Eco Minute

BULLETIN 22 July 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# SANParks says the recent sighting of the Knysna elephant at a farmland in the Knysna Forest, has stirred excitement and pride across the Garden Route and beyond. The Knysna elephant, Loxodonta Africana, is the same species as elephants found elsewhere in South Africa. SANParks’ spokesperson, JP Louw, says they have long observed her with discreet, non-invasive camera traps, capturing her presence every few weeks without disturbing her natural behaviour:

# Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya says the metro will continue with its Plant A Tree programme. She says three years ago, South Africa committed to planting five-million trees in five years as part of global efforts to combat carbon emissions. The mayor says Tshwane’s share of that commitment is to plant 300-thousand trees, and the target is to plant at least 30-thousand trees across the metro by December this year:

# And the DA says, despite arrests being made, the illegal poaching of clivia and succulent species remains rampant. Last week, four foreign nationals were sentenced to 15-years imprisonment each, for poaching 303 specimens of the critically endangered Clivia mirabilis in the Namakwa region. The DA’s Andrew de Blocq says several endangered and critically endangered plant species, including eight species of Conophytum, have already been driven to extinction in the wild due to unchecked poaching and the illegal trade in rare plants:

Stay tuned for more news………….