African Wildlife and Environment Issue 70

Nyoka Vulture view point

O n Thursday 11 March 1926 in the Polley's Transvaal Hotel in Pretoria, several Game Protection Associations came together to form the Wildlife Protection Society of South Africa. This was the first beginnings of an organisation that was destined to leave its mark on Southern Africa’s conservation landscape for many generations to come. In 1929 in Johannesburg, the early version of the Transvaal branch was formed followed by the Springs branch in 1948, whose aim was to establish a bird sanctuary. The formal Transvaal branch was formed in 1967 and grew rapidly to be the largest branch in the organisation. Over the years many centres followed leaving their mark in the region some are still active today. This article is a glimpse at the centres past and a few present, Benoni, Carletonville, Florida, Germiston,

groups and the various city Parks and Conservation departments can build a strong relationship and work together. The region is managed by a committee consisting of the chairman, coordinator, treasurer, conservation and project leaders, Friends Co-ordinator, the branch chairman and newly formed Zone leaders. Currently there are three branches Springs-Nigel, Boksburg and Tshwane (made up of Friends groups chairs), with the two new zones, one in Kempton Park and the other in the Paul Roux town area in the Eastern Free State. The chairs have regularly met with the Rustenburg Wildlife Society to get them back on board as a branch. There is a process on the go to establish the first University branch in many years at the Tshwane University of Technology. NAR office bearers play an important role in the Conservancy associations, Magaliesberg Biosphere,

Africa. Included in this area are several key National, Provincial and Biosphere reserves. Its main centre is Gauteng with North West, Limpopo and Mpumulanga (excluding the Lowveld) making up the region. More recently Free State has moved under this umbrella, until one day a regional group can be re established there. NAR has the largest number of Friends groups and Affiliates found in the WESSA portfolio. Friends groups, numbering around 27 of which 18 are centred mainly around Tshwane, where they do invaluable work in keeping these green open spaces maintained and protected. Recently a Friends branch was established to represent all the Tshwane Friends groups. These groups link into the MOU with Tshwane Municipality and WESSA, whereby only fully paid-up Friends groups are recognised by the metro as legitimate supporters, in the various green areas of the city. This serves as an example of how Friends

Johannesburg, Krugersdorp, Nelspruit, Pietersburg, Pretoria, Randburg, Sandton, RAU centre, Roodepoort, Soutpansberg, Springs, Tukkies, Vaal Volksrust and White River. The newsletter of the Transvaal branch, The Chat was first published in 1969 as the main mouth piece of the region. A milestone was the West Rand branch organising a two-day symposium in April 1980, dealing with the Magaliesberg mountains with the purpose to address concerns of land owners mainly around the attempt of the Nature conservation department to purchase or expropriate all the farms that were proclaimed a Nature Area in 1977. In these early beginnings the WESSA head office was based at Delta Park in Johannesburg, except for the conservation division that was in Durban. Today the region covers a vast range of habitats and protected areas in this northern part of South

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The pub in the Sunland Baobab taken in 2011 before the ancient tree collapsed Photograph: Eugene Moll