Children from various schools in the area learn about nature

As part of their mission to educate the youth on nature, the Friends of Kloofendal (FRoK) hands-on environmental educational programme takes learners from different schools on a tour of Kloofendal Nature Reserve.

“FRoK was formed to conserve the Kloofendal Reserve for future generations, and protect it from abuse and development, through ‘hands-on’ environmental education for all ages,” explained Karin Spottiswoode, from FRoK.

She continued that she qualified as a level one field guide from the Field Guide Association of South Africa (FGASA) in 2002. In August of that year, members of the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa started FRoK.

She noted in 2002 that Kloofendal was not effectively used and said ‘to attract people, making them feel safer, I started organising guided groups in the reserve’. This included two-hour walks with various topics for people in the community. The walks consisted of frog evenings, flower walks, grass courses, tree walks, spider walks, and all with experts in the different fields. She then started these walks for school groups with FGASA guides.

“FRoK and I feel that each learner needs to be allowed to explore and gain understanding in, and respect for the natural environment, observe how nature functions, what all happens there, wanting to learn more, become aware of our dependency on the natural environment … learners and adults too, need to become aware of what damage us human do to the natural environment and how we can all make a difference to reduce our bad impact … we are very grateful for the support we receive from Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo [JCPZ] who manage the reserve, and how FRoK, community members and JCPZ work together in preserving and protecting the reserve in many ways,” concluded Karin.