cranes | Endangered Wildlife Trust

Communities and Cranes benefit from Spring Protection project in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands

By Eleanor Momberg (Communications manager, EWT) and Samson Phakathi (Snr Community Project Officer, Drakensberg, SA, EWT)

Left: Clean, high pressure water coming from a newly installed tap providing access to spring water otherwise accessed in a dense forest up the mountain. Right: Two women inspecting a second tap installed within the community.

Supplying water to the community of KwaMkhize in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands not only benefits the people living in this mountainous area but also ensures that Crane species living in an adjacent wetland are protected.

KwaMkhize lies in the shadows of the Drakensberg mountains with Giants Castle looming large in the distance. It is an area of rolling hills and lush veld. It is also an area of extreme poverty, and an area which is difficult to access, given the state of access routes, which have been under construction for some time. The extreme rainfall in recent months has also not helped. But, that rain has fed the many springs in this area ensuring a continuous supply of water to the newly-installed water points in the village by the Endangered Wildlife Trust/International Crane Foundation Partnership(EWT/ICF), and filling the nearby rivers and streams that nourish the wetland home to the Grey Crowned, recently downlisted Wattled and Blue Cranes.

This catchment is home to an estimated 25% of South Africa’ s Wattled Cranes and is a critical breeding ground for two of the three crane species – Wattled and Grey Crowned Cranes. But, Cranes are not the only reason the EWT/ICF Partnership is working in this area, also considered one of South Africa’ s water factories—a source of water to cities like Johannesburg and eThekwini.
Samson Phakathi, senior community field officer for the EWT/ICF African Crane Conservation Programme, holds much praise for the KwaMkhize community, which has not only taken ownership of its water supply issues, but has, as a collective, worked with the EWT/ICF Partnership since 2016 to address numerous issues of concern. Of late, that has expanded to land use management, which includes planning to remove alien and invasive species such as the Natalie Bramble especially around rehabilitated springs and rangelands used for grazing of cattle, as well as the pollution of rivers and streams, the installation of pit latrines close to springs, and ensuring new housing developments don’ t encroach on grazing lands.

Besides working as a collective to ensure all residents have access to clean potable water, the community is set to workshop a landuse plan for the area so that human development does not affect their primary activity—livestock farming.

Many rural areas receive limited access to governmentally supplied services due to the distance the communities are to main roads. Springs are, therefore, vital in these communities. Interacting with communities to better support natural resource management helps protect the landscapes in which cranes in South Africa live, primarily wetlands, grasslands and farming landscapes. Through our Springs project, the EWT/ICF Partnership has protected seven springs across two communities in the Drakensberg, KwaMkhize and Mqatsheni.

Overall, the implementation of the seven spring protection projects has served 2,445 individuals across 292 households, two schools and a clinic that services 150 people a day 365 days a year; therefore, a total of 54,750 individuals benefit from potable water at the clinic.

The key benefits of spring protection include clean potable free water, easy access, enabling children to spend more time in school, improved health of the community, especially the children and a secure water source. Furthermore, the protection prevents cattle from getting stuck in mud and either succumbing or becoming ill from polluted water.

The primary uses of springs were for potable water, cooking, cleaning and washing. However, some households use spring water for watering vegetable gardens and traditional medicines.

All the residents of KwaMkhize rely on springs as a primary source of water. Getting up the mountains to reach the water sources created an opportunity for the EWT/ICF Partnership to bring water to the community through the installation of pipes and taps in key sections of the expansive village.

Because KwaMkhize is a water factory area, it is important that the catchments are protected so that enough water of good quality can be captured to supply the cities, said Phakathi. “We thus need a constant supply of water, and this increases the importance of the area.”

One spring supplies water to hundreds of households. In the past, residents, particularly women and children, trudged to the water sources several times a day to collect water.

Community members discuss the benefits of the newly installed taps and how these have greatly impacted their lives and those of their families.

“In the past we had to wait two hours for a bucket to fill and then we had to wait because the water was polluted because livestock also drank at source, so we had to wait for pollutants to settle before could use the water,” said 20-year-old Nosipho shortly after she and her sisters had collected buckets of water from a nearby tap. “The water quality we have now is the greatest benefit.”

“This has made our lives much easier,” said an elderly woman as she inspected the recently installed tap.

Close to another spring is a spring silt box, which catches sediment before storing water for community use. This is maintained once every three years to ensure the water being supplied is not dirty.

The pipes from the spring, said Phakathi, are installed in such a way that they do not interrupt the flow of water to streams feeding the wetland. The aim is not to destroy or harm the environment while improving the lives of the community.

“This project has been an eye-opener to learn how a project of this nature has impacted people positively,” said Phakathi.

An important aspect of the EWT/ICF Partnership’ s work has been to focus on encouraging the community to take the lead so that once the organisation withdraws from the area, the community is able to live sustainably and be self-reliant, critically important aspects in a rural area such as this.

“The communities are actually participating quite fully from the leadership to the people on the ground,” added Phakathi.

Projects such as this are extremely important, he said, especially since water is a human right but also forms part of one of the Sustainable Development Goals. A project of this nature not only addresses access to water, but also encourages people to sit down and discuss issues of concern and formulate measures, and draw on local capacity to solve problems through participation.
He believes this project is a step in the right direction when it comes to saving Cranes, as the EWT/ICF Partnership has not imposed its will on the people, but rather allowed the community to take the lead while the team advises on how best to manage the area and interact with their immediate environment.

“We are not here to impose on the community, but to work with them,” he said. “As much as we are a conservation organisation, when we approach communities, we don’ t look at that as something that we should be pushing, but we look at the challenges that they are facing in order to address their challenges while addressing environmental issues at the same time.”

At a meeting with local indunas, access to water was highlighted as a key issue for KwaMkhize. But, the indunas pointed out, this project has brought with it a number of benefits, especially easier access to clean water. Waterborne diseases, they believe, may be a thing of the past if all community members could eventually have access to spring-fed water points.

The hope was also that the EWT/ICF Partnership could have the ability to mobilise more resources so that the entire community could be accommodated in the long term.

“A project of this nature can do a lot to improve the lives of people, and we are very thankful for a project like this,” said one local induna.

The EWT/ICF Partnership would like to extend a huge debt of gratitude to the Paul King Foundation and the HCI Foundation for providing funding for this important piece of work.

A breeding pair of Wattled Cranes just outside of KwaMkhize. 100 out of the 400 Wattled Cranes that take up residence in South Africa can be found around the KwaMkhize community.

Read more about how we are working to save cranes, conserve their vital habitats, and benefit the people living with them

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Integrating Conservation and Health

Integrating Conservation and Health Action pays dividends for women in Rwanda

Integrating Conservation and Health

An initiative being driven by the Margaret Pike Trust in the Rukiga district of Rwanda, in partnership with the Rugarama Hospital, the International Crane Foundation/Endangered Wildlife Trust and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, is having significant and unexpected benefits for women facing gender-based violence.

This is according to a data analysis by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The Trust has been working in the Rukiga district with its partners since 2021 to deliver and evaluate an integrated conservation, health and livelihood project benefitting 50,000 people.

Data shows that due to our innovative project design:

Women are more protected from gender-based violence, which is prevalent locally with one in three women in Rukiga experiencing it;

Women were 25% more likely to choose a long-acting and reversible contraceptive method, which is more effective at preventing an unintended pregnancy; and

More women have attended health services and benefitted from improved sexual and reproductive health services, and gender-based violence screening and follow-up services, which have not previously been available.

Zeneb Musiimire, East African Community Specialist at the International Crane Foundation/Endangered Wildlife Trust, reflects on the findings: “Being from Rukiga, I have seen the devastating impacts that gender-based violence has in our communities. I am reminded of an old saying in Rukiga, which questions whether a man really loves his wife, if he does not beat her. These attitudes are hard to change, but thanks to our partnership with the Margaret Pyke Trust and our integrated project design, we have been able to help women like never before.”  

Kathryn Lloyd, Senior Manager: Programmes at the Trust says: “Research has shown just how prevalent gender-based violence is in Rukiga’ s wetland communities and how it intersects with poor family planning services, poor crop yields, poverty, and food insecurity. We knew that our integrated project design would likely have greater outcomes for health, conservation and livelihoods, but we hadn’ t anticipated the direct benefit we would have for women facing such horrific violence. We are proud to stand with our partners against gender-based violence.”

Kerryn Morrison, ICF/EWT Senior Manager: Africa, says of the project and its findings: “Integrating the communities, that share the landscapes that we are working in, into our conservation solutions provides real opportunities for our impact to be scaled and diversified beyond what we intended.   This is a real example of how 1+1=4, and how true impact and scale up happens when an integrated approach is taken”.

Integrating Conservation and Health

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** More information about the impacts in Rukiga can be read in the Margaret Pike Trust’ s latest project brief.

The resilience of a Wattled Crane chick

By:Jacquie van der Westhuizen – Field Officer | African Crane Conservation Proramme – Drakensberg

Above: The Crane family just after the chick had flown across the wetland, all big and grown up and the wetland looking beautiful and green.

Have you ever wondered what happens to a tiny, approximately three-week-old Wattled Crane chick in the event of a fire destroying the very wetland that it lives in?

This is a question that the EWT / International Crane Foundation team have been pondering for some time.

Wattled cranes are winter breeders, breeding from April to October, which also happens to coincide with fire season.

On 7 July, a runaway fire destroyed huge portions of timber plantations and wetlands on Mount Gilboa in the Karkloof, KZN Midlands. According to farmers who were fighting the fires, the fire swept through the wetlands at an alarming speed due to them being drier than usual. The devastation was huge – lives were lost, grazing was lost, animals were burnt and had to be euthanised and hundreds of hectares of forest completely destroyed. Every single wetland on Mount Gilboa was completely burnt, except for a small area of reeds about a metre wide around each pond in the wetland where Wattled Cranes were nesting.

I went up to check on the cranes a week after the fire and was totally shocked at what I saw.

At the first nest site I checked, the adults had been sitting on eggs due to hatch on about 26 June, but with the wetland being burnt, I honestly did not think a chick could have survived the fire. I found the adults foraging in the burnt wetland close to their nest site. I just sat a watched hoping to see a chick, but sadly nothing. Ever the optimist, I sat and started videoing the pair, hoping to see something on the video that I couldn’ t see through my binoculars and to my utter joy, I saw this tiny little grey blob running from the one adult to the other. I’ ve never watched a video so many times to get confirmation that it really was a little chick, dirty from the soot and blending in with the burnt grasses.

There have been a few theories tossed around as to how it survived the fire. One is that the adults walked it out the fire, but according to the farmers, the fire went through the wetlands too fast and they would never have got it out in time. It was definitely too small to fly out. Another theory is that the parents took it into the water, left it there hidden near the edge of the pond, maybe under some grass, while they flew to safety and returned once the fire had gone. I am going with the last theory as it is the only one that makes sense to me. We have nicknamed the crane chick Snorkel!

On the 21 September, a huge cold front hit the KZN region and we experienced heavy rain and the worst snow storms in many years. It also snowed up on Mount Gilboa – the snow was up to half a metre deep in places and freezing. Not being able to get up there myself, I was absolutely delighted to get a beautiful photo of our special crane family walking in a snow-covered pasture from a farmer friend that lives on Mount Gilboa.

This little chick had survived a devastating fire and now one of the worst snow storms in years. Can you imagine my delight when I saw it a few weeks ago, almost the same size as its parents, clumsily flapping its wings and then taking flight across the wetlands.

The knowledge that this Wattled Crane chick had survived a fire and a snow storm and had now fledged is absolutely amasing and truly heartwarming!

Above left: Burnt wetlands a week after the fire with bakkie in the foreground.

Above right: two week old chick so one can see how big the chick was when the fire came through.

Above: Wattled Crane family in the snow

First Carbon Offsetting Project for 90,000 Hectares Registered

By Jodi Legge and Eleanor Momberg

The Endangered Wildlife Trust and the International Crane Foundation have registered carbon offsetting project in the Drakensberg – one of only six registered carbon offsetting projects in the world using Voluntary Carbon Market Methodology and covering the widest geographical footprint in a country.

This is part of the EWT/ICF partnership’ s long-term commitment to protect threatened crane habitat in the Drakensberg region. The project extends 90,000 ha, of which 88,500 ha is managed by the EWT/ICF partnership as the Carbon Management Entity with the developer, WeAct, from Australia. Further expansion is planned during the second half of 2024 and will be known as the second instance.

“Landowners are interested in joining at least another 45,000 ha for the second instance,” said Pieter Botha, ICF project manager.

Botha added that the partnership covered several critical areas under biodiversity stewardship agreements with crucial landowners. Information opportunities were created to discuss the project, objectives, and outcomes with our partner landowners.

The primary purpose of carbon trading is to channel finances towards a sustainable transition in limiting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and GHG sequestration. The cost associated with the removal of GHG needs to be recovered because the removal cost is potentially much lower than the cost of dealing with the consequences of global warming. Through the voluntary carbon market initiatives linked to the free-market principle are allowed as these achieve an incentive by pursuing the initiatives set out in the Paris Agreement reached at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’ s talks in 2015.

Carbon offsetting is considered a sustainable financing option by providing investments that reduce or remove emissions, improve livelihoods and protect the environment. Carbon credits are sold on the market with revenue returned to landowners. Landowners are rewarded financially as they implement sustainable and improved land management practices that contribute to a healthier ecosystem, are friendly to cranes, and promote greater biodiversity.

The Drakensberg region is home to three species of threatened cranes – the Wattled, Blue and Grey-Crowned Cranes. It is a region that has been at risk from mining, infrastructure development, invasive species, uncontrolled fire and agricultural expansion. These factors have reduced habitat for cranes and other species, and pose significant challenges to landowners, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of people who live and work in this region.

“We know these are complex problems,” said Botha adding these required innovative solutions. “Exploration of the carbon trading market has been one of our key strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sequestration, to improve the state of these fragile habitats.”

Botha said the cost associated with the removal of greenhouse gas emissions to improve the soil needs to be recovered as landowners cannot do it on their own. Removing CO2 from the atmosphere is a cheaper alternative than dealing with the consequences of global warming.

“Carbon trading is not frequently discussed among farmers as it is not part of their daily production cycle on the farm.,” said Botha. “For many landowners, this was a foreign idea, and careful negotiation and education is required to explain the complexities of the project. It takes a long time to engage with landowners, explain the benefits of participating in the project, and getting them to commit to an agreement.”

Farmers are custodians of large tracts of land, which is also home to many diverse species. The Foundation understands that farming has many challenges and no state assistance or subsidies are available in South Africa. This project aims to assist farmers by offsetting costs that come with conservation, creating an enabling environment for proactive conservation.

The project implemented a four-year cycle of carbon credit verification and issuance, with a goal to ensure a 30-year commitment to the project. Anticipated revenue is substantive.

“We believe this approach will mitigate the effects of global warming while creating resilient habitats for our crane population,” said Botha. “This pioneering approach will result in increased carbon in the soil, while providing relief to our resilient farmers to protect their livelihoods and create conservationists at the same time.”

The unfinished journey: capturing Wattled Cranes for conservation

By Dr. Lara Fuller, Drakensberg Project Coordinator, South Africa for the African Crane Conservation Programme

Wattled Cranes close to the camp site

Wattled Cranes are globally Vulnerable. They move with the available waters in large floodplains across south-central Africa through several countries including Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi. It is this movement that is vital for conservationists to understand so that conservation goals can be impactful.

Wattled Cranes are notoriously difficult to catch as they have excellent vision and they are not easily coerced into an area, which most capture techniques rely on.

Charles Mpofu of Botswana Wild Bird Trust (WBT)/Okavango Wilderness Project recently approached the EWT for assistance in capturing and handling cranes. Given the synergies between our work, we accepted and I travelled to Botswana to start work on a project that will take some time to complete.

Our first step on the journey was to test the transmitter and harness design by trialling them on captive Wattled Cranes. Out of this work some modifications were made to the transmitter by its developer SpoorTrack to design the dimension specifically for the species. The second step was to understand the best technique to capture Wattled cranes in the Okavango Delta. As the environment is a wilderness with multiple natural dangers, we spoke to the only people who had attempted to catch the species in the Delta — Pete Hancock and Ralph Bousefield in Maun, and Kevin Mcann who had joined the team based in South Africa.

After much discussion the main technique advised was light trapping at a roost site. This approach allows for opportunistic capture in a dynamic and changing environment and allows a capture team to avoid predatory dangers. We had not previously used this technique and learning a new procedure in the wilderness was never going to be easy.

The third step was to find the birds in the vast flood plains of the delta. Charles narrowed this down with aerial surveys to identify a flock in accessible reach, and he spoke to lodge owners and field guides in that area.

On 13 May we started a two-week expedition on the Gomoti River, amply equipped with two Mokoros (a traditional canoe for traveling on the shallow flood plains), two Landcruisers, solar charging battery and remote camping equipment. The first two days were spent ground surveying for Wattled Cranes and learning from a local NPO ‘Connect Trust’ where the accessible roads and river crossings were. Travelling from base camp to the capture site took three to four hours a day due to the difficulty of sandy roads. Understanding where the cranes roosted was vital, and because we were losing important hours on the road, we moved to a new camp in the bush from where we could easily monitor the cranes dawn to dusk. Despite the campsite move the Wattled Cranes were incredibly elusive in sharing details of their roost sites. Flying in and out of foraging grounds in the dark, a mechanism to protect them from predators.

After a few days of 6am mornings and 9pm evenings we had identified a daylight foraging space to which the birds returned to every day. This site had recently been burned and would mark our capture attempts for the remaining expedition. Establishing safe passage across the river for night capture we set up a system using the mokoros so that we could reach the grounds safely. At this site we made numerous attempts to capture the cranes using bird hides, toe noose matts, and using the flashlight technique. Although we came within a few meters of the cranes, numerous difficulties were encountered. Lechwe hampered our attempts to capture during daylight hours by threatening to beat the cranes into the traps.

Wattled Cranes close to the camp site

During the night hours hippos were out foraging, and lions could be heard hunting. Not an ideal scenario when you’ re travelling on foot. Other aspects obstructing capture was the unhelpful moon cycle, and although there were numerous breeding elephant herds they were very regimented in their movements and were easily avoided.

With a lot of experience and lessons learned we attempted our second expedition on the Boro River from 7 July 2024 for 10 days. This time we armed ourselves with some camouflaged toe noose traps, some very bright flashlights and a FLIR. One of the most difficult aspects we found during the night captures was that we could only see as far as a flashlight. This is a little discouraging when running into the night after a crane. The FLIR proved to be a valued member of the team and was excellently designed for its purpose.

The second expedition was supported by the prestigious game lodge Xigera in the heart of the Okavango permanent wetland. As we explored the reserve we were delighted to find over 20 pairs of Wattled Cranes, enabling a number of capture attempts on the same night at different sites. We were hopeful. However, although we were spending up to 19 hours in the field, observing where the pairs moved to during the day and attempting captures at night, we found that there were only four pairs that had steady territories. This was because these birds were starting to breed. Despite this the expedition attempted eight night captures. We came as close as four meters to one crane before the mud tied up Charles and the Landcruiser. We even came within couple of meters of capturing with toe noose matts, until the Buffalo and Impala decided to race the cranes to the traps.

It was T.S. Elliot who said: “It is the journey not the arrival that matters”.

As we reflect on these expeditions and consider the way forward, Charles will be joining us in South Africa along with colleagues in the African Crane Conservation Programme (ACCP) from Uganda, Kenya and Zambia, an American colleague from the International Crane Foundation and a number of South African colleagues from ACCP and Wildlife Energy Programme, to attempt to capture Grey Crowned and Blue Cranes in Mpumalanga. This will form a part of a workshop where we will share our knowledge and experience in Crane and other bird captures to create more innovative approaches to captures in especially the difficult flood plains of the south-central Africa. These will include questionnaires that will draw out the why, when, where and how Crane captures are performed across the globe. This will be compiled under the auspicious IUCN Crane Specialist Group to develop best practice guidelines for captures. In addition, we have through this process bridged a gap between generations of experienced crane catches enabling us to build on the knowledge of the past and not reinventing old new techniques. Conservation relies on collaboration and working together, and these attempts are creating a stronger team of skilled conservationist across Africa for the benefit of crane species. What better example could we have of conservation in action!

Chales Mpofu of the Wild Bird Trust Okavango Wilderness Project using a drone to survey the vast area of the Delta.

Johannesburg City Park and Zoo team with Charles Mpofu of the Botswana Wild Bird Trust and Matt Pretorious EWT who assisted with training on applying a harness.

The remote campsite adjacent to the capture site.

Capture site where 10 Wattled Cranes were inhabiting