Ezemvelo Research Articles

SHORT MESSAGE SERVICES AND E-CONTRACTING Jafta v Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife [2008] 10 BLLR 954 (LC)

With the emergence of internet-based e-commerce in the last decade of the 20th century, commercial activity entered into a new era and it has been said that modern society is now past the point where we can treat the Internet and indeed all things electronic as if they were part of some kind of fictional or fantasy realm that is only tangentially connected to the real world. This was brought into clear focus with a recent decision handed down by the Durban Labour Court, where they also warned that, even though e-mails and SMS’s and the language that these text messages carry seem informal, treating them as having no legal effect would be a mistake (Jafta v Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife [2008] 10 BLLR 954 969F).

The effects of tourism, economic development and population growth on a small rural area of South Africa

The Maputaland coastal plain is situated on the north-east coast of South Africa. It is important to the South African economy because of the number of game parks that draw tourists to the area and South Africa. Essentially a rural area with a relatively small local population, the introduction of forestry plantations in the 1950s resulted in opportunities for the local Maputaland people. The war in Mozambique in the latter 20th century resulted in many South Africans not holidaying in that country. This prompted the then Natal Parks Board to establish beach and sea-based holiday facilities at Sodwana early in the 1970s. This is an area that is now within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park World Heritage Site. The establishment of forestry resulted in an inflow of people to the area eager to obtain employment. A steady rise in the number of tourists to the area further improved the availability of jobs. There has been a rise in the annual numbers of visitors utilising the facilities of the area. The provision of water includes a municipal supply from Lake Sibaya that is treated in the town of Mbazwana and piped to local residents. This service has become inadequate causing dissatisfaction. Added to the problem has been the development of a considerable number of private holiday establishments additional to the Sodwana facility situated outside the Park and therefore outside its jurisdiction. The increased number of people living in and visiting the area has meant that the original local municipal water supply became totally inadequate, resulting in the sinking of boreholes by both local people and the commercial holiday facility operators. There is no municipal sewage system in the area and waste water is discharged into the ground and hence into the groundwater. This has resulted in borehole water showing higher than natural levels of nutrients that in turn are having an adverse impact on the quality of the groundwater, the lakes and the estuary in the area. To protect the local ecosystem and economy it is important that a formal sewage system be provided. Disposal of household waste from the area will be difficult because of the terrain and will have to be carefully planned to provide an adequate system that will protect the natural environment which attracts tourists and is the basis of the local economy.

An assessment of the freshwater natural capital in KwaZulu-Natal for conservation planning

Freshwater conservation planning, while lagging behind terrestrial conservation planning, is beginning to be implemented in a complementary manner to the latter. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife is currently preparing an aquatic conservation plan for the freshwater systems of KwaZulu-Natal. The development of a freshwater conservation plan requires an initial understanding of the broad characteristics of the resource and associated biodiversity. Within KwaZulu-Natal, which is water-rich relative to the remaining provinces in South Africa, there are approximately 585 000 ha of mapped freshwater wetlands, 17% of which fall within protected areas. At the 1:500 000 scale, there are in excess of 18 400 km of perennial and ephemeral rivers mapped, and just over 1 000 km (5.6%) of these fall within existing formal protected areas. The river systems feed into 79 estuaries covering a mapped area of over 30 600 ha, of which 41% amounting to almost 12 400 ha are found largely within protected areas, although this does not reflect the actual number protected. These freshwater resources provide over 28% of South Africa's total average MAR. Protection of this resource requires the protection of freshwater biodiversity, and the processes which maintain these ecosystems. Currently the greatest threats to this resource are river regulation and land transformation.

The operational competitiveness of public protected areas managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

The purpose of this study was to measure the operational competitiveness of public protected areas (PPAs) in the KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Financial data for ecotourism operations in PPAs were collected from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) for 2007–2013, to construct an operational competitiveness profile for each PPA by using a non-parametric method called operational competitiveness rating analysis (OCRA). The results show that permanent staff, utilities, maintenance and repairs, and cost of sales were cost items with the highest average share of total costs, whereas accommodation, admissions, sales and tours, and rides and hikes received higher average shares of total revenues for most PPAs. The identification of the most important cost and revenue items was followed by the computation of resource consumption and revenue generation inefficiency ratings from 2007 to 2013, with the results showing that resource competitiveness had more impact on operational competitiveness relative to revenue competitiveness. This suggests that PPAs under EKZNW can improve operational competitiveness by reducing costs. Ecotourism is an economic incentive used in several countries to encourage biodiversity conservation. Because of declining public funding, conservation agencies such as EKZNW in South Africa should find new sources of funding or find cost-effective ways of managing ecotourism operations.Conservation implications: This information will provide insights into the quality of operational efficiencies of ecotourism activities at EKZNW-controlled PPAs and motivate management to adopt cost-cutting and revenue-increasing strategies to improve operational competitiveness.

An Elder Sitting by the Fire: My Path to Jung

The author describes the importance of his mentors, his heritage, and early life in Johannesburg, South Africa and the effect that those formative years in a mining community (fueled by migrant labor) had on his embryonic psyche. Attending an Anglican school, he discovered the power of Christianity as a 10-year-old, holding vigil at night “over the body of Christ.” However, his first objective relationship with the psyche, the unconscious, occurred during the Second World War in the desert of Egypt before embarkation for Italy, with a second event occurring shortly after his return to South Africa, where he had been forced by circumstance to seek employment back on the mines. He explores how, despite the vicious and cruel apartheid policy above ground, all men were genuine brothers at the rock face; how the migrant labor rejoiced on reaching the surface after a shift with ritualistic thanks. He relocated to Natal where his relationship with the natural world developed, leading eventually to the founding of both the Dusi canoe marathon and the Wilderness Leadership School. On being employed by the Natal Parks Board he moved to Zululand, a true wilderness, in the early 1950s, where he was exposed to the rituals and beliefs of local tribes. He was impressed by their reliance on and their respect for the spiritual. A series of what he later understood were synchronistic events led him to both his mentors: a Jungian analyst and eventually to Jung himself.

The potential for zoobenthic fauna dispersal into the St Lucia Estuary from the Mfolozi–Msunduzi estuarine system, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The onset of a prolonged drought in the St Lucia catchment in 2002 and subsequent mouth closure raised concern for the biota of the estuary. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife proposed a scheme whereby the Mfolozi–Msunduzi mouth would be closed, causing fresh water to enter the St Lucia Estuary to prevent excessively hypersaline conditions (>65) from developing in the lower and middle reaches of the St Lucia system. Although this proposal caused concern about the impact of mouth closure on the ecology of the Mfolozi–Msunduzi estuarine system, it raised its potential as a source of benthic fauna dispersal into, and the restocking of, the St Lucia system. Quantitative benthic sampling in the Mfolozi–Msunduzi system in 2007 and 2008 revealed a benthic community generally dominated by polychaetes which, although low in terms of total species richness compared with St Lucia, included elements of a core benthic group present in the St Lucia system throughout the current drought. The presence of the gravimetrically important crab Paratylodiplax blephariskios in the Mfolozi–Msunduzi system was considered important as a source from which the once-abundant population in the St Lucia Narrows could be restocked via dispersal through the channel linking the Mfolozi–Msunduzi Estuary to St Lucia. It was concluded that, while the input of fresh water from the Mfolozi River is necessary to ameliorate hypersaline conditions and conserve the important core benthic group in the Narrows and South Lake, consideration must be given to allowing sufficient tidal exchange in the Mfolozi–Msunduzi system to maintain its stocks of benthos with an obligate marine phase.

Fish breeding in, and juvenile recruitment to, the St Lucia Estuarine System under conditions of extended mouth closure and low lake levels

Ongoing drought conditions along the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal resulted in the St Lucia Estuary mouth closing, and to evaporation leading to extremely low lake levels and the development of hypersaline conditions in most parts of the system. The mouth closed in June 2002 and has remained closed for more than three years. The St Lucia Estuarine System is an important nursery ground for juveniles of many marine fish species. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife initiated a once-off survey to investigate the effects of the drought on the fish fauna and to establish if any fish were breeding in the system under the existing drought conditions. Fish were sampled at six sites throughout the system, using seine and gill-nets. In December 2004, the system had become partitioned into four isolated compartments, and at this time a total of 4 475 individuals comprising 30 species were recorded. An analysis of size class data indicated the presence of juveniles of at least 12 species, including nine estuarineassociated marine species, which had spawned after mouth closure. Although some estuarine species had spawned within the system, most appeared to have recruited into the Narrows and lake sections of the St Lucia system during January 2004 when the adjacent Mfolozi River, which is linked to the open Mfolozi Estuary, flooded and overtopped into St Lucia Estuary. Should the St Lucia mouth remain closed for four or more years, it can be expected that the lack of recruitment of first-time spawners from the St Lucia nursery grounds into the off-shore marine breeding stocks will have major impacts on these estuaryassociated marine species.

National Parks for Natal? Zululand's Game Reserves and the Shaping of Conservation Management Policy in Natal 1920s to 1940s

This article sets out to explore the question of why conservation management in Natal took the particular form it did by 1947 - a form largely retained in the region today. The Act which brought into being the Union of South Africa in 1910 made wildlife preservation a provincial competency. However over the next century three of the four original provinces in the Union gradually brought their most important parks and game reserves under the 1926 National Parks Act. Natal did not: it retained provincial control of all its conservation resources. Tourists to the province of KwaZulu-Natal today may not realise that the main reserves in the Zululand region - for example what is now the combined Hluhluwe-Umfolozi park, for many years the province's flagship game reserves - are not in fact national parks. At least for the present, they continue to fall under the provincial conservation board (currently called the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Services or Ezemvelo-KZN Wildlife) rather than under the South African National Parks Board.

A critique of and recommendations for a subsistence fishery, Lake St Lucia, South Africa

The fish resources of Lake St Lucia, the largest estuary on the eastcoast of Africa, present resource managers of the Natal Parks Board with acommon property resource (CPR) problem. Problems associated with illegal gillnetting by local people from three tribal areas, prompted the introduction of asystem of legal, subsistence netting. This paper reviews the legal fisheries inthese three areas from 1995 to 1997, and examines existing organizationalarrangements, suggesting reasons why the three fisheries show differences infunctioning. By employing concepts from CPRs theory, elements of anorganizational design for fisheries management involving local users and theconservation organization staff are proposed.

Optimising the offtake of large herbivores from a multi-species community

The Natal Parks Board annually sells hunting licences for the Controlled Hunting Area (CHA) adjacent to the Mkuzi Game Reserve. A management objective is to maximise the revenue obtained from these hunting activities while ensuring that the population of each species is kept above some minimum level. This management problem is formulated as a linear programming problem and solved for the fourteen different species in the CHA. The LP problem is formulated in such a way as to utilise the same data that is the basis for present management decision-making. The objective function takes into account that animals are hunted for both meat and trophies. Only a fraction of each population is suitable for trophy hunting and higher prices are usual for such animals. The model considers fourteen species divided according to their food preferences into four groups. There is a carrying capacity constraint which limits the weighted sum of the populations in each of these groups. Further constraints relate to the specific growth rates of each species. The optimal equilibrium population levels were calculated to serve as goals or targets. However, droughts and other natural phenomena which affect population numbers are frequently encountered at Mkuze. A number of experiments were therefore performed where the populations were set to reduced levels. The optimal control problem which steers the populations towards the target levels in an optimal way was formulated. Some illustrative solutions are presented.

Stock assessment ofSarpa salpa(Pisces: Sparidae) off the KwaZulu/Natal coast, South Africa

Trends in the catches of Sarpa salpa along the KwaZulu/Natal coast, determined by analysing the shore-based catch documented during patrols by the Natal Parks Board from 1986 to 1994, indicated that S. salpa was the second most abundant fish caught by anglers on the south coast of KwaZulu/Natal. However, it was an insignificant component of the catch on the north coast of that region. A seasonal trend in the catch of S. salpa was evident, with a marked increase in catches during winter. The current status of S. salpa off the coast of KwaZulu/Natal was assessed in terms of yield-per-recruit and spawner-biomass-per-recruit analyses. Instantaneous natural and total mortalities were estimated to be 0,6 and 1,41·year−1 respectively. A fishing mortality of 0,81·year−1, which is the current level on S. salpa, appears to be appropriate for utilization of the stock. Management options for this resource in KwaZulu/Natal are discussed.

Quantification of illicit fish harvesting in the Lake St Lucia Game Reserve, South Africa

Illegal gill and seine netting has taken place in the northern parts of the Lake St Lucia Game Reserve, South Africa since the late 1960s. Although active law enforcement by the Natal Parks Board was able to prevent the large-scale commercialization of this activity, illegal netting has continued to take place. The present policy to prohibit netting in the lake has resulted in conflict between the rural communities and the conservation authorities. An attempt was made to quantify the catch taken by illegal netting by analysing data collected during anti-netting patrols and by negotiating with rural communities living in areas adjacent to the lake. Results showed that approximately 72 people were actively fishing with nets in Lake St Lucia during 1992, and their annual catch was estimated at between 91 and 135 tonnes. Competition with the recreational line fishery was limited as mugilids and other detritivorous fish species made up 47% by mass of the total catch taken by netting. Legalisation of a controlled net fishery in St Lucia is discussed as a management option to integrate rural development with conservation of the lake's fish resources.

Black rhinoceros <i>Diceros bicomis</i> capture, transportation and boma management by the Natal Parks Board

Selected Papers from the Rhinoceros Conservation Workshop, Skukuza, Kruger National Park,31 August – 4 September 1988 The procedure used by the Natal Parks Board in the capture of black rhinoceros Diceros bicomis minor (Drummond, 1876) is outlined. It is emphasised that a successful capture operation requires careful planning and should not be attempted by the uninitiated or by parties who have little or no experience. Dosages of drugs are given, the darting and actual capture procedures highlighted, and aspects of transport and practical boma management are described.

HERPETOFAUNA IN THE NATAL PARKS BOARD RESERVES AND RESORTS

ABSTRACT The herpetofauna of Natal is surveyed and the numbers of species occurring in Natal Parks Board reserves is listed. Those species not as yet found in reserves are discussed and the research and management tasks on herpetofauna which still need to be done in Natal are indicated.

SKYLINE ARBORETUM, NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA

Summary Skyline arboretum, founded by H.B. Nicholson in 1962 is situated at St. Michael-on-Sea on the Natal south coast. In addition to the 76 tree species indigenous to the area, a further 300 species, native to other parts of the country, were introduced and 400 exotics have been established. In this paper the layout and management history are briefly described. In 1982 the Skyline Arboretum was made over to the Borough of Uvongo and managed by Professor H.B. Rycroft, retired director of Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, until 1986, when it was taken over by the Natal Parks Board.

Re-establishment of elephant in the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi Game Reserves, Natal, South Africa

Prior to European settlement, when entire populations were decimated elephants were widely distributed throughout Natal and Zululand. Elephants are now protected with the proclamation of the Tembe Elephant Reserve. In line with its policy to re-establish species in conservation areas where they have been eradicated, the Natal Parks Board was motivated to place elephants in the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi Game Reserves which area the largest Reserves in the State. The article discusses the potential problems identified during the planning, and how the monitoring of the programme was conducted in terms of observing movement patterns, feeding behaviour and mortality rate. Thus far the programme, which released 26 animals in Hluhluwe and 30 in Umfolozi and maintains that 18 and 20 are now living in the respective areas, is considered a success.

Plastic for Game Catching

Faced with the problem of having to capture large numbers of game animals on difficult terrain and in a short time, the author, who is Senior Capture Officer of the Natal Parks Board in South Africa, hit on a remarkably simple and highly successful method. He found that large animals like antelopes will not attempt to go through or past plastic material, and by making a cheap and simple plastic ‘curtain’ he could drive them with a helicopter into waiting lorries. This way he captured 3500 animals in four months.