable and can last for hundreds of years, entangling and snaring reef systems, marine mammals and birds and causing any entangled wildlife to suffer an unnecessary slow and often painful death. 

Since being the general manager at De Hoop Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area, wildlife and conservation photographer, Peter Chadwick has kept a close eye on the fish tagging project that has been ongoing in the De Hoop Marine Protected Area for over 25 years. The project is the largest of its kind in the world, having tagged and released well over 50 000 fish.

The information that has been gathered from this project has helped researchers determine the movement patterns of many inshore fish species and has helped with the setting of line-fish management strategies for South Africa.

Estuaries are among some of our most important coastal ecological features and rank along with tropical rainforests and coral reefs as the world's most productive ecosystems – they are even more productive than both the rivers and the ocean that influence them from either side. Estuaries are a transition zone where fish, birds and animals of all sorts congregate to feed, find refuge, grow to adulthood, and stage migrations. They are unique places, strongly affected by tidal action, where land and river and sea merge into a dynamic natural complex.

The seventh black rhino population established by the WWF Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, was recently released after an epic 1500 kilometre trip across the country. 19 of the critically endangered animals were moved from the Eastern Cape to a new location in Limpopo province.

The iSimangaliso Wetland Park is truly one of those magical places that has it all – from deep ocean gorges and coral reefs through to the salt and freshwater marshes, forested dunes, mangroves and the drier woodland interior which abounds with a rich variety of game species, from the crashing roar of waves, that started their journey in the deep ocean, to the stillness and peacefulness of the forest interior, from the kaleidoscope of colour on the tropical reefs through to the drab winter bushveld - What more can one ask for as a destination into what has to be one of Africa’s Great Game Reserves.

The Cape Floristic Kingdom (CFK) is situated in the southern tip of South Africa and stretches from Niewoudville in the north across to Port Elizabeth in the east. Oceans bound it to the south and west and the arid Karoo to the north and east. It covers only 90 000 square kilometres, but contains the highest diversity of plant life in the world. It is a “hotspot” of biodiversity with over 8500 species of plants, which occupy only 0.5% of the African continent, but encompasses 20% of the total plant species. Five of South Africa’s six biomes are found within its borders.

Our oceans are critical to our very existence; it’s a simple matter of healthy oceans- healthy people.

"Halt the sale of De Beers operations until they fix our area", says Cape West Coast community.
The imminent sale of De Beers' diamond mining operations on the Cape West Coast must be halted until full disclosure and proper consultation with all affected parties has taken place, says the community of Hondeklipbaai.

What does this mean and what are their benefits?
“By 2050 all commercial fish stocks in our ocean will be extinct”
“60% of our coral reefs are expected to be lost by 2030 if present rates of decline continue”