CAPE NEWS

Bontebok National Park celebrates National Arbor Week

By Khanyisa Tyolo

Bontebok National Park and Sweellendam municapal workers conducted a clean-up in Swellendam

Greening equals healthy environment

National Arbor Week is an opportune time to call on all South Africans to plant indigenous trees as a practical and symbolic gesture of sustainable environmental management. It affords the government, the private sector, non-governmental and community-based organisations and the public to be involved in ’greening’ their communities. Planting trees and greening human settlements takes place in communities.

It is therefore important for the public to join hands with partners in local government and community-based organisations. Greening refers to an integrated approach to the planting, care and management of all vegetation in urban and rural areas, to secure multiple benefits for communities. Greening in the South African context takes place in towns, townships and informal settlements specifically because in the past the latter mentioned areas were disadvantaged in terms of planning for parks as well as tree planting in streets and open spaces.

Bontebok National Park joined hands with Swellendam Municipality, DFFE and local schools in Arbor Week celebrations. Awareness on importance of trees was raised during the week and trees were planted. The week was closed by community clean-up and awareness on illegal dumping and littering. The aim was to create an environmentally friendly mind-set in society to care for the environment. Residents were encouraged to be vigilant of the cleanliness of their communities and to report any illegal dumping taking place in open areas. They were educated about the benefits of greening their yards and taking care of their environment.

Bontebok World Rhino Day celebrations

By Sinoyolo Nama

Bontebok National Park staff took part in the World Rhino Day commemoration event in Robertson

Bontebok National Park joined Wilderness Foundation Africa to celebrate World Rhino Day hosted in Graham Back Skill centre at Robertson. The purpose was to educate the youth about the importance of rhinos in our ecosystem and how to mitigate the poaching.

South Africa has become the epicentre of rhino poaching. It’s the greatest threat faced by rhinos and is done by poachers for the illegal trade of their horns. Rhinos are brutally killed in our parks for the belief in medicine that is made from their horns and this has left the status of the white rhino to ‘Near threatened’ and black rhino to ‘Critically endangered’. For this reason, World Rhino Day is celebrated on 22 September every year to raise awareness of the need to conserve and protect the population of rhinos in the world. This year is the 10th anniversary of World Rhino Day. It is celebrated to recognise and celebrate the five existing species of rhinoceros: white rhino, black rhino, javan rhino, sumatran rhino and greater one-horned rhino.

Let us save rhinos as they play an important role in maintaining the ecosystem. Do your bit to save the rhino population.

#SaveRhino