Conserving nature for generations to come

IT was another day of investing in nature as nature-conscious organisations gathered at the Palmiet River Awareness Day. Taking place at the Palmiet Nature Reserve in Westville, the awareness day was organised by Ground Truth with the aim to engage with the community on their thoughts and ideas.

Catherine Meyer of Ground Truth said the awareness day was also an opportunity for them to share their knowledge on keeping rivers healthy. “We have partnered up with people who are of the same mission – people who are interested in conserving the environment. We came together to enrich the community with knowledge and help them understand how things work,” she said. Along with Ground Truth were the Westville Conservancy, Green Corridors and Duzi Umgeni Conservation Trust (DUCT). Each organisation presented their ways or methods on how to conserve the rivers.

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Wendy Ngcobo from DUCT explained to the Highway Mail that their organisation works to rehabilitate the Umgeni and Umsunduzi rivers by extracting garbage from the river by hand-picking.
“We also eradicate invasive plants using tools such as hand-pulling and chemicals. We have tools that measure how rivers have been impacted. We work hand in hand with some of the organisations here by sharing knowledge and using each other’s methods and tools,” said Ngcobo.

The Green Corridors are instrumental in creating spaces that encourage the survival of wildlife. “We focus on areas that were previously dumping spots, and we came in to activate those spaces by removing alien plants and planting indigenous trees and making them accessible to the community. We develop parks, as well, that will contribute to childhood development. Once these areas are activated, we then attract local tourism which is run by local business owners.”
Furthermore, Musa Shanger of Green Corridors said they also partake in recycling. He demonstrated one of their recycled products called the ocean paver that is made up of waste.
The Westville Conservancy also explained about the parks they have developed in the efforts to conserve the environment.

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“Of the eight parks we have, some are part of the King Fisher catchment that feeds directly into the Palmiet River, and the work we do is to rehabilitate the parks. They were previously just mowed, and when you mow, you get nice green grass, but nothing really lives there. We have also been getting rid of the invasive plants and letting the natural plants grow,” said the organisation.
The day saw different members of the community come in to learn about the different roles they can play to save the environment.