African Wildlife & Environment Issue 74

Another KwaZulu-Natal Friends Group has charted a different course. Coastwatch was established partly as a watchdog but mainly as a team of well-qualified specialists who could provide informed and relevant responses to conservation issues affecting the coast and the marine environment. The coastline is very special to a great many people, both residents and visitors, and consequently the pressures upon it have steadily increased, especially for ‘development’. But recent events have shown just how vulnerable our beaches and our beachfronts are to storm damage and climate change. Our estuaries also were becoming very degraded, not least due to land- derived waste and to sand-mining operations. Calling on the varied expertise of its members, Coastwatch has challenged illegal and ill-considered activities and developments, although usually its successes will not even be noticed. We can be particularly proud of their efforts in lobbying for better legislation, including NEMA, NEM:CMA, and NEM:BA and the subsequent regulations, and most recently our new MPAs. KwaZulu-Natal is not just a strip of coastline. The Sani Branch has become famous for its annual Wildflower Walk down the Sani Pass; there is an excellent guide to the flora you may encounter, Mountain Flowers , written by Elsa Pooley. The Midlands Members are known for their conservation activities, protecting the sources of so much of our water supply from fracking and other idiotic schemes.

Other members have made DUCT a force to be reckoned with, and the incredible work of the Duzi- Umgeni Conservation Trust from source to sea means this river system can continue to host the world famous Duzi Canoe Marathon. Kwazulu-Natal has had the benefit of some truly outstanding talent. WY Campbell, the first secretary of the NGPA, was tenacious, persuasive and well- informed; in his second day in office he was already petitioning the authorities to enforce the game laws. In 1947, Dr George Campbell led the first scientific expedition to survey the wildlife of Maputaland, which subsequently led to the founding of SAAMBR and the first Durban aquarium, which was built with funding from the Natal Branch of WESSA. This has now become Ushaka Marine World and, along with SAAMBR and ORI, still plays a significant role in research and conservation. Lake St. Lucia found a champion in Nollie Zaloumis and was transformed into the Isimangaliso World Heritage Site; Dr Zaloumis subsequently was elected as WESSA’s chairman. We have neither time nor space to do justice to Ernest Warren, Ian Garland, Mlindeli Gcumisa, Keith Cooper, Di Dold, Jim Taylor, Jerry Goznell, and so many others who each in their own way have helped turn conservation into a better way of life for so many of us. The challenge is to follow in their shoes.

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