African Wildlife and Environment Issue 68

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Our dwindling ecosystems require conservation to secure species existence and intact green infrastructure. In many instances rehabilitation is needed both within and outside of the protected areas. Some WESSA Eco-Schools have been working towards this goal in KwaZulu Natal (KZN). Twenty Eco-Schools around the province were identified in 2015 to work on ecosystem monitoring, conservation and where possible, rehabilitation projects.

For the past three years these schools have been supported as part of the ‘Eco-Schools for Ecosystems’ project made possible with financial backing from the RMB Fund. This project includes schools in the KZN Midlands working on wetland and grassland conservation, schools in Durban doing river monitoring, anda fewschoolsborderingMozambique, in northern Zululand in the Ndumo Game Reserve buffer zone, who are conserving savanna habitat and biodiversity. A case study of Shea O’Connor Combined School Shea O’Connor Combined School in the KZNMidlands town of Nottingham Road is a good case in point. This school is a long-standing Eco-School in South Africa having first registered in 2004. This school decided to take on the challenge of rehabilitating a

highly transformed wetland area within their school grounds. It is estimated that over 50% of South Africa’s wetlands have been destroyed (Kotze et al ., 1995). Of the remaining wetlands, 48% are classified as Critically Endangered (Nel et al ., 2011), meaning that they are at great risk of being lost too. A wetland’s ability to provide free ecosystem services has resulted in wetlands being increasingly recognised for their economic value to civilisation (de Groot et al ., 2002). Some of these services include maintenance of the water table, groundwater aquifer recharge, water purification, nutrient and sediment retention, erosion control, flood prevention or attenuation, habitat provision, carbon sequestration and climate stabilisation. The Eco-club learners adopted a motto to ‘think global and act local’ and that is precisely what they have done these past few years. They decided to

Learners clearing the invasive plant Canna indica from the wetland. (Photo: C.D. Hugo)

Eco-school for ECOSYSTEMS

Christine D. Hugo

Lower wetland area in June 2015 right before the fence was erected showing short cuts to the original toilet blocks, as well as invasive alien plants. (Photo: A.T. Mkhabela)

38 |

39 | African Wildlife & Environment | 68 (2018)