IGNORANCE IS BLISS: THE UNNOTICED IMPACTS OF ENJOYING NATURAL SPACES AND THE ROLE WE ALL NEED TO PLAY IN CONSERVING THEM.
Joshua Weeber, Threatened Amphibian Programme, joshuaw@ewt.org.za Despite our relatively recent urbanised society, most human beings still feel an innate need to immerse themselves in nature. To marvel at the magnitude of mountains, to feel the still, earthy air of a dense forest, to listen to the gentle trickle of a mountain stream – these are experiences that add value to our lives and provide us with space to think and feel. Unfortunately, this growing realisation of our need to interact with nature is mirrored by the disappearance of natural spaces themselves, destroyed mostly by human-related development. What is left are isolated natural spaces under increasing pressure from a growing human population, all searching for the peace that only nature can provide. While the increasing use of wild spaces shows an appreciation for their importance and beauty, nature lovers need to acknowledge the cumulative impacts of our presence in these spaces and ensure we play an active role in preserving them for future generations to enjoy.
One of these spaces is the iconic and popular Table Mountain, a beacon of hope that provides a place to escape the bustling metropolis of the Mother City from which it emerges. Anyone living at the foothills of this mountain will tell you how lucky they are to have access to such a beautiful natural space, close enough for a morning run or an afternoon walk through the forest with the dogs. Looking at the sheer rock walls, endless fynbos slopes, and deep forested gorges, one might wonder how a human could possibly damage this vast mountain system. Walking with a small group of people and their pets barely leaves footprints on the rocky sandstone trail and crossing a clear mountain stream only takes a moment. This reasoning would hold true if there were not close to four million people living in Cape Town who potentially access the mountain frequently. As is often the case, we choose to view our actions in isolation, and in doing so, do not acknowledge the cumulative impact we have on the world around us.
On Table Mountain, paths are used by millions of people every year, and the collective impact of individuals has begun to take a toll. In 2019, a collaborative project was initiated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust to investigate the health of Table Mountain’s perennial streams, with special emphasis on the unique and already Critically Endangered ghost frogs that rely on these streams for survival. While the seemingly larger threats of climate change, water abstraction, and invasive alien plants have also been shown to be important, the impact of path erosion emerged as a key threat to stream health. Simply put, the number of footsteps on paths within the National Park continues to increase, causing paths to widen and deteriorate. In turn, this leads to a larger surface area of exposed and unconsolidated sand transported down paths during winter rains. Problems arise when a path intersects a stream because the eroded sand is swept along the path into the stream itself. These small, rocky streams cannot deal with the abnormal sediment load and clog up, changing the stream structure, which has knock-on effects for stream species and water health. The Critically Endangered Table Mountain Ghost Frog lives in the rocky streams of Table Mountain and is totally dependent on them, occurring nowhere else in the world. Tadpoles of this secretive species spend at least twelve months living in small stream pools before beginning their incredible transformation into adult frogs. They also have very specific requirements as tadpoles and use their specialised sucker mouths to hide and feed under rocks. As paths become eroded, large quantities of sand wash into these sensitive streams, causing the rocky habitat to disappear, lost under a layer of sand and silt. A similar problem can be seen at river crossings where hundreds of feet (and paws) pound over loose rocks each month, compacting the rocky bottom and closing the small yet crucial gaps these tadpoles need to survive and thrive.
The consequences of these impacts are already being felt all over the mountain, and ghost frogs have completely disappeared from one of the nine streams in which they occur, a stream that happens to be a popular hiking and dog-walking location. These sensitive amphibians are the first animals to be affected by habitat alteration, but they will by no means be the last. Their disappearance acts as a warning of what is to come and what these beautiful natural spaces may turn into if we continue to use them without being mindful of our impact.
What is the solution to this growing problem? Is it to prohibit anyone from accessing wild spaces, to ban trail running, picnics and dog walking? Definitely not! These spaces play a crucial role in our lives and contribute to our well-being. We simply need to ensure that we return the favour. We must remind ourselves that our individual, seemingly insignificant actions of stepping on a seedling or dislodging a rock become very significant when repeated hundreds of times by other people. Just as the source of the problem is an accumulation of small, seemingly insignificant steps, so too is the solution. Simple things like being mindful of where you walk, sticking to paths and boardwalks, avoiding already eroded areas, not littering and picking up litter you see, keeping pets out of streams and cleaning up after them, and not collecting or destroying plants can help to mitigate the negative effects of our presence in natural spaces. Organisations responsible for managing these spaces also need to place nature conservation at the centre of their focus, but we must not forget how difficult it is to manage an area with no gates and thousands of visitors, particularly if those visitors refuse to adhere to simple requests like staying off closed paths and sticking to boardwalks.
Ultimately, it is up to the people who use and appreciate these wild spaces to acknowledge that their individual actions do make a difference, both in destroying and preserving nature.
This collaborative project is funded by the Table Mountain Fund, Mohammed bin-Zayed, Whitley Fund for Nature, and Synchronicity Earth, in partnership with the South African National Biodiversity Institute, South African National Parks, the University of Cape Town, and the Freshwater Research Centre
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SCIENCE SNIPPETS:
VULTURE CONSERVATION BENEFITS MORE THAN JUST VULTURES
Vultures are an important component of an effective scavenger guild and have evolved a number of adaptations that allow them to locate and dispose of carcasses quickly and efficiently. (Guilds are groups of species that exploit the same resources.) A recent paper, co-authored by EWT staff*, discusses the ecosystem services provided by vultures and the consequences of the continuing decline of African vultures.
African vultures have evolved several specialisations to deal with their diet and any harmful pathogens that may be present in the carcasses they feed on. They thus play an important role in cleaning up carcasses that could cause disease in other animals, which could then be passed on to humans. The decline of African Vultures threatens the stability of the African scavenger guild, which may result in increased carcass decomposition times and, thus, the more rapid development and spread of harmful bacteria. Their absence may also result in changes in the composition of the vertebrate scavenger guild, with an increase in mammalian scavengers, which may increase the risk of viral disease transmission to humans, livestock, and other wildlife.
The economic value of vultures in terms of the sanitation or clean-up services that they provide has been evaluated for some species or countries outside of Africa (e.g., US$700 million per year for Turkey Vultures). Although they can only be deduced for Africa, they must also be substantial. For example, in East and West Africa, vultures consume up to 100 000 kg of organic waste annually, which aids local communities as they would otherwise have to pay for these services. Although the contribution of vultures to the economics of human health and veterinary care has not yet been quantified in Africa either, efforts to conserve vultures should not be deterred. Rabies is an important example of where the loss of vultures has led to substantial human health costs. 95% of global rabies cases occur in Africa and southeast Asia. In India, human health costs due to the loss of vultures were estimated at US$1.5 billion per year (Ogada et al. 2012) due to the increase in feral dogs and rabies. The authors concluded that:
Vultures play a key role in the maintenance of ecosystem health. However, the implications of the decline of African vultures are not yet fully understood and require urgent investigation. Nevertheless, there is enough anecdotal and circumstantial evidence to warrant their urgent protection. It is estimated that the ecological and human health benefits provided by vultures far outweighs the cost of their conservation. The restoration of vulture populations and the ecosystem services they provide will benefit the welfare of all humans, but particularly those who are most vulnerable to economic instability and the spill over of disease at the human-wildlife-livestock interface.
*van den Heever L, LJ. Thompson, WW. Bowerman, H Smit-Robinson, LJ Shaffer, RM Harrell and MA Ottinger. 2021. Reviewing the Role of Vultures at the Human-Wildlife–Livestock Disease Interface: An African Perspective. Journal of Raptor Research. https://doi.org/10.3356/JRR-20-22
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Carbon Offset Projects
Dr Damian Walters, EWT’s African Crane Conservation Programme, DamianW@ewt.org.za
Gasses that trap heat in the atmosphere are called greenhouse gases (GHG) and include carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). Greenhouse gases resulting from human activities are the most significant drivers of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. The Carbon Tax Act (15) was promulgated in May 2019 to give effect to the “polluter-pays-principle”, whereby large emitters of greenhouse gasses GHGs are penalised through taxation for their emissions. The advent of the South African Carbon Tax Act (15 of 2019) has created a significant opportunity for biodiversity conservation and improved catchment management. Apart from the obvious benefits of encouraging reduced carbon emissions, the Act has created a market for those able to sequester (lock) carbon.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust works with landowners, predominantly in the Grassland biome, to develop carbon projects on their properties to sequester carbon. A carbon project entails managing the landscape (e.g., a farm) in a manner that allows for the verifiable sequestration of carbon through a tangible improvement in veld condition. The carbon is typically locked in the soil through improved grazing and fire management of grasslands and wetlands, wetland rehabilitation, and improved management of agricultural lands through reduced tillage and careful fertiliser management. The verified carbon sequestered during such projects can be converted into carbon credits that can be purchased by liable entities, usually big carbon emitters, to reduce their tax liability, thus creating a revenue stream for those who develop carbon projects.
The EWT considers carbon project development and the revenue that the projects will generate as an important tool to enhance biodiversity protection, improve catchment management, and increase water security by providing financial incentives for landowners to improve their land management practices. The EWT has committed decades of extension work to build partnerships with landowners and these trust relationships enable us to develop carbon projects by assisting them with long-term land management plans and associated ongoing extension support to improve the management of their grasslands, wetlands, and agricultural lands to better sequester precious carbon and ultimately curb the effects of global climate change. The ambitious, but achievable, goal is to create landscapes of sustainably managed grasslands, savannas, thickets and forests that not only provide agricultural and other essential products, but also provide critical ecosystem services and support the rich biodiversity that we, as South Africans, are so blessed to enjoy as fellow inhabitants of our thriving landscapes.
GUEST ARTICLE: EVERY ANIMAL MATTERS
Fraser Shilling, Director Road Ecology Centre, University of California, Davis fmshilling@ucdavis.edu
In the 90s, I used to drive long distances to see my girlfriend in Southern California. I would see dead wildlife on my drive, and for many species, it was the first time I had seen them in the wild. Years later, as a landscape ecologist at UC Davis, I started to connect the real wildlife losses along roads with the habitat fragmentation I studied in geographic information systems on computers. In many ways, this transformed my research trajectory and brought my science closer to my concern for the Earth. Many scientists shy away from saying they are environmentalists or want to fight to protect the Earth, but that’s silly and is like being a ship’s engineer and not caring if it sinks.
My name is Fraser Shilling, and I am the director of the Road Ecology Centre at the University of California, Davis. My centre is affiliated with the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), both the firsts of their kind. ITS is well-known for investigating non-motorised travel, alternative fuels, and other revolutions in transportation needed to prevent climate change and improve human quality of life. My centre is best known for studying conflicts between transportation and nature, many of which can be measured as impacts on wildlife. We aren’t shy about our position that nature and wildlife matter, and we use our studies across scales from whole continents to individual animals to make this case.
This concern for wildlife and especially those needlessly killed on roads brought me into contact with the EWT and in particular, the extraordinary Wendy Collinson. We have begun an incredible project together, bringing together the “transportation ecologists” from around the world into one Congress to discuss the outstanding issues in our field. The brainchild of Wendy, the Global Congress on Linear Infrastructure and Environment (GCLIE), will have its first meeting this year, preceding the conference I organise, the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation. GCLIE will kick off with experts from around the world sharing their perspectives and include open discussions about how road, rail, canal, powerline, and fence infrastructure break habitat up into pieces, kill wildlife, and exacerbate human impacts on Nature. If you are reading this, you are welcome to join the discussion. Go to https://gclie.org for more information.
To learn more about the Road Ecology Centre, go to https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu.
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CONSERVATION CHAMPION
A very big thanks to PwC and the Ford Wildlife Foundation for covering the costs of capturing ten Cheetahs for relocation to the Zambezi Delta, Mozambique. This mammoth effort entailed two weeks of capture effort and 9,634 km of driving through riots, lockdown, and Springbok rugby matches. All ten Cheetahs were successfully relocated, and an additional 900,000 hectares of safe space, an area half the size of Kruger National Park, has become available for wild Cheetah conservation.
LEAVING A LEGACY OF LIFE – IN MEMORY OF PHIL ROBERTS
Oldrich van Schalkwyk
We met Phil and Sue Roberts in 2012 when they came to the Soutpansberg on an Earthwatch Expedition, and it was immediately apparent that they had a great love for nature, in particular, big cats like Leopards, and a great love for South Africa – Sue has family in South Africa, an aunt and uncle who they used to visit, they also had a great love for people. We visited some local schools where Phil entertained the small kids by shaking a pencil up and down, so it looks like it was made out of rubber, and they just loved that. One night we got talking around a campfire about conservation and the plight of the Leopards on the mountain, and it was quite apparent that they were concerned and looking for solutions to stop the decline in large predator numbers, and to protect the mountain. We stayed in contact and shortly after that they asked us to start searching for land because they were excited about the prospect of putting some money together so that we could conserve large conservation areas in the Soutpansberg, and so we became great friends. On their subsequent visits to the mountain, their lust for life and their care for the environment and people was incredibly infectious, and through their tenacity to get more people to contribute towards the conservation of the mountain, they became the catalyst of what is now known as the Soutpansberg Protected Area. We were incredibly blessed to have met them and privileged to know them. Judy and I will sorely miss Phil – he was such an inspiration to us all with his energy and love for life. Phil’s contribution to catalysing the Soutpansberg Protected Area will be a lasting and living legacy and the people and wildlife reliant on this unique and beautiful landscape and who call it home are forever in his debt.
