Author: John Thorne

Dear All

First of all a reminder to those of you who haven’t paid your subs, please do so. It’s really important for the functioning of the Conservancy that we collect subscriptions from members. The pro-form invoice is attached with bank details. 

Working for Water Update
The Dept. of Environmental Affairs has released the latest tender for the Natural Resources Management Program (Working for Water). The deadline for submission is the end of October. 

For the conservancy to put together a winning bid, we need to have agreements with landowners who are willing for the program to clear aliens on their land. I am in the process of having a contract drawn up which will need to be signed by landowners indicating their intent to participate. Operation details will be addressed with individual landowners once we are successful. 

If you are landowner in the area, please contact me. We need a significant number of landowners to show intent to be successful.  

The other requirement is that the bid is submitted by a legally constituted entity that has a valid tax clearance certificate. In this regards the Duivenhoks Conservancy does not qualify. For this reason, we will in all likelihood submit our bid under the umbrella of SouthSouthNorth who are a respected Cape Town based climate change NGO with a number of successful projects in their portfolio. 

I look forward to hearing from you. It is best to contact me by email – drjohnthorne@gmail.com

regards

John Thorne
083 3085954

Latest News received Sat am.

The Kiani Satu lifted off the Goukamma Nature Reserve and Marine Protected Area today at 11.30am and is currently heading out to sea. The Buffalo Bay/Goukamma Joint Operations Centre (JOC) awaits word from SAMSA regarding its position.

Cleaning up operations are expected to start tomorrow, depending on weather conditions.

Buffalo Bay/Goukamma Joint Operations Centre (JOC) Incident Coordinator Richard Meyer said he was relieved to see the boat leave after nine days of hard work and concerns regarding the possible impacts. “We will inform all relevant parties after we have confirmed certain key information,” he said.

Dear Members of the Conservancy Forum, Bird Club members & Parties:

By now you are well aware of the ship wreck within the Marine Protected Area of Goukamma Nature Reserve and the serious ecological implications that this has on our marine environment.

On behalf of CapeNature (a Stakeholder of this greater joint operation), I have been tasked to request and coordinate any volunteer assistance from our coastal conservancies & Bird Club members through the relevant Chairpersons in the following ways:

Each coastal conservancy/Bird Club to determine willingness from their members to conduct morning/afternoon beach sweeps (beach patrols) of the coastal sections adjacent to the relevant conservancy/area with the aim of searching for oiled / injured marine life. Please keep a look out for these birds hiding up in the vegetation of the fore dunes and in and amongst the many rock crevices as some of them will hide for cover.

If any oiled birds are located within your section of the coastline, then we kindly request that they carefully collect the oiled specimen as per the leaflet (attached ) and to immediately notify Mr Vernon Hall-Gibbs of Eden District Municipality who will coordinate the collection/drop-off points. This is to ensure that the oiled bird is taken to the nearest rehabilitation centre as soon as possible to receive the appropriate treatment.

If you could please confirm your assistance by completing the table below stipulating which areas of coastline your members will be able to regularly patrol so that we can communicate this to the Head of this operation.

Conservancy Name
Chair Person
Telephone no.
Patrol start point
Patrol end point

It should also be communicated to your members that this shipwreck does not just affect the immediate Goukamma Marine Protected Area but will have a series of negative ecological implications throughout the length of our coastline for many weeks to come.

We would like to thank you for your willingness to assist with this clean-up operation both now and in the long term. Should you require further clarity in this regard please feel free to contact me on 082 772 8073 or Mr Vernon Gibbs at.

Kind regards

Dear Stakeholder

The Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, Minister Molewa, has placed a notice in the Government Gazette No 36637, Notice No 481 on 12 July 2013, to propose the establishment of the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency.

The Gouritz Catchment Management Agency is hereby disestablished i.t.o. Government Gazette No. 36637, Notice No. 482, 12 July 2013.

You are hereby invited to submit comments and inputs on the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency Business Case. Comments must be submitted to the Department of Water Affairs: Regional Office (the address below) by 12 September 2013.

The Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency Business Case is available for inspection at:

Department of Water Affairs: Western Cape
Sanlamhof Building
17 Strand Street
BELLVILLE
7530

Thank you!

Here are two perspectives that may be of interest: Russel Long comments on two stroke outboards
Kimo Resolution Sweden

Dam is now 94% full.

http://www.dwaf.gov.za/Hydrology/Weekly/ProvinceWeek.aspx?region=WC

Given that Cape Nature is tightening up on jetty leases and planning to prosecute those with illegal jetties, it may be a good idea to regularise your jetty at the following contact address:

Cape Nature
enquiries: Rowena Crowe
email: rcrowe@capenature.co.za
tel: 021 483 012
fax: 086 528 9773
Private Bag X29, Gatesville 7766

Here is the agenda: AGM Agenda 2013[1]

Dear SCFPA Committee members, Representatives and members

Herewith the details for the special AGM as per the Constitution following the AGM held Monday 04 March 2013:

Date: Monday 11 March 2013
Time: 09:00
Venue: DAFF offices
Demar Centre (above Wimpy)
Knysna

AGENDA

1. Opening and Welcome – Paul Gerber

2. Office Bearers

3. Constitution

4. Membership Fees

5. Closing

Click on the link below:
adunewsletterfebmarch20130225

Note from Les Underhill at UCT:

I have attached the Animal Demography Unit’s newsletter for February-March 2013.

We believe that the six words that characterise the ADU represent an optimal path towards achieving biodiversity conservation. Citizen Science. Our expanding citizen science programmes enable data collection to occur on scales unimaginable by teams of professional scientists. Digital Biodiversity. The ADU has grasped the nettle of accepting, vetting, curating, assimilating and serving vast volumes of data. The cumulative database exceeds 16 million records of biodiviersity. Statistical Ecology. We lead Africa in the emerging discipline of statistical ecology, the new discipline at the interface of biology and statistics which enables conservation decisions to be based on solid quantitative evidence.

This newsletter contains information about a few of our projects and initiatives. Through the year, we plan to give each member of the ADU an opportunity to talk about their passion.

This newsletter builds on our annual report for 2012, available at
http://internal.adu.org.za/upload/uploads/ADU_Annual_Report___2012.pdf