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.
LATEST STORIES
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.
IN MEMORY OF BRIAN BRADFORD GOODALL
On Sunday 27th June 2021, Brian Goodall, Chair of the Lewis Foundation, loving husband to Lesley, father to Tiffany, Andrew and Peter-John and an adoring grandfather, passed away at the age of 78.
Brian was born on March 27th, 1944. He matriculated from Jeppe High School for Boys with a first-class pass. His leadership skills were already apparent as Head Prefect, Captain of the Rowing, House Athletics and Cricket with a basket of leadership and academic prizes. He attended three universities, graduating with a BA from the University of Natal, a first-class Honours from Wits and an MA from UNISA. He was a life-long learner and always willing to share and teach.
Brian joined Standard Bank in 1966, where his passion for finance and investment was kindled. He moved from there to ESE Financial Services and in 1970, Brian and two colleagues formed their own economics and financial consultancy company. Five years later they sold out to join Syfrets Trust. Alongside his passion for finance and investment, Brian was developing a career in politics. His charm and people skills, combined with an intense aversion to the apartheid regime resulted in him winning the Edenvale Parliamentary seat for the Progressive Federal Party in 1979. This was the first Parliamentary by-election defeat for the National Party. He resigned from Syfrets to pursue a full-time political career and held the seat till 1987 when he lost to Joan Hunter. Undeterred he retook the seat in 1989 and held it until he was elected to the Provincial Parliament of Gauteng as Leader of the DA Caucus and spokesperson on Economic Affairs.
His interest and love for finance could not be ignored however and in 1985 Brian founded Investment Management Services (IMS). Alongside this he wrote and published several articles on investments and tax. He was the author of textbooks on investment planning and co-author of the “Momentum Tax and Investment Easiguide” and the “South African Financial Planning Handbook.”
Brian remained actively involved in his company and his writing until his death. Andrew, his son, joined the company a few years ago and will continue to grow and build on his father’s impressive legacy.
Brian was a man of many facets. He loved wildlife and the bush and would spend time with his family and friends at his game lodge whenever his schedule allowed. So, when the opportunity arose in 2002 to join the Lewis Foundation as a Trustee, he was delighted. He shaped the Foundation’s investment policies resulting in significant growth of the endowment. He took the helm as Chair in 2010, bringing his insight, creativity and lateral thinking to the table and broadened the outlook of the Foundation. His greatest contribution was himself. He was passionate, enthusiastic, positive, forward-thinking, empathetic and committed. No matter what the organisation or the Foundation had to face, with Brian at the helm, we knew he would see the silver lining and there would be a way through, a plan and a strategy to overcome. He served the Lewis Foundation for 20 years and will be sorely missed. But his legacy will live on through the programmes and projects of the Foundation and the many young people it has funded and nurtured. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Lesley and the Goodall Family.
The Conservation sector has lost a great champion but his legacy will continue.
Dr Pete Zacharias – Trustee and Chair
Dr Shafika Isaacs – Trustee
Derek Engelbrecht – Trustee
Lindy Rowell van Hasselt – Relationship Director
