Time to Face the True Cost of Sustainability on a Finite Planet

Media release: Glenn Silverman - Chief Investment Officer (Investment Solutions)

The world today simply has too many unsustainable excesses, extremes, gaps and imbalances to continue as it has done in the past. Unlike during previous crises, once current imbalances come to a head, the world will have to change — not out of choice, but out of necessity. And once this change is made, there will be no going back. The world cannot be the same again.

Before dismissing this as millennial exaggeration, even a cursory glance at the interplay between key macro variables, such as the environment, levels of sovereign debt, lack of jobs and fair pay, will lead to the conclusion that something isn’t right — that there is a design problem in the current world system.

If mankind is to find its way out of this economic cul-de-sac, it needs to look four unsustainable macro factors squarely in the eye: Earth as a finite planet, the enormous levels of current and future sovereign debt, human demographics, and inequality. First, as author, businessman and environmentalist Paul Gilding puts it, because the Earth is finite, you cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. Or, uncontrolled growth as we know it cannot continue on an increasingly exhausted and overburdened planet. As such, contrary to what many politicians and economists still believe, economic growth — especially in its current form — is not the panacea for all ills. Nor will finite planet issues somehow just pass us by.

Without change, we can expect increasing systemic stress and volatility for years to come.

Yet despite finite Earth issues looming large, they also present an enormous opportunity for mankind to change, to do things differently by reinventing how we grow. As such, managers who take long-term views and focus on sustainability, fairness and balance are likely to be more informed and should, over time, deliver better investment outcomes — especially when both return and risk are considered and measured together.

Second, while sovereign debt issues are unique in being the only unsustainable macro trend that markets have tried to discount, the true scale, cost, impact and likely outcome of the evolving sovereign debt crisis is still not fully known or appreciated.

As governments do all in their power to window-dress the crisis, downplay debt and talk up growth plans, their best efforts are likely only to kick the can down the road, delaying the inevitable and creating an even larger crisis later on. Authorities are more likely to interfere with, and distort, the workings of capital markets, resulting in the misallocation of capital, lower returns and the transfer of private assets to sovereigns. As instability continues, investors can expect even further sovereign interference, including higher and ever more creative taxes, along with increased intervention and regulation.

Many feel that sovereign debt issues can be solved by taking the easy route — by printing more money, as evidenced by the plethora of new acronyms such as QE (quantitative easing), LTROs (long-term refinancing operations) or ZIRP (zerointerest-rate policies). Others believe that growth can somehow simply be chosen in place of austerity, as easily as ticking the growth box rather than the one for austerity.

Given the still-unpaid costs of the poor growth choices made to date, however, growth as we have known it is no longer an option. Instead, it needs to be directed to real and sustainable activities,
rather than yet more environmentally unsustainable, debt-induced consumption spending — especially in the developed world.

Third, many Western countries are sitting on demographic time bombs. Apart from there already being too many people drawing on the Earth’s finite resources, very few countries, especially in the West, can even remotely meet the promises they have made to their electorates. What might have been realistic medical, pension or retirement expectations a decade ago are out of reach today. Despite the rhetoric, governments worldwide will increasingly renege, in one form or another, on their social commitments. In response, people will need to work longer and retirement will have to be delayed. This will not happen painlessly. Older electorates are unlikely to take the
prospect of delayed or no retirement lying down, while younger, poorer, electorates will be unable, or unprepared, to foot the retirement bill for the army of elderly outnumbering them, especially in older, ageing regions such as Europe and countries such as Japan. The cost of the welfare state is simply unsustainable. Furthermore, one of the biggest issues that the world faces is unemployment. Given a finite Earth, the existing debt constraints and lack of focus on, or commitment to, more sustainable growth areas, the chances of simply growing out of the unemployment problem are remote. At the moment in many southern European countries, youth unemployment exceeds 40%. Large populations of unemployed, increasingly disgruntled youths are a recipe for instability. South Africa, with its 25% official unemployment rate, is not immune to
these challenges and will need to find ever more creative ways to manage unemployment, many of which will challenge the beneficiaries of and vested interests in the current system.

Finally, closely linked to unemployment is the last unsustainable macro factor — the unbridled growth of corporate power. Corporate margins are at record levels at a time when unemployment
is skyrocketing. A system in which corporates fire employees almost at will in the interests of profit, or in which executives can earn up to 500 times more than other employees in the same business, creates instability and resentment. Economies need to benefit all participants, not just a powerful few. According to a 2011 Gallup survey, investment bankers, one of the least trusted groups in the US, are paid 11 times more than high school teachers, viewed as one of the most trusted groups. Such large differences in value and trust within a system are clearly problematic, requiring social discourse followed by some form of rebalancing. This will happen either proactively, through the introduction of more sustainable policies and constraints, or reactively, as governments or societies intervene, as witnessed by recent events including Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and the rapid change of elected governments around the world.

Certainly, the interaction of these unavoidable macro trends and how they play out will define the sustainability debate for decades to come. At present, most investors seem to ignore or understate these “slow burn” issues, and it is unlikely that current markets have even tried to discount them.

Because it will, ultimately, be companies and investors that will mobilise the capital needed to overcome these challenges, how investors consider, measure and price in the cost ofsustainability will determine how these threats are managed and how soon the global system becomes more
stable and predictable.

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Rhino horn sales the solution – Player

African Conservation Trust 100% supports the stance on a controlled trade in rhino horn from natural mortalities and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in their efforts to stop the carnage. Please see the following two articles by Dr Ian Player and Dr David Cook. 

Conservationist pleads for ‘factory sales’ to China

SHEREE BEGA

South Africa should go into business with China by setting up a factory to supply it with the more than 20 tons of rhino horn gathered through natural deaths of the animals.

That’s the proposition of Dr Ian Player, who spearheaded Operation Rhino and is renowned for bringing the world’s rhino back from the brink several decades ago.

“In the 1960’s, the Natal Parks Board sold rhino horn on the open market in Dar es Salaam,” the 85-year-year-old conservationist told delegates at the Diamond Route research conference this week.

Banning the sales of rhino horn and ivory had not stopped poaching, he said.

“Arguments against the sale of rhino horn is that it could fuel the demand… but my belief is that we should go into business with the Chinese, set up a factory and supply them with horns gathered through natural mortality.”

It was now too late to put forward the “excellent and formal” proposal on the strict, controlled trade of rhino horn by Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife at the upcoming conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in March because of delays by the Department of Environmental Affairs.

Already, 488 rhinos have been slain this year – against last year’s total of 448. But Player is optimistic that “we shall save the rhino again”.

To stop the unprecedented slaughter, “our first priority must be to give all the possible support to the conservation agencies and private landowners in the protection of the rhino”.

Player, the founder of the Wilderness Leadership School, said KwaZulu-Natal “can look with pride” upon its achievements. “We brought them (rhino) back from the verge of extinction and there are now an estimated 20 000 white rhino in the world and this from an original 50 in the 1920s – surely a phenomenal achievement.

“My great fear is that whereas the white rhino might be able to withstand the poaching, the black rhino would not be able to do so. In 1953, when we first counted the white rhino, there were over 60 000 black rhino in East Africa. They have now been reduced to a handful.”

Some Far East countries were farming the rhino for its horn. “The belief by millions of people in China, Thailand and Vietnam that the horn has medical properties… will not be changed by rational arguments.”

Dehorning the rhino has not acted as an deterrent. “The poachers will kill a rhino just for the remaining stump because the price is so high. Game ranches have become the biggest buyers of surplus rhino but they are going to pay huge sums only to have the rhino poached.”

The rhino carnage was an “indicator of the environmental crisis” facing SA. “Water shortages, sewage disposal, pollution of rivers and dams, leaking acid water from abandoned mines and pollution of the sea are but a few… These problems supersede all political problems because all of us are dependent upon the environment for our survival.” 

Saturday STAR 03/11/2012

 

“Make It Legal” by David Cook

Banning the trade in rhino horn has reduced SA to the role of spectator at an extinction event

 “Traditional preventative measures cannot succeed without help from a trade instrument that acts as a disincentive to poaching by replacing poached horn with legal horn drawn from stockpiles.”

JUDGING by the somewhat ambiguous comments attributed to Mavuso Msimang, Department of Environment Affairs (DEA) rhino issue manager, in the press on the bid for a regulated trade in rhino horn as formally proposed by Ezemvelo, the DEA and the South African Government are not prepared to carry this forward to the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) Conference of the Parties (CoP) in March 2013.

The deadline for submissions to Cites has in any event come and gone — this, three months after Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife put forward its Cites proposal document. Citing too little time in which to prepare and unspecified legal obstacles, these official excuses screen a much deeper malaise — a department which seems unable to face up to the reality of the crisis, seems overly attentive to emotive anti-trade propaganda and conveys the impression that it will do anything to appease international dogma in the form of the now discredited Cites trade ban.

The grim fact is that extinction at current rates of poaching—or a situation approximating the start point in Zululand in the sixties when only 600 white rhino and even fewer of the black species survived—is a mere 20 years away. Unlike Kenya, which started off with 60 000 rhino in 1960 and now shamefully has only 1 000 left, South Africa has over 22 000, 18 000 of them white, all descended from the 600 surviving nucleus saved by the Ian Player led team in Umfolozi in 1960.

Then again the DEA’s decision not to seek support for a legal trade at Cites in 2013 should come as no surprise. Since the Rhino Summit held in 2010, irregularities in the administration of the wildlife industry and a number of high-profile cases of blatant abuse, the department has shown a marked lack of appetite for any new solutions. But there is more.

The failure of the DEA delegates to the Cites Standing Committee meeting in Geneva in July this year even to mention the furious debate going on in South Africa at the time over the merits of a legal trade in horn and the growing support it was receiving from prominent wildlife figures, provide ample evidence of resistance to change.

A supreme opportunity was missed to declare to the international conservation bureaucracies of the Western world that 35 years of a ban on trade in rhino horn had done absolutely nothing to save the species. It had, in fact, played directly into the hands of the black-market trade in rhino horn and reduced South Africa, which holds 75% of the world’s rhino population, to the role of a spectator at an extinction event.

What then is the DEA position—if it has one at all? Complaining about a lack of time to prepare the ground for a Cites proposal ( is two years not enough?), prevarication in the form of time-wasting investigations, a Parliamentary portfolio hearing on rhino poaching solutions and, latterly, the wide ranging consultative process conducted through workshops and meetings with interested parties, the answer is simply business as usual. But carrying on doing the same thing with the same result surely challenges basic human intelligence.

Much the same may be said of many mainstream conservation NGOs that declined to declare open support for Ezemvelo’s legal trade proposal when it was most needed, leaving the bid seriously weakened. Instead, their contribution to the anti-poaching campaign in the form of eye catching support measures, public-awareness events and fundraising programmes has produced little in the way of results.

The events of the past few weeks in which Ezemvelo discovered the carcases of 10 rhino poached in Hluhluwe/Umfolozi reveal the well-nigh impossible task of defeating the poaching menace using defensive strategies alone. Ezemvelo has arguably the most efficient anti-poaching team in the country, operating over protected areas with well-developed relationships in place with neighbouring communities that act as an intelligence filter to criminal activity.

Yet the poachers struck, in one instance in a small private reserve, killing a rhino fitted with a hi-tech tracking device to aid surveillance.

With the stakes as high as USD60000 per kg. a single act of climbing over or through a fence , a panga in one hand and a borrowed or supplied rifle in the other, to kill a rhino (as easy an act as shooting a cow standing in a pasture), hack off its horn and retreat over the fence to receive a handsome payoff equal to many years income , is simply irresistible ; no wonder also that such a lucrative temptation attracts the odd case of corruption within the ranks of official staff.

Traditional preventative measures cannot succeed without help from a trade instrument that acts as a disincentive to poaching by replacing poached horn with legal horn drawn from stockpiles. Here in KZN, we may not have long porous international borders to our parks, but, instead, have to contend with the lowest of low hanging fruit in the form of many rhino concentrated in small protected areas situated amid impoverished rural communities with unemployment rates of over 40% and easy escape routes for criminals into nearby urban areas.

Our KZN reserves are extremely vulnerable to poaching. It remains a comparatively low-risk activity on account of the cover afforded by rugged terrain and thick vegetation. Under these conditions, effective protection of rhino by even the best-trained and most well-equipped army of rangers that the flushest of budgets could afford, is rendered extremely difficult.

South Africa’s rhino can be saved through common sense. Replace the illegal trade in rhino horn with a legal trade and we might just regain control of our natural heritage.

South Africa's rhino can be saved through rational use of practical common sense , not misguided allegiance to noble but completely impractical animal rights ethics - an ideology that could be argued already has the death of over 1200 rhino, and rising, to ponder". Replace the illegal trade in rhino horn with a legal trade and we might just regain control of our natural heritage.

 

• David Cook is a former Natal Parks Board senior officer and environmental consultant.

 THE WITNESS - PIETERMARITZBURG, OCTOBER 16, 2012

Paradox of Water

The Paradox of Water. 

Some rambling thoughts as we approach a long weekend...

Two articles featured in Pietermaritzburg’s The Witness last week on Wednesday 18 April, 2012, on pages 4 and 10 respectively. The Editors Column, on page 10, a considered review and plea for planning in fragile water infrastructure, and I assume, a request for some real investment in protecting our scarce water resources (we need R573 Billion to maintain it!). On Page 4, a report by Rajaa Azzakani on utterances by our esteemed Minister of Environmental and Water Affairs, Edna Molewa, apparent champion of the causes of Environment and Water Affairs. She threatens a declining agricultural sector (with reduced water access in the face of increasing mining and industrial usage) to redirect water usage, at the expense of future food production, for a growing urban population, in an apparent lack of understanding of the value of water to our society.

How does the Minister think we are going to grow food, when we redirect water to urban centres for increasingly inefficient municipalities? Why are we not focussing on urban rainwater harvesting and urban and catchment ecosystem (green) infrastructure maintenance and development? How can we better manage the limited water we have, rather than simply redirecting these scarce resources to inefficient systems within municipalities? I still cannot believe people actually eat the fish they catch in our local Msunduzi River? We can’t even deliver water to households without wasting 600 ml of every litre! This situation is mirrored around our nation. What use is a house when you are starving and cannot drink the water? Urbanisation is a trend that cannot be ignored. Msunduzi is no exception. A proportionately shrinking ratepayer’s pool will not continue to fund inefficiencies.

Paradoxically on page 9, a great article on Conservation Agriculture, featuring Mary Mlambo, and beneath that the notice of the SLIP Fair (sponsored by African Conservation Trust), which aims to highlight sustainable living, water harvesting, and sensible use of our natural resources, with some great stallholders and wonderful films and speakers, and on the same page, in an insert segment, a letter on wedding gifts, reflecting on the new need to be independent of service providers such as Eskom, Umgeni, and Municipalities!  Some great editorial satire!!
So does the solution lie on page 9 provides our solution: A focus on intensive urban agriculture projects (not handing out seedpacks please!), water harvesting and recycling, proper town planning with streets and pathways that channel water into useful productive fields rather than into stormwater drains.

And please do not get me started on Hydraulic Fracturing (fracking) something which the honourable Minister and other departments in the SA Government are actually contemplating for our water scarce country as a result of the “job creation potential” and “value to the economic growth energy requirements”. How are we going to grow food with toxic water from fracking and other industrial pursuits? What part of this is difficult to understand? Millions of tons of toxic chemicals injected into a crack in rocks will not contaminate for centuries the drinking water and aquifers in the heartland of SA? What amount of Uranium, Mercury, Radium, Lead, Methanol, Hydrochloric Acid, Formaldehyde and Ethylene Glycol (some of the up to 600 chemicals used in the process) do you want in your water and food?

But back to urban dwelling...Why do we continue to approve urban housing and industrial developments without insisting on sustainable practices? An investment of time into layout and planning at a local level, will alleviate future shocks in poorly planned “townships” and industrial sites. And getting it right means we plan for future environmental solutions rather than engineered concrete. That means less payment to repair future storm damage if ecosystems remain intact. Nature provides perfect engineering models, just open your eyes and let’s not be so arrogant that we believe we can build another dam to solve our problems.

Msunduzi can be a City of the Future, let’s create the City we Deserve and insist on constructive, well designed, sustainable development, rather than development for the sake of development. What kind of City do we want to live in a decade from now?  A water secure, sustainable, healthy, food secure, safe city, or one in which we pay dearly for water and food, because we are flushing our most precious resource into the streets? Our Choice, in our City!

Pop into the SLIP Fair this weekend, 27 to 29 April at the Cattle Arena, Royal Showgrounds to learn and share with the Fresh Film Festival and the Speakers Platform. Thanks to Wildlands Conservation Trust for coming on board. We’re proud to have them as a partner in KZN and its great working with a group of like-minded people with a vision.

Many thanks
Francois

Emotion and Sentiment: What’s the difference?

Reflections from Francois du Toit: CEO African Conservation Trust, husband, father, wildlife warrior, eco-crusader, custodian of open spaces, poor  (injured) MTB enthusiast.

Dr Ian Player challenged me and the ACT team earlier this year. About 39 Rhinos ago.

He asked us to make a bold statement, to be quite clear where we stand, not to sit on the fence so to speak. So last week we reflected on “Making Friends with Reality” as the first part of a commentary and a statement from ACT and myself. The second part we promised as a follow on.The issue we must now confront is the difference between sentiment and emotion. As the death toll has mounted, and in particular in the past few months, sentiment is washing over us. We all are being bombarded by this Rhino issue. 

To make sure I was on the right track, and to keep it simple, I looked these words up in my daughter’s Oxford School Dictionary.

Emotion (noun): a strong mental feeling, such as anger, love or hate

Emotional: (adjective) to do with emotions; synonyms: heartfelt (felt deeply and sincerely) , fervent (warm or strong feelings), passionate, impassioned, ardent (very enthusiastic, full of ardour)

Sentiment (noun): an opinion or mental attitude produced by your feeling about something

Sentimental (adjective): showing or affected by feelings of tenderness, sadness or nostalgia;  synonyms: mawkish (sentimental in a feeble or sickly way) , maudlin (sentimental in silly or soppy way), soppy (wet, pathetic)

Interesting so far? Some strong direction here I thought.

So here’s what I think...Sentiment involves gnashing of teeth and wailing and never actually doing anything. Sentiment belongs to the “Shoulda-woulda-coulda” clan. Sentiment looks back and wonders what happened. Emotion looks forward and makes things happen. Emotions are change agents, and in the working world, Sentiments end up working for Emotions. Sentiments are only driven to action when they are physically threatened themselves, and then they run, or cry or whimper in a corner. Emotions are driven by the future they see, and the injustices they encounter. They are solution-oriented, they actually do what the Sentiments talk about around the braai fire or at the coffee shop.

Sentiments sit in secure flats in other countries or even in our own cities, (they live amongst us) and post ill-informed opinions seeking public acknowledgement via facebook, and other platforms from thousands of people they only ever meet virtually. They live virtual lives.

Emotions live in the reserves or in their buffer communities, they patrol the fences, they jump out of planes, they drive rallies, they cycle up a hill, they run a marathon, they take a collection at work, they post on the bulletin boards of the world, they start a cause marketing event and raise funding to address the problem, after they have spoken to experts who are in the field. They pick up the phone and ask from us what they can do, they do, they drive, they move. Once they’ve identified a problem, they attack it with zeal, with passion. Sentiments talk around the braai about how they envy Emotion: “I wish I had the time to do what Emotion does, boy, are they driven! “

Emotion drives, it empowers, it causes change.

Sentiment is disconnected emotion. It is distant, non-emotive. It is dislocated.

Sentiment looks at a dog wandering the streets, hungry and lost, and says” Shame I hope it’s alright, you know I cannot understand people that let their dogs roam like that, they should be locked up themselves” then by the time they’ve rounded the block In their air-conditioned SUV they’ve found the next cause to bemoan.

Emotion stops, spends half an hour stopping traffic and cajoling the frightened animal into their car, picks it up, takes it home, feeds it and baths it, de-fleas it, and puts up posters saying “Lost dog” until finally it becomes part of your family.

The dog growls at Sentiment who, if they ever got out of the car, would give up in a few minutes, the dog senses a fraud. The dog comes to Emotion because it senses safety and action.

Emotion is action.

Sentiment is talk.

Talk is cheap, money buys the whisky.

Do you get the picture? Sentiment is a cop-out, it’s the easy way. Sentiment wants to ban hunting, ban trade in Rhino horn, ban, stop, create inertia, because sentiment hates making a decision, it hates movement. Sentiment will debate while the guns cut down another rhino in the blazing African sun. Sentiment thrives in a bureaucracy, it grows in uncertainty, and without an answer Sentiment can continue to wring their hands and wail. Sentiment requires a vacuum of action in order to survive.

Emotion is what will save the rhinos. It will also save the open spaces we so desperately crave in our times of need. We go to the Wilderness to recharge, to rejuvenate our broken souls. Emotion is what saved St Lucia Wetland Park, it created Kruger Park, it created Mapungubwe, Hluhluwe Umfolozi, it created Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park, it created millions of hectares under conservation. Emotion is good, is it an active force to be harnessed and driven until decision makers finally see the reasons.

Emotion will do this, because Emotion cares, and is genuinely concerned for our future. Emotion sees the future, and the future is one in which our generation will not have to hang our heads in shame and show our grandchildren pictures of Rhinos, and say we’re sorry.

So don’t just sit there, do something. This is our call to action. Become emotional about conserving our natural heritage. I am.

Francois du Toit, Pietermaritzburg, 7 February 2012.

“Make Reality your Friend.” Dr Ian Player

Reflections from Francois du Toit:  CEO: African Conservation Trust and Citizen of Africa: Custodian of our Wildlife Heritage

So here we are. 1 February 2012. It’s another hot day in Africa for those of us living here, 35°Celsius outside and not much better inside. As I write this, somewhere in South Africa a fence is breached, a rhino is killed, a poacher runs with a bloody horn in a bag through the dusty thorn tree thickets to the waiting buyer.  A payment is made: 2 years’ worth of income (at normal daily wages) in a community where unemployment is around 70 – 80%, HIV/AIDS has ravaged the working age populationand flies swarm around the mouths of potbellied children. It’s not just in Ethiopia!

A whole month has flown past already. 31 days of 2012 gone, and so too, another 30 odd rhino slaughtered in South African game reserves.

Increasing sentiment and emotion surround “the issue”. Flocks of people waxing lyrical on facebook, tweeting, pinging, zip, zap, whatever… (I’m over 40 so most of this goes over my head). What I do know though is that the electronic media is powerful platform for all its members and well qualified perspectives rub shoulders with hysterical outbursts of ill-informed rage. And as the discourse builds, the battle lines are drawn.

Dr Ian Player has challenged me and the staff of ACT to think carefully about two issues: the first is: making reality our friend.  The other is being clear about the difference between emotion and sentiment.  I’ll deal with the first challenge here….

What are the realities (plural) of the rhino poaching crisis? And how do we make friends with them?

From an African Conservation Trust perspective, we are at the coalface. As a founder member of Project Rhino KZN, we are not directly in the line of fire but interface daily with those that are, and we are acutely aware of the reality on the ground.   Some realities which we have to embrace in order to find real solutions are:

  •  Anti-Poaching Unit members are receiving death threats, particularly those who do their work too well. They risk their lives daily, working long hours in the hot sun, under-resourced, covering vast areas, often only able to react once an incident has occurred.
  • Demand from the East is not going to abate any time soon. With an increasingly affluent middle class, a 3,000-year old civilisation and cultural belief system is not going to change quickly, no matter how much we beg, plead, shake our fists or conduct “educational programmes”.

o    ‘Seek first to understand and then be understood...’

  • The majority of South Africa’s game reserves are surrounded by communities made up of thousands of people.  Some of them were forcibly removed, most are impoverished, and the issue of human-wildlife conflict and uneven distribution of resources is a reality that is plain to see over the electrified, patrolled fences.
  • Like it or not, Rhino horn is a trading commodity. At present it has been driven underground by CITES regulations, but like every other sought-after commodity (think oil, diamonds), reducing supply simply increases demand – and price.

 

So how do we make friends with reality?  Responsible trade in Rhino horn is a logical answer (note the emphasis on the word ‘responsible’).  It’s not the only answer, but give this some thought:  anecdotal evidence says that South Africa has a stockpile of 40 tons of rhino horn that has been collected from animals that have died of natural causes. If this was responsibly released into the market over a 10 year period, it could nett the conservation authorities and others working to protect all wild species (not just Rhino) a staggering $2,4 billion at current market prices of $60,000 per kilogram.   It would also stop rhino poaching in its tracks, not just here in SA, but also in other African countries where rhino are quickly being driven to the point of extermination.

However, corruption exists at all levels of society and that is another reality that we have to accept. Will it get better or worse, if we legalise limited trade, under strict controls and conditions?

Another reality we need to face head-on is the issue of hunting and its role in conservation.  I’m not a hunter: pointing a gun at a wild animal and then having it stare glassy-eyed from my lounge wall does not appeal to me. But hunting is a valuable source of income to both conservationists and communities.

The global hunting fraternity is lucrative and vast and the reality is that they have ploughed more money into conservation than animal activists have.  It may seem a contradiction but the funds gained from hunting have directly contributed to the growth and expansion of SA’s protected areas and played a big role in saving the White rhino from extinction back in the 1960’s.

There is a big difference between controlled hunting for conservation’s benefit – and indiscriminate hunting for sport, which is another issue entirely.  Hunting for sport enjoyment only, is where no controls exist and animals are killed without thought to the wider biodiversity needs of a specific reserve.  This type of hunting we do not condone and will speak out very strongly against it at every opportunity. 

Whether you like it or not, hunting for the benefit of conservation is a reality that exists and works, particularly when it involves community-owned reserves, like the Makhasa Community reserve, which hit the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons.

People have to benefit from conservation if it is to continue to exist and this is especially true for poor communities who have been persuaded to turn their lands over to wildlife instead of crops and cattle.  That is a reality that we must befriend. Ploughing money back into communities through managed hunting and stock control is a necessity, as human populations continue to grow and pressurise our natural resources.  

It also means working with these communities to add value, teaching conservation agriculture skills, developing natural resource bases, creating access to water and understand their real needs. This is what ACT and others in our field do, providing another level of anti-poaching support to the reserves.

The issue at hand is the sustainable use of wildlife and wildlife products: this is a reality that we have to make friends with. 

So what is the answer? I’m not sure I or ACT has all the answers, no-one ever does. But we need to take off our rose-tinted glasses and see reality for what it is.  Only then will we be able to consider real alternatives that have a chance of working.  Only then, can we look forward to a future where the rhino and other animals continue to roam Africa’s wild places.

Make reality your friend - then do something.   It will all help - every bit does count. Thousands of individuals built the pyramids, and countless others helped to preserve our natural heritage - and continue to do so.   If you can do nothing else, then give a dollar. We’re going to raise ZAR 10 million this year for solutions that are grounded in reality.  Sounds a lot?  Not really, if 100,000 individuals give ZAR10, or US$1 each.

Frans_quote-_south_african_passage

Chat soon. Francois

2012 and Beyond: Bright new future for Action Oriented Conservationists

It’s the 16th of January 2012 and we’re taking some time to nail down the cunning plans we hatched in 2011. Get everyone on board, so we’re all on the same page, speaking from the same sheet, singing the same tune, blah-de-blah-de-blah! Does that sound like jargon-speak-waffle or what!!!

2011 flew past and I had only just recovered from the hype of the 2010 World Cup! The year ended with COP17 which was gone in a blur and those who attended were blown away by the event, even though the initial expectations were low for the environmentalists and conservationists, I have only received positive input from attendees. Knowledge sharing, a sense of momentum, common understanding of the very real dangers facing our lives as we continue to plunder the finite resources under our feet and pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink. Are we really such a destructive species? Sadly, yes! Clearly quite stupid as well! Like cutting a branch off a tree and sitting on the end of the branch while you’re doing it, or burning a bridge from both sides and you’re in the middle?!

2011 was a massive learning curve for African Conservation Trust. And for many of our strategic partners too, I suspect. We are forging meaningful partnerships, working together instead of in silos. We, and I mean the collective of environmental and agricultural NGO’s in the Pietermaritzburg (and Durban) area, are sharing, partnering, growing, learning, building a legacy, which will hopefully last beyond the dynamic leadership that currently exists.

Once the "what" is decided, the "how" always follows. We must not make the "how" an excuse for not facing and accepting the "what.   - Pearl S. Buck                                                                 

Do the RIGHT thing. Avoid analysis paralysis. Wherever there is a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. There comes a time when one must firmly choose your course or the relentless passage of time will make the decision for you. 2012 is the time. It is the first year of the rest of your life. Choose carefully. Then spring into action. Action cures fear!

My sense is that there is a groundswell of community engagement, a desire to take ownership, a spirit of hope, here in the KwaZulu Natal. Perhaps it is my lens, but then again, who’s to say that my perception is not reality. What is your reality? What are you doing to make it happen?

This is what ACT is driving for. It’s our byline, you know, under the signature on the emails...Conservation, Innovation, Education.

By Conservation, we mean...an environment free of pollution, clean air, clean water and clean, fertile soil. We aim to help establish 1 million food gardeners in this province by 2015. We will build on our legacy of rock art heritage, continuing to pioneer the interface of technology and ancient art. We will continue to recycle and rehabilitate degraded landscapes and plant thousands of trees. We will further develop our rainwater harvesting projects and the BioFarm as a model in Nongoma. We will champion the cause of conservation with Project Rhino members, and build on the legacy of the pioneers in this province.

By Innovation, we mean...bring new insights to the use of technology in heritage mapping and the environmental sector. We will further develop the GIGABite Gardens programme, creating a database of 1 million gardeners by 2015. We will harness the networking capacity of the internet and cellphones. (As a technology immigrant I confess this escapes me. Whatever happened to face to face? But today’s technology residents  (ie youth!) are quite frankly, stupendous and amazing with their ability to multitask in media!!) We will explore new frontiers in natural resource harvesting and lay foundations for future generations.

By Education, we mean... build skills and expertise in the field of Conservation Agriculture, through a network of trainers and facilitators, guided by a mentorship group that serves with passion. We will bring together the players in this field, so that collectively we can help our communities to help themselves, to feed themselves, to care for their immediate environment and to understand the fragility of our existence. We will continue to support and assist other NGO’s in KZN and throughout SADC through our nSimbi programme and strengthen links with higher learning institutions to create a new generation of conscious, action-oriented individuals.

We will do this in partnership with our friends and fellow NGO’s. And this rising tide will lift all ships.

For me it is quite clear. NGO’s are changing radically. They have always filled the vacuum left by government and business.  Politics and Economics. Government takes time to deliver. Moeletsi Mbeki speaks of this in his book “Architects of Poverty” (my festive season read!). In many instances the forces that drive our economy and our country, our region, our continent are beyond our personal ability to change. They are part of a 100 year plan for resource utilisation, driven by economic and political allies, who seek control and power. Heavy, I know, but read this insightful book and then challenge this perspective.

NGO’s are behaving more like business (with less exploitation we hope!), social entrepreneurship is rising, and consciousness is climbing, discerning choices being made and communities no longer accepting the status quo. We have business plans, focus areas, and address real needs for our stakeholders. At least we continue to work to these goals!

So what are we to do? The question is not what but when. Just do something. We have a policy here at ACT where our team staff are encouraged to volunteer a few days a year (on our time) at the cause of their choice, and it doesn’t have to be environmental, just something... Walk a granny or clean kennels at the SPCA, read to some old folks at a home. We don’t care what you do, just do something. Something that matters to you... something that makes a difference in someone else ‘s life. And then come back and tell us at the next staff meeting! You’ll feel better for it!

So what will 2012 bring for you? Focus, direction, significance? Become a giver, you’ll be surprised at how good YOU feel if you do. It’s a bit selfish really, but try it!

What’s your dream? John Maxwell says a dream helps you to focus, to stretch yourself, to sacrifice (there are no shortcuts to success), it helps you to persevere, it attracts winners, and to depend on your faith and others.

Most of us lose sight of our dreams somewhere between puberty and our first job. Don’t let your dreams die under the dark weight of responsibility (Midnight Oil, Australian rock band!)

Isn’t that what life is about? Having a dream and chasing it? So make 2012 the beginning of the rest of your life. Make it end differently to 2011. YOU be your own champion! And be a hero to others.  We hope we can create some of this at ACT. We’re going to give it a go!

Chat again soon.

Building on a Legacy of Action: Project Rhino

Francois du Toit: CEO: African Conservation Trust: A member of Project Rhino KZN

As KwaZulu Natal, South Africa hosts the world’s leaders in the COP17 deliberations, the outcome of which will bring much commentary, and the process of which is confusing even to insiders, the real issues facing conservation in South Africa and the world continue to remain as challenging as ever.

We face species and biodiversity loss on a scale never before seen in humankind, and a threat to our very existence as we destroy the fabric of our fragile world in our quest for material possessions. South African (and many developing nation) leaders struggle with the balancing act of redressing of historic imbalances, whilst building a new economy. Leaders all over the world grapple with a basic understanding of the fragility of the systems upon which they seek to build a new future. Capitalism has failed the environment. It is not sustainable. It is, by its very definition, a resource exploitative system. All around us is clear and unambiguous evidence of the destruction of the natural resource base and environmental services which laid the foundation for past growth but which is being undermined in a race for wealth. Material wealth, that is. But what is wealth? Is it purely material or is it deeper than that? Have we lost sight of the things that are important to us? Community, family, clean air, clean rivers, open space, humility, fellowship.

The “Green” movement is often seen by economic growth proponents and business as counter-productive. It becomes a “Them vs Us” battle, sides are chosen, lines are drawn, and the real issues lost in a fog of PR and spin. This is sad, but true. Radical conservationists do themselves no favours by emotional gesturing and public shock displays. These are tools, yes, but more often than not result in alienation, not only of the business sector, but also of the common public, who react with horror when faced with bloody corpses and graphic images. Without knowledge and understanding of any environmental issue, the public will not acknowledge and cannot therefore respect nor love, and without love they will not act. And action is what we require now. Not isolated action by self serving groups, (this includes, sadly, much of the environmental NGO sector, who chase the same funding sources and appear in many instances to be contradicting each other in an effort to destroy reputations and therefore credibility), but a combined effort to address the mounting pressure on limited resources and our environmental legacy.

The environmental cause has always been a complex one, with agendas, passion and historical, political, economic and social influences. Nothing has changed. What is it that we wish to be remembered for? That we were part of the greatest extinction since the Ice-age? That we sat idle whilst rhinos and other species vanished before our very eyes, within our lifetime? How will we answer our grandchildren’s questions: Why didn’t you stop them? Will you say you were too busy working, for what? For more things, or for your family’s legacy? As I reread this, I realise that only I can answer these questions, not only for myself, but more importantly, for future generations...

In the midst of this, South Africa has, over the past 3 years, experienced what can only be described as an onslaught to one of its iconic Big Five species, the Rhino.

122 rhino killed in 2009, 333 rhino killed in 2010, over 400 by the beginning of December 2011. In the period 2000-2007, a total of 100 rhino’s poached. In 2008, 83 poached. What happened? Why now? Who is doing this?

Nearly 50 years ago, in the 1960’s, a group of visionary, active, vociferous conservationists fought to bring the rhino back from extinction. And they succeeded. Operation Rhino, spearheaded by Dr Ian Player, with men such as Magqubu Ntombela, Jim Feely, Nick Steele, Ken Tinley, and many others, too numerous to mention, was an international success story. It brought to the fore the tales of yesteryear, brave men galloping through the thick, thorny African bushveld, this time not slaughtering thousands of animals in the bloodlust of trophy hunting, but trying desperately, through trial and error, to bring a species back from the brink of extinction. These men built on the actions of others before them, the visionaries who fought for the preservation of large tracts of land, Kruger National Park, Umfolozi, Hluhluwe, Ndumo, Mkuze, land which was protected and declared a national heritage (although often in not as many words, the intention was there), despite the protestations from farmers, businessmen and others who sought ownership and exploitation for their own personal gain. People like Major Vaughn Kirby, Roden Symons, Captain HB Potter, and their predecessors.

Read the chronicles of these men and women, and then you will begin to understand that we face the same threats now as we faced 50 years ago, 100 years ago. History repeats itself.  Only this time there may be no turning back. The population of the world has hit the 7 billion mark. Pressure to feed this mass of humanity is mounting. Some say we have already reached the tipping point.

But history will tell us also of the incredible fortitude of humankind, of its ability to turn the tide when we collectively decide to do so. But this will require leadership, and courage, and action.

So when a group of involved, concerned environmentally active NGO leaders and their staff were moved to act, as the rhinos fell daily, Project Rhino was born. Project Rhino was not born this year, the NGO’s that form its core have not only been concerned about the plight of the rhino in the years 2010 and 2011. They have been fighting this fight for many years, some for over 50 years, and came together to work together, realising that collectively they could make a bigger impact than as separate entities.

Project Rhino is not just a project, with a limited and defined time period and budget. It is greater than that; it builds on the legacy of the conservationists of yesteryear, some living, some dead; it builds on decades and even centuries of dedication, it recognises that the sector had become fragmented, disjointed and, for the general public, often confusing. It seeks to create a platform for interaction, for a combined front to halt this devastation. It is a collective of like-minded organisations, staffed and led by individuals that have a deep sense of the current crisis facing conservation and the environment. Many of its members are deeply entrenched in “pure rhino” or species specific activities, many have a broader conservation and environment focus, but all recognise the interconnectedness of the conservation effort and that in order to survive this latest onslaught, we must act together.

Many individuals within these organisations were “simply office staff” earning a wage or a salary, and not necessarily embedded in environmental issues. Such is the nature of the sector today, where we exist as part business, part social enterprise, part magician and part conscience. Some staff and leaders have a quiet history of engagement. Without fail, all are deeply moved by this “sudden”, visual and disturbing slaughter.

Project Rhino, for me anyway, is not just about the Rhino. The Rhino is an icon, a species that is under threat, daily being decimated, severed heads placed on public roads in national reserves as a blatant taunt by poaching syndicates to the authorities. Project Rhino is indicative of the tip of the iceberg, the unseen hideous cancer that is destroying our communities, eating away at our souls. We have lost touch with the wilderness. Our leaders have forgotten what it is like to be a civil servant (in many instances they are neither civil nor servants!). Neighbours do not know each other. We operate in isolation, watching BBC documentaries about species under threat, without realising it is happening under our noses.

Is the Rhino going to be this generation’s Dodo, or Carrier Pigeon? Are we going to stand and watch or are we going to do something? Project Rhino seeks to do something. We are all moving in the same direction, each doing their own specialist or generalist activity, with some overlaps, but we are communicating, working together to fill in the gaps left by bureaucrats, and historically inept officialdom. Not just the past 17 years, but centuries of ineptitude!  There are champions amongst this group, but their efforts are most often than not deafened by the greed of others.

Africa is a special place. Go on a true Wilderness Trail and you will be impacted, moved to action, not by some mystical force, but because you realise how vulnerable we really are, and how old the earth really is, and how fragile the relationship really is. You will gain some deeper understanding of your place, your purpose and your passion.

Your action will have been triggered, a small seed sown that may only be reaped in years to come, but it will have been sown.

It is the wild spaces that make Africa special, and KwaZulu Natal is amongst those most special places on earth. Populous, pressurised, in many places polluted, but still very special.

Project Rhino must and will build on the actions of the brave men and women who came before them. They had the foresight to stand up and fight for the spaces they knew were special.  They lay in front of bulldozers for St Lucia, they were beaten and bruised to save the Rhino, they fought, they rallied, they lived, breathed, ate and slept these causes. And they continue to do so, through the alliance of Project Rhino KZN, this group of people, organisations and communities that is growing daily.

I personally hope that, one day, my children’s children will be able to proudly point to my small actions and say that though there is still much work to be done, we were a generation that did something selfless for future generations. That we stopped this slaughter in its tracks and that this was the turning point. 2011.

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Posterous theme by Cory Watilo