The Green Climate Fund (GCF) – a critical element of the historic Paris Agreement - is the world’s largest climate fund, mandated to support developing countries raise and realise their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) ambitions towards low-emissions, climate-resilient pathways.
The aim of the GOF is to incentivise local fund managers to use new approaches and financing models to target high potential and fast-growing SMMEs operating in South Africa’s green economy. The funding will enable lending and investment to SMMEs which would not be feasible without the GOF’s support.
The GOF blends concessionary funding with private capital, thus enabling participating Catalytic Finance Partners (CFPs) to develop and adapt their SMME investment criteria and support services in ways that were not previously possible – realising greater impact in terms of the types of SMMEs funded and green outcomes created.
Conservation South Africa is committed to helping society to adopt a more sustainable approach to development, one that considers and values nature at every turn.
Over the last decade Conservation South Africa has demonstrated Conservation International's mission of delivering human well-being through conservation of healthy ecosystems and the goods and services they produce.
Their multi-faceted approach to conservation is building regional capacity at every level in order to increase environmental and social resilience to climate change and to set a course for development which will sustain communities and the ecosystems that support them into the future.
Conservation South Africa is a member of the Conservation International network, which has offices in more than 30 countries, more than 1,000 partner organisations, and thousands of projects worldwide.
Wildlife Economy
Ecotourism
Biodiversity Stewardship
Protected Areas
The Senzo’kuhle Nkos’uNodada Communal Trust and its beneficiaries benefit from Nambiti Private Game Reserve in several ways, including:
Nambiti Private Game Reserve is of significant biodiversity and ecological value, which led to it qualifying to be proclaimed as a nature reserve in terms of the KZN Biodiversity Stewardship Programme. Because of this, it contributes to several important targets for biodiversity conservation in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. Nambiti Private Game Reserve is a 9 859 hectare Big 5 reserve in Kwa-Zulu Natal. The reserve was established in 2000 by a group of businessmen led by Rob Le Sueur, on old cattle and maize farms that were combined to form a property extending over 8 000 hectares. Following this, more farms were purchased, bringing the reserve to its current size. Subsequently, the reserve was subject to a successful land claim and is now owned by the Senzo’kuhle Nkos’uNodada Communal Trust.
In April 2009, a successful management lease was established between the land claimants and the previous landowners. The lease is a 35-year lease with an option to renew for a further 35 years.
Operations at Nambiti Private Game Reserve are multi-faceted, combining 10 luxury game lodges catering to local and international tourists, limited hunting, live capture, and sale of game and more recently, the production of venison from a recently constructed abattoir and butchery. Nambiti Private Game Reserve has been proclaimed as a nature reserve, through the KZN Biodiversity Stewardship Programme, in terms of Section 23 of the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (No.57 of 2003).
Nambiti Private Game Reserve is a successful wildlife ranching venture with significant biodiversity values. It provides an interesting model of cooperation between a local community and the private sector and is a significant regional employer. The project has resulted in the following achievements:
Nambiti Private Game Reserve demonstrates the value and sustainability of a well-run wildlife ranching venture that integrates biodiversity conservation with significant socio-economic value. The benefits of the reserve include job creation, economic development and improved food security in an area with substantial poor rural communities that suffer from high levels of unemployment and limited economic opportunities.
Article source - Greg Martindale
Biodiversity Stewardship
Bioprospecting
As part of the Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany Hotspot, the area was identified as a Key Biodiversity Area and prioritised for community-based biodiversity stewardship. The grasslands include the Endangered Drakensberg Foothill Moist Grassland and Vulnerable Southern KwaZulu-Natal Moist Grassland and Drakensberg Cycad Veld vegetation types. The evergreen Mistbelt Yellowwood forests are equally threatened.
The additional lands are being used by the community, under the leadership of its traditional leader, iNkosi Baleni, for a sustainable land-use development project, known as the Umgano Project. The community itself operates the project, advised by official organisations such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and its own consultants. It aims to benefit community members through the implementation of a range of sustainable land-use business practices. Biodiversity conservation is also an important part of this initiative.
The area in which this project is being implemented is not used for residential purposes but rather solely to benefit and earn wealth for the community, including conservation of its natural capital. The principal revenue-earning land use is commercial afforestation. The timber plantation, established over 15 years ago, presently earns a gross income of R10–R12 million per annum, and employs nearly 100 community members. This is the principal source of income for the project, which in addition to benefiting the community, provides the funding for the maintenance of biodiversity and some seed funding for other income-generating activities.
At the start of the Umgano Project, the Mabandla community was not familiar with the concept of biodiversity conservation in the modern technical sense, although they have a good appreciation of the natural environment. The technical terminology was not available in the vocabularies of rural communities such as the Mabandla people. After some time, however, it became apparent that the community leadership had a keen ethic for responsible stewardship of the natural environment.
The project has resulted in the following achievements:
Declaration of the 1 400 hectares Umgano Nature Reserve is imminent. This area will contribute to the provincial conservation targets for several threatened ecosystem types and provide a haven for threatened biodiversity. It will hopefully also bring recognition by official agencies and the international community to the remarkable biodiversity conservation achievements made by the Mabandla community.
Article source:
https://www.cepf.net/sites/default/files/02-2015_10_02-biodiversity-stewardship-casestudy5-umgano.pdf
Gallery Not Available
The result is a new partnership called the uMzimvubu Catchment Partnership Programme (UCPP)
The intention of the UCPP is to simultaneously address rural poverty and ecosystem degradation, through a better understanding by the land users of the value of the landscape and the services it provides. CPP members are exploring biodiversity stewardship in its broadest sense to find strategies that are based on reviving traditional governance approaches, and which have an appropriate fit with land user groups dependent upon that landscape.
The project has resulted in the following achievements:
One of the most effective interventions of the partnership is the regular learning exchange workshops, which have included topics such as fire management in grasslands, alien plant management, environmental outreach, aquatic monitoring, Eco ranger functions, career development and biodiversity stewardship incentives. The partners are also producing ‘best practice’ media for use by a wider audience.
The Mzimvubu River is one of South Africa’s most important free-flowing rivers. With its source in the southern Drakensberg near Matatiele, it flows over 400 km to its estuary on the Indian Ocean at Port St Johns. It is designated as ‘vulnerable’ within a River Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Area. The Mzimvubu catchment also falls within the Maputaland–Pondoland–Albany Hotspot, a region of high biodiversity and endemism. The upper reaches of the river catchment were identified as a Key Biodiversity Area based on the high levels of endemism and importance of the area as a water source.
The catchment spans almost 20 000 km2 of the poorest rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province. Communal land tenure covers up to 70% of the catchment and this land is in a state of worsening degradation. The highly diverse grassland and forest matrix of the catchment are threatened by poor land management practices and land cover transformation for development such as access roads and housing.
Extensive erosion due to compromised groundcover is a problem in the catchment, resulting in high sediment loads in the river. The area also has severe alien plant invasions, with an estimated 20% of the catchment under threat from species such as black wattle. Alien plants affect the water flow in the river, grassland integrity, grazing availability, soil erosion rate and the biodiversity of the natural ecosystems.
Article source:
Find all the entertainment you need for all ages on this island, where the fun doesn't cease and boredom retreats.
Find all the entertainment you need for all ages on this island, where the fun doesn't cease and boredom retreats.
Find all the entertainment you need for all ages on this island, where the fun doesn't cease and boredom retreats.
