World celebrates International Wildlife Day

Twenty five years ago the United Nations declared 3 March as International Wildlife Day dedicated to the celebration of fauna and flora, as well as marine life, globally.

South Africa is the custodian of some of  the world’s most unique fauna and flora and has over decades invested heavily into conserving our very special habitats and bio- diversity from over- exploitation and extinction.

The good news is that there are today perhaps more land under conservation and official protection than fifty years ago, but despite these obvious goals there are many problems of which the most prominent is the near extinction of South Africa’s black and white rhino population due to relentless and violent poaching, and perhaps not as conspicuous there are several other plant and wild life species facing a similar fate country wide.

The conservation and protection of fauna and flora has to face many challenges in a South Africa that looks vastly different from what it was fifty years ago.

Some of the biggest challenges include a fast- growing population with an insatiable quest for land to be developed and supporting infrastructure, as well as the more recent impact of a changing climate and changing rainfall patterns which are proving to be substantial in its detructive impact.

Perhaps the single biggest threat to conservation in South Africa is invasive alien plants (I&AP’s) which found a very fertile home for themselves in millions of hectares covering the full extent of the South Africa in one degree or another depending on climate, rainfall and soil types.

Almost impossible to eradicate I&AP’s has rendered large sections of the South African landscape unusable for agriculture and conservation, and is spreading at an alarming rate putting ever more of the country’s sensitive eco- systems under threat of irreversible destruction.

Due to negative land management practices and invasive alien plants in primary catchments and rivers systems, South Africa has already lost more than two thirds of our precious wetland systems sustain an array of eco- systems found nowhere else on the planet.

The conservation of South Africa’s fauna and flora rests on the shoulders of all its citizens, whether it includes not dumping rubbish in undesignated spaces, by not contaminating or over extracting water resources or clearing your land from invasive alien plants, let us unite in conserving our beautiful land and celebrate our natural heritage.

Featured image caption: A Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus, often seen at the lakes all around the Garden Route region.

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