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FRONTIER NEWS
One Step Closer to Universal Access to Valley Of Desolation – Camdeboo National Park
By Fayroush Ludick
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Marié de Vos from the SANParks Honorary Rangers Mountain Zebra Region, Acting Park Manager, Johannes Jaantjies and Chantelle Marais from Granaat at the official handover
The panoramic view from Camdeboo National Park’s Valley of Desolation is a major tourist drawcard to the quaint Karoo town of GraaffReinet. With an ever-increasing number of elderly and mobility-impaired visitors over the years, the need arose to provide universal access to the world-renowned lookout point, along with supporting ablution facilities and a new viewing platform.
In 2017, Granaat, a Graaff-Reinet club that has been providing support to Camdeboo National Park for the past 20 years, took the lead to develop a technical proposal in collaboration with the relevant experts from South African National Parks. Not long after, the plans were approved for construction.
The ablution facilities at the lookout parking area were upgraded and handed over to the park in 2019. As a second step, a new viewing platform, to the value of R250 000, was recently completed. Both projects were fully funded by the SANParks Honorary Rangers – the official volunteer organisation of SANParks – and managed by Granaat using local contractors. The professional engineering inputs were provided by SCIP Engineering Group at no cost.
The new viewing platform was officially handed over to Acting Park Manager, Johannes Jaantjies, at a short ceremony at the Valley of Desolation on Tuesday, 10 May 2022. The handover was performed jointly by Chantelle Marais on behalf of Granaat and Marié de Vos from the SANParks Honorary Rangers Mountain Zebra Region.
Granaat is working tirelessly to secure funds for the construction of a 250m universal access pathway from the parking lot to the new viewing platform, which will see their dream of a fully accessible Valley of Desolation realised. The estimated cost for this part of the project is about R1 million.
IUCN-SOS Grant Support for Black Rhino Monitoring in Three National Parks
By Stef Freitag-Ronaldson
SANParks is halfway through the implementation of a 12-month International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Save Our Species (SOS)* COVID19-relief grant which was awarded in July 2021. Co-funded by the European Union**, this grant is helping monitor critically endangered black rhino populations in three national parks. South Africa and Namibia are the only range states of the south-western black rhino, Diceros bicornis bicornis. SANParks is the custodian of the vast majority of the South African populations in Addo Elephant, Mountain Zebra, Karoo and Mokala National Parks.
The project has enabled foot patrols, camera trap identification and/or aerial surveillance in the Addo Elephant, Karoo and Mountain Zebra National Parks. Furthermore, financial support has enabled the ear notching of calves before separation from their mothers at around 18 to 20 months of age.
A rhino notching operation
This ensures rhinos are individually recognisable. Thus far, the funds have supported and enabled ear-notching operations in two parks, 21 fixedwing flights, ranger foot patrols, the procurement of 30 new camera traps and ongoing servicing of existing and new cameras across the study sites. These efforts contribute significantly to monthly rhino sightings databases, updating of identikits and report compilation. In addition, staff have been trained in field data collection application software.
These funds have enabled increased population monitoring and assessment of population vital rates for this threatened species. This information is then used to inform management decisions and conservation outcomes. Notching operations have increased the target of having rhino of notchable
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By Fayroush Ludick
Award-winning Sydney Mikosi now heading up activities in Addo
The Jungle Encyclopedia, aka Mr Dung Beetle, aka Sydney Fhumulani Mikosi seems to have adapted well to his new environment at Addo Elephant National Park.
Appointed to the position of Activities Co-ordinator as of 1 April 2022, Sydney already knowledgably speaks of the park as if he’s walked the length and breadth of it for years.
Many within SANParks will know Sydney from his time at Marakele National Park where he started in 2009 as a Senior Guide and was promoted to Head Guide in 2012. He remained there until 2018 when he was head-hunted by multi-media company, Wild Earth, where he worked as an international wildlife television presenter in conjunction with National Geographic. He also presented on SABC channels where he was involved in Wild Earth’s School Enrichment programme, sharing his knowledge and love of the African bush.
During his career as a guide, Sydney lined up an impressive number of awards over the years. “In SANParks I was harvesting Regional and Kudu Awards. My most recent achievement was the coveted national Lilizela award for the Best Nature Guide in South Africa in 2019,” says a notably proud Sydney, who has 19 accolades under his belt.
Asked about his return to SANParks, he says, “I came back because I felt a need to give back to the organisation which provided me with so many opportunities, enabling me to share conservation with the whole world.”
In terms of guided activities, Addo currently offers a variety of game drives. Sydney says he is brainstorming ideas with his colleagues to introduce new products. These may or may not include guided bush walks, bush braais and marine eco-tours in the Addo Marine Protected Area.
“My team of six guides and I strive to give our game drive guests an unforgettable experience. In terms of customer care, I’d like to think that we are the best!”
“The Addo guides are very enthusiastic and innovative. I am a firm believer in knowledge sharing, skills development and learning from one’s peers. Since I joined the team, I’ve been going out on drives with them regularly, in an attempt to learn about the park from them and to impart the knowledge I have of the African bush with them. We are learning from one another all the time,” says Mr Dung Beetle.
“While I was away from SANParks I was also a freelance lecturer for the SA Wildlife College where I was teaching Guiding. I was also freelancing for the NMI Training Centre in Polokwane, teaching Nature Conservation and Resource Guardianship. And finally, I was with UNISA doing coaching and mentoring for final year Conservation students towards improving their conservation interpretative skills,” says Sydney.
Visitors have already started raving about Sydney’s presence on drives. Khanysio Thabethe wrote, “Not enough can be said to express the insight, interest and knowledge of not only our tour guide, Sydney, but also the unbridled enjoyment one is bound to feel throughout the journey with him. There is always something to be found during the trip, and although not always large, his unmatched ability to inform and entertain the passengers on his drive to the point where one might even forget about the larger animals entirely. This activity is a must for not only a nature enthusiast but also for the entire family. It is never, ever boring and is sure to leave an unforgettable memory for anyone who attends. We salute you, sir!”
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age individually marked from a baseline of 80% to 87% overall across the three populations. This is a significant increase, particularly since the number of notchable calves is constantly changing as animals reach notchable age throughout the year and they grow into the appropriate age classes.
In November 2021, representatives from IUCN and the EU conducted a field mission to Addo Elephant and Mountain Zebra National Parks to familiarise themselves with this project. In Addo, delegates were welcomed by SANParks staff who provided short presentations on the park, background to the project being funded and progress. Delegates were taken on a game drive through sections of Main Camp and Nyathi to experience first-hand the challenges of black rhino monitoring in subtropical thicket and mountainous terrain. Delegates also visited Mountain Zebra National Park where they spent an enjoyable afternoon exploring the park and learning about black rhino monitoring operations. The delegation was thrilled with sightings of a black rhino while on a game drive.
* IUCN Save Our Species aims to improve the long-term survival prospects of threatened species. It also focuses on supporting the species’ habitats and working with the communities who share this habitat. It achieves success by funding and co-ordinating conservation projects into multiple initiatives across the globe.
** The Member States of the European Union have decided to link together their knowhow, resources and destinies. Together, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development whilst maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. The European Union is committed to sharing its achievements and its values with countries and peoples beyond its borders.
Edward Moumakoe – A Creative Conservationist
By Fayroush Ludick
Addo Elephant National Park’s new Anti-Poaching Security Manager, Edward “Billy” Moumakoe, describes himself as a creative by heart and someone who’s always been a nature lover. He never thought he’d have a career in conservation, though. Graphic design was always the dream but the stark reality of the cost of a tertiary qualification in his dream field, coupled with a sign while cooking one day, led him to the field of conservation instead. “Now,” says Billy, “I think there is an art to security. The art of war.”
The unassuming Billy grew up in Mabopane with his parents as the eldest of three brothers. “I had this brochure of North West University (NWU) in front of me one day as I was cooking, trying to decide what to study after we realised graphic design was just too expensive. I was stirring away and a piece of cabbage shot off the fork and landed on BA: Conservation, Tourism and Sustainable Development, and I took it as a sign. That is probably my fondest memory of how I got into conservation,” he says.
Just as he was graduating, the North West Parks Board announced year-long internships to NWU’s students. Billy was placed in Borakalalo Game Reserve. This, he says, is where he well and truly fell in love with conservation. “There, in the field – it sparked something in me. From the older rangers, their conduct, their confidence in their knowledge of the bush, what they spoke about and their insights. That’s where it all fell into place,” he says.
After his internship he applied for various posts internally and although not ideal, he was appointed as a gate attendant. He says he was just happy to be in the system. When a colleague told him about an anti-poaching unit selection session happening in Borakalalo, he was going to make sure he got it. Later in 2010, he started in his first APU position and hasn’t looked back since, with stints in Madikwe and Mafikeng Nature Reserves and Pilanesberg National Park, where he was based before his arrival in Addo in December.
Mr Edward Moumakoe, Anti-poaching Security Manager
Asked to describe his job in laymen’s terms, as it’s a new position linked to the Wildlife Conservation Bond from the World Bank, Billy says, “As soon as someone comes from outside and starts taking things without permission, that’s where I come in.”
“My biggest project is with the park’s surrounding communities. I’m still trying to understand them and what they’re all about. We can lock the park down from the inside in as many ways as possible, but no matter how tight it is inside, if the people outside are working against us, it creates loopholes,” he says. He says one of the things he’s striving for is to get the park’s neighbours to take pride and care of its contents, without even formally being a part of the protected area.
In the process, his goal is to mould Addo’s rangers into ones who can withstand any poaching environment, irrespective of the challenges they face. He’d like to see the Rangers Corps able to adapt to any type of protection – whether it be of fauna and flora, their colleagues or tourists.
Looking into the future, Billy says he wants his career to take him on a path of being able to effect change that will last. “I literally want to change the world and leave people with something they can be proud of and keep for years. I’d like to get to a point where I can refer to myself as a specialist in the field of tactics, approaches and reactions – to specialise in safety and security as a whole on the continent.”
