Keeping it local while greening our coastline

FRIENDS, family and local business people rolled up their sleeves earlier this month to plant more than 200 saplings in a bid to re-introduce indigenous tress along an existing stretch of coastal forest on the border of the new Sibaya development to the north of eMdloti, on the North Coast.

The event coincided with Wildlands’ national Arbor Month and was the first of a number of improvement initiatives by Tongaat Hulett related to the overall development plan for the project.

Sibaya’s development executive, Sithembiso Mthembu from Tongaat Hulett Developments, said the project was aimed at bringing the community together to take ownership of, and engage more closely with, their natural environment.

The buffalo thorn, white stinkwood, coral tree, Natal wild banana, tinderwood and dune poison bush saplings were grown by Wildlands’ tree-preneurs.

Mthembu said up to 60% of the total 1 042 developable hectares in the newly launched Sibaya development were dedicated to the preservation and rehabilitation of the environment.

PICTURE: ROY REED North Coast resident Julia Uren and her son, Kyle, plant a tinderwood sapling together with Sibekezelo Masondo from the environmental protection NGO, Wildlands.