News

The Nature’s Valley Trust; The Wilderness Foundation and Siyabona Africa Travel all emerged winners during a gala event to mark the 3rd annual SANParks Kudu Awards in Pretoria last night.

All three organisations snatched the Community Contribution; Corporate Contribution and Best Business Partner Awards respectively. This was in recognition of their selfless involvement in conservation over the last 12 months.

The Kudu Awards is an initiative that aims to recognise external stakeholders for their contribution and efforts in making South African National Parks the custodian of choice for the national parks system of South Africa, and also plays a significant role in the conservation of biodiversity and cultural heritage, thus protecting South Africa’s most valuable national assets.

While Africa Birds and Birding walked away a winner in the Environmental Media Contribution category; Ms Babalwa Puzi-Koko from the Eastern Cape received an award for her contribution to Environmental Education. The Southern African Wildlife College also received honours in the Environmental Education Group category.

The Honorary Rangers, which is the national corps of dedicated volunteers – that has become synonymous with SANParks – were also recognised in the Community Contributions segment.

The Kudu Awards also celebrated SANParks staff members for their exceptional work performance and efforts on customer service with various categories under the Chief Executive Awards.

Of significance this year, is the award for Lifetime Achievement – given to long-time ranger Mr Popo Scott, whose contribution to Tsitsikamma National Park is legendary. Mr Scott’s recognition follows another honour in which the park has named one of the rest-camps in the famous Otter Trail after him.

A new category “Website Forum’s Choice” award has been added to the internal awards, where a SANParks staff member can be nominated by the public on the SANParks Website Forum based on positive experiences with this individual over the last year (April 2006 to March 2007). The winner in this category is Jan Kriel, from the Kgalagadi.

Said SANParks Chief Executive Dr David Mabunda: “We are particularly delighted today because looking back at where we started three years ago; it shows a tremendous growth in terms of the number of participants and communities that are involved in the business of conservation.

“It is was our initial objective to make sure that we create some kind of SAMA Awards for conservation through this event and I think we achieving that through the support that we get from our stakeholders – particularly the private sector.”

Awards were also given for best performing park; best performing camp; best ranger post and best performing division or business unit within SANParks.

For comprehensive details on the winners and their profiles visit the SANParks website: www.sanparks.org