Eskom lights way in wetland
CONSERVATION COOPERATION: UTILITY GOES EXTRA MILE IN DECLARING A NATURE RESERVE
Ingula is now recognised as being of international importance.
While much of South Africa brickbats Eskom’s generation problems, it’s involved in one important project with Birdlife SA and the department of environment, forestry & fisheries which, ironically, is critical to helping with power when times are lean – and it has achieved international recognition.
Thanks to the work being done by the three entities, the Ingula Nature Reserve in the northern Drakensberg mountain range, between Free State and KwaZulu-Natal has achieved recognition as a wetland of international importance from the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat.
“The site falls within the northern Drakensberg strategic water source area and a national freshwater ecosystem priority area and is made up of hillslope wetlands, pans/depressions and floodplains,” Minister Barbara Creecy said in a statement welcoming the declaration.
Listed as site number 2 446 on Ramsar, Ingula’s 8 084 hectares have now been added to South Africa’s 27 Ramsar sites, covering 571 089 hectares.
An international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, the Ramsar convention was named after the city of Ramsar in Iran where the convention was signed in 1971 and representatives of 171 parties representing 2 418 wetlands from around the globe meet every three years as the Conference of the Contracting Parties.
But it’s still only a drop in the
ocean of the wasteland much of the planet is turning into as urban areas and populations continue to explode.
“Despite their significance to human life, wetlands are threatened nationally and globally,” said Creecy. “The 2018 National Biodiversity Assessment found at least 79% of South Africa’s wetland ecosystems are threatened.
“The report emphasises the role of rivers, wetlands and their catchments as crucial ecological infrastructure for water security and often complementing built infrastructure.
“Major threats to these freshwater systems include overextraction of water, pollution, invasive alien species, habitat loss, land-use change and climate change.”
Creecy said the department had invested more than R83 million in the rehabilitation and maintenance of at least 75 wetlands in the current financial year.
“The rehabilitation and maintenance of wetlands is coordinated through the Working for Wetlands Programme, an Expanded Public Works Programme that focuses on remedial interventions
for maintaining healthy wetlands.
“This programme is demonstrating it is possible to pursue conservation outcomes while at the same time realising socioeconomic objectives,” Creecy said.
Nor is it only water. “BirdLife South Africa has been an integral partner in ensuring that consistent monitoring of avian biodiversity has taken place throughout the construction of the Ingula pumped storage system,” said Carina Pienaar, Birdlife SA’s Ingula and grasslands project manager.
“The research and monitoring opportunities for BirdLife South Africa since 2003 on the Ingula Nature Reserve has led to valuable discoveries in terms of the seasonality of bird species’ presence on site, as well as their habitat and climatic requirements.”
Pienaar noted that Ingula Nature Reserve has a bird list of 341 species, 24 of which were threatened. “Several of these threatened species use the grassland and wetland habitats to breed in.
“The opportunities the Ingula Nature Reserve provides through the Ingula partnership is invaluable to the effective conservation of these sensitive habitats and species.”
When the scheme was originally proposed, BirdLife SA objected because it was feared that the habitat for the critically endangered white-winged flufftail at this site would be forever lost.
“However, in ensuing negotiations with Eskom, it became evident more could be achieved if Eskom and BirdLife SA were to work together on the environmental aspects of the project,” Pienaar said.
Eskom generation environmental manager Deidre Herbst said the journey to this significant achievement started with the construction of the Ingula pumped storage scheme.
“While the department required Eskom to conserve the unique wetland and high-altitude grassland area, Eskom went the extra mile and ensured the formal protection of the 8 084 hectares with the formal declaration as a nature reserve in 2018,” Herbst said.
“The nature reserve is located within severely threatened ecosystems of grasslands, wetlands and escarpment forests and is host to several hundred species of birds, reptiles and mammals.”
The Ingula partnership was a pioneering example of how industry and non-government organisations can cooperate to achieve conservation sustainably, Herbst added.
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