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The Junior Rangers programme started in April 2018 and is facilitated by Honorary Rangers Mrs Anneke Benniman and Johan Schlechter. Nobulumko Gantsho, the People & Conservations Officer for Tsitsikamma expressed excitement from the Tsitsikamma section that the project has started. The Programme is made up of 30 X Grade 10 learners from local schools. During the first session of the Programme, Gantsho gave an overview of the Tsitsikamma section of the Garden Route National Park. The Park is home to Africa’s oldest Marine Protected Area. It also has indigenous coastal forest areas and patches of fynbos. A total of 202 species of fish, sharks and rays from 84 families have been recorded in the Tsitsikamma MPA alone. Fifteen of these species can be found on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red data list as either vulnerable or near threatened whilst many other fish species protected by the MPA are classified as over-exploited or collapsed in South Africa.

Junior Rangers got to experience the diversity in Tsitsikamma by walking the first part of the 50- year old Otter hiking trail (which is 10km long). The trail was named after an animal found in freshwater and in the sea called the Otter. It was launched in 1968, four years after the declaration of the Park. It was not big news then until the establishment of the Fanie Botha Hiking Trail in 1973 and the establishment of the National Hiking Way Board in 1975. These early trails were developed on state land and used the Department of Forestry’s staff to do the construction work.

Pictures by Nobulumko Gantsho