Lowveld
WESSA Lowveld reinvented itself in 2003 and on specific request, was granted regional status. Justified on the basis of its keen committee, its unique location and the special environmental issues it has to deal with, this youngest and smallest of WESSA’s regions has more than its fair share of challenges. Small and widely dispersed membership is one. Nelspruit is hardly the established metro that most regions are anchored in and the rural areas are dominated by dramatically overpopulated ex-homelands and nature reserves. These contrasting land uses have to sustain themselves at the bottom end of the highveld’s overused and polluted water catchments.
These characteristics have determined the interests of the members who have been motivated to sit on the Lowveld’s committee over the years. Being home to the nation’s iconic Kruger National Park and its huge attendant eco-tourism industry, provides us with an obvious emphasis on conservation and biodiversity issues. Threatened water supplies, resulting from the impacts of mining, timber and food production make for frustrating discussions with officialdom and stressful living generally, for those who see the accelerating pace of unsustainability.
WESSA Lowveld has long supported Kruger NP, hosting a well publicised Elephant Management Debate and channelling Gower Trust funding towards radio-telemetry studies by researchers working with the Save the Elephants Trust. In 2008 we suddenly found ourselves with two part-time paid professionals to further our interests. Zuzette de Beer came to manage the Eco-Schools programme sponsored by Xstrata, and Marina Caird was appointed from our local committee, to Environmental Compliance Officer (ECO) per kind favour of the Ben Lavin Trust. These two worked out of their socks and raised local awareness and respect for WESSA to unprecedented heights.
Mpumalanga had about 30 EcoSchools on the books when Zuzette arrived and now we have over 130, mostly in the Lowveld. This expansion is impressive but it’s also vulnerable to collapse because a hundred of these schools are not supported by local zone structures and partnerships. There is just so much that an energetic part-time coordinator can do, but to manage 100 EcoSchools sustainably is not realistic. On the compliance side, our ECO has moved on and the funding has dried up so the Region is feeling back-to-square-one, depending on its over-committed volunteers who face long lists of compliance tasks they cannot possibly deal with. The Lowveld’s place in South Africa’s landscape provides unique opportunities and insights around vulnerable people and resource depletion. Its inability to finance even a minimum set of outreach functions deserves high priority nationally and locally.
Contact Details:
Post: Suite 445, Private bag 11340, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa
Tel: 083 630 1782
Email: lowveldchair@wessa.co.za
Secretary: lowveldadmin@wessa.co.za
Regional Chairperson: Ricky Potts