The Cape Bird Club

Letter to BirdLife SA members 7 June 2007

Dear BirdLife Member

Presidents and Newspaper chiefs often just state the obvious, we discovered in Cape Town this month. Thabo Mbeki told the World Editors Forum journalists need skills training, and World Association of Newspapers Chairman Gavin O’Reilly told the President he should do something about Zimbabwe. They should tell us something we don’t know.

So while it seems we may have missed a chance to promote BirdLife SA to these 400 important editors from around the world, in reality editors do very little. Reporters do the real work.

So it is at BirdLife, where staff work extremely hard. Staff members were asked (at a lunch in May) to suggest ways of improving membership. A score of ideas tumbled forth. And they did not state the obvious. Here are a few of the most important:

  •  Invite young black, funky celebrities to be promoters of BirdLife. This will get the attention of a specific group of people we want to interest.

  • Make the many schoolchildren who show particular interest during Bird Week into Bird Ambassadors. We will offer a 10-day holiday in Durban to 120 ambassadors from the poorest schools, via The Star Seaside Fund.

  • Give family membership free to all our members.

  • Give every Conservation Member a rural school to “adopt” as part of their membership fee – the fee pays for the school to be an education member of BirdLife SA.

  • Market the BirdLife brand at shopping centers and exhibitions, but revamp for a younger image.

  • Ask all our current members why they are members.

So let me ask you: why are you a member? Replies to peter.sullivan@inl.co.za please.

There are a hundred reasons to be a member, perhaps even a thousand, but I await your replies to see what drives membership. It costs less than R11 a month (or R5 for pensioners and children) for which price I frankly doubt one could feed a goldfish!

So what is BirdLife doing? Much, as always. Let’s look quickly at;

1. Where we are opposing illegal development
2. Where we are helping develop species and habitat conservation
3. How we are crucial in getting rid of pesticides
4. Bird week
5. June Council meeting … and a bouquet for the Cape Bird Club.

At Chrissiesmeer, BirdLife is lobbying government departments (DWAF and DEAT) to step in, control the area before it is destroyed. We are supporting international partners to get it declared a RAMSAR site. At La Mercy we believe a co-existence model between the airport and the swallows can be workable, and are helping the draft Specialist Study determine this. At Sugarbush, the applicants have instructed legal counsel to interdict the developer and force Gauteng’s Dept of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (GDACE) to rescind their unreasonable and procedurally unfair decision to allow development. At Langebaan, we have asked BirdLife International to support pressure on the national and provincial offices of DEAT to comply with the RAMSAR conditions and stop the dredging to allow waders to feed. At Shumba’s Rest (near Nylsvley) we are working with the Friends of Nylsvley and the police to initiate criminal proceedings against the owners.
At Thulazihleka Pan chemical spills continue and we await a DEAT report to decide on action.

Those are the bad guys. 

Now for the good:

At KwaZakhele we are helping upgrade the estuary into a tourist attraction, train two local guides and get tourists to visit the bird sanctuary.

Your Executive Director, Gerhard Verdoorn, has been playing a leading role in getting obsolete or illegal pesticides collected and stored. There are some big numbers here – 100 tons have been collected, amounting to 180 cubic meters to be placed in sealed drums. He is educating farmers in the Karoo about pesticide application for locusts done by unqualified and inexperienced people threatening the water, avifauna and entire aquatic systems of that region.

Your Community-based Conservation division has been doing sterling work, with cash in pounds sterling donated by the Darwin Initiative/RSPB going towards Protecting Key South African Biodiversity Sites through Community Based Conservation. Year one of this project ended in March with three sites given attention, Wakkerstroom, Soweto and Chata. Besides the important work being done at Wakkers and Soweto, Pecan Nut trees are being planted at Chata for the Cape Parrots and Yellowwoods in the indigenous forest.

The conservation division is making good progress with the Important Bird Area (IBA) programme. Countrywide workshops are being held and monitoring of IBAs being done by members. Kate Henderson is doing good work on the Southern Bald Ibis. This division is complementing the community based conservation division with aggressive initiatives for Cape parrot habitat conservation, including programmes put in place with DWAF.
The launch of the much awaited second bird atlas takes place at the end of June.

At the June Council meeting, Heather Muller was appointed Manager of the Business Division from July 1; we looked at managing Wakkerstroom and a plan will be presented at our next meeting; an awards committee was elected for future Owl and Eagle Awards; we looked at our role in both the Soccer World Cup and in the SA Bird Atlas 2 (see the website www.sabap2.org) launch, and we welcomed and approved BirdLife Oos-Vrystaat/Eastern Free State as a full branch of BLSA – among many other things. We met from 8am to 1pm.

Bird Week this year was a wonderful success, and all who helped or participated deserve a huge round of applause. It was our best ever – but can still be improved. A splendid report was produced by Nicola van Zijl listing the achievements (if you want it, just ask for it) and all the things we can improve, there are many of both.

I’d like to single out one club, Cape Bird Club, as an example to all of us. Reading their report one is struck by the huge amount of activities undertaken, and great implementation of plans and ideas. They helped build a new hide a Geelbek in the West Coast National Park (which cost R400 000), planned a viewing platform and adult education centre for Strandfontein, implemented a policy of taking groups of disadvantaged children to meetings. They appointed a fulltime ranger at Strandfontein, released CDs of Cape bird calls, grew membership from 1010 to 1020 with no resignations. What a wonderful report! 
Next year will be the club’s 60th anniversary, and I’m sure it will be a great one.

Regards
Peter Sullivan 
Chairperson, BirdLife South Africa

                                                    

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