Moya Wa Tenga Safaris

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) welcomes a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. on 31 May 2011 denying a petition to reconsider the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 ban on domestic food tolerances for carbofuran, a pesticide used to kill nematodes in the soil.

South African soldiers are patrolling the world famous Kruger National Park on the borders with Mozambique to stamp out rhino poaching. The soldiers have not yet clashed with poachers who had killed 46 rhinos in Kruger park this year out of a countrywide total of 71 by last month.

The operation in Kruger is part of a move to give the army, rather than police, responsibility for border patrols.

Illegal hunting with dogs is rife in parts of South Africa and this is having a serious impact on wildlife, including the Endangered Oribi antelope.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) calls on the public to report illegal dog hunting to them. “If we don’t stop this practice, antelope like the Oribi could soon be extinct in South Africa,” says Samson Phakathi, Field Officer with the EWT’s Threatened Grassland Species Programme.

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and 10 other Non-governmental Organisations, led by the Centre for Environmental Rights, have proposed a list of areas of critical environmental value, where mining and prospecting should be prohibited. The proposal is a formal application by non-government and civil society organisations to the Minister of Mineral Resources to exercise her discretion under Section 49 of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (MPRDA), having regard to the national interest and the need to promote the sustainable development of the nation’s mineral resources, to prohibit or restrict granting reconnaissance, prospecting and mining rights and permits.

The fight to save the Mapungubwe region from the detrimental impact of coal mining has been strengthened this week, with the rights of future generations of South Africans to experience the region’s cultural and natural splendour forming the basis of an expanded legal battle.

The CCL argues that the right to preservation of the environment is inextricably linked with children’s rights to cultural identity, the protection and preservation of African culture and respect for the natural environment; both in international and regional law.

Of the 9 856 bird species on Earth, 1 226 are listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable. Forty of these occur in South Africa and of these 20 are endemic. Although extinction is a natural phenomenon, species are now disappearing from our planet at an alarming rate, and studies have shown that this is mostly driven by human activities.

In South Africa, a number of birds are listed on the IUCN Red List, with several heading for extinction should some of the threats continue and should the NGOs who are implementing conservation action halt their important work.

South Africa’s freshwater systems are in poor condition with 82% of main river ecosystems threatened, and institutional arrangements compound the problem. While the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) is the national department responsible for the management of water resources, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is mandated to manage and conserve biodiversity.

Environmental education and awareness for all water users needs to be a vital component of government’s plan for the future of water resources in this country.

The Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) indicates that the world’s marine ecosystems are in peril. Along southern Africa’s east coast, the Dugong is one marine mammal in urgent need of protection.

If we do not act quickly to alleviate pressures on our marine environment, there will be serious impacts on economies and livelihoods worldwide.