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South Africa Resource Pack

South Africa immediately conjures images of sweeping savannahs, national parks and game parks, and these being some of the best in the world has a mixed environmental heritage. Its national parks, reserves, and botanical gardens are among the best managed conservation areas in the world, but there are serious environmental problems too. Many problems originated from political and socioeconomic policies associated with the apartheid period that ended in 1994. Overpopulation in the former bantustans, or black homelands, led to intensive settlement, livestock grazing, and fuelwood cutting on limited areas of land, which in turn led to soil erosion, land degradation, deforestation, and bush encroachment.

Volunteers with Global Volunteer Network, work in environmental and wildlife conservation, through our partner organisation in South Africa. Volunteers are involved in every aspect of managing and maintaining a wildlife sanctuary. Out on the reserve, nothing stands between you and the wildlife. Many species of plains game will gaze quietly as you go about your work. Maintaining a reserve in optimum condition requires constant vigilance. In addition to ensuring a pristine habitat for the wildlife, you will be preserving a type of vegetation that is increasingly threatened by agriculture, forestry and urban development. The wildlife sanctuary is located on a rare veld (bush) type called bankenveld, recognised for its high biodiversity. Less than 1% of bankenveld is conserved under formal government programs, so this private conservation initiative is of critical importance. By joining our programme, you will be helping to preserve species and habitats in one of the most biologically diverse areas of the world.

Easy Facts

For the South Africa Easy Fact Sheet, click here.

Further Reading

Puppet's Help Raise Africa's Abandoned Hornbill Chicks, Leon Marshall, National Geographic News, August 22, 2005: Researchers hoping to increase the breeding rate of southern Africa's increasingly rare ground hornbill have taken to feeding abandoned chicks with puppets disguised as the birds' parents. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0822_050822_hornbills.html

Bush meat Trade Threatens African Wildlife, Pretoria News, June 18 2006: Elephant trunks and smoked gorilla limbs hang from Emile Ndong's stall, "ripening" in the tropical heat. "A good ceremony, a marriage or an initiation is worthless unless you serve game at the table," said Ndong, a hawker at the Oloumi market in Gabon's capital of Libreville. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=68&art;_id=vn20060617090728812C429589&set;_id=

South Africa Weighs Killing "Excess" Elephants in Parks, Leon Marshall,National Geographic News, November 5, 2004: South Africa's Kruger National Park elephant population has nearly doubled in recent years, causing heavy habitat destruction and invasion of adjacent farms. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1105_041105_elephants.html

Country Profile

For South Africa's country profile, click here.

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