Four days of walking from George to Knysna enabled connecting with colleagues, with nature, and slowing down to reconnect with self. The all-round health benefits of this camino-type walk can provide an inspired new way of connecting society with national parks and nature. After much COVID-19 related isolation, many people are walking, reconnecting with themselves,…
By analysing pre-COVID data and trends, this study suggests that parks such as the Kruger National Park can triple its entrance fees for international tourists, without compromising visitation acceptability. National parks in Africa could potentially generate more revenue. This could reduce their reliance on fiscal transfers to fund conservation activities in an environment in which…
Diverse approaches are used to monitor black rhinos in the frontier national parks. Dedicated capacity and funding for intense monitoring have resulted in an innovative new financing mechanism for conservation outcomes. The threatened south-western black rhino (Diceros bicornis bicornis) occurs in four South African National Parks of which three are in the Frontier Region –…
The sustainable harvesting of timber from the indigenous forests of the Garden Route National Park has resumed to supply the local furniture industry. Following recommendations of a feasibility study, a pilot project was launched in 2021 to resume sustainable harvesting of timber from the indigenous forests of the Garden Route National Park in accordance with…
SANParks’ annual research report was published on the SANParks website on Friday 8th December 2023. The visually appealing research report is for the period April 2022 to March 2023. It is a compilation of stories written by scientists, technicians, interns and veterinarians from the Scientific Services, Cultural Heritage and Veterinary Wildlife Services divisions of the…
Estuaries rarely experience mass mortalities of fish, which are often triggered by extreme external factors such as pollution, droughts, or floods. Unfortunately, in many instances determining the ultimate cause of such events is often very difficult, particularly when none of these external factors have occurred. A fish mortality event was noted at Isalnd Lake and…
SANParks took part in supplementing the biological knowledge of the future leaders, conservationists, scientists and innovationists. SANParks hosted a fun mini-workshop on crustaceans to a home schooled group of learners, The Explorers Club, based in Knysna on the 26th of October 2023. This group consisted of pupils aged 4 to 12 years. The workshop was…
Following the successful baited remote underwater video (BRUV) best practice workshop held at the Cape Research Centre in October, another insightful workshop was recently organized. This time, the focus was on best practices for camera trapping in conservation. On 21 November 2023, SANParks Scientific Services colleagues, alongside experts from notable conservation organizations including the Cape…
Ash plays a critical role in a post-fire environment. It helps re-stimulate microbial activity and post-fire regeneration of the landscape. Fires and savanna go hand in hand and vegetation and wildlife are known to be adapted to frequent burning. Whether soils and organisms living below ground cope with savanna fires equally well is less understood….
Working out rhino numbers is not a simple exercise of taking the current count and subtracting rhinos reported as poached. Where have all the rhinos gone? This question is asked every year when the new SANParks’ rhino numbers are released. The public subtracts the reported number of poached rhinos in the previous year from the…
As we reflect on 2021/2022, it’s an excellent time to highlight emerging conservation issues that warrant greater understanding and attention. Some of the challenges and concerns we face in Cape parks are large-scale issues that need to be solved through extensive collaborative efforts across multiple spheres and disciplines. Many of these issues are deeply rooted…
Proactive engagement around specific management actions or campaigns go a long way towards educating and raising awareness amongst the public. As part of a project supported by Table Mountain Fund, Alison Kock developed a two-week awareness campaign, KnowYourMPA, from 28 Jan to 13 Feb 2021, on SANParks Table Mountain Facebook page. Project funding enabled purchase…