ECO-LOGIC AWARDS 2021 SOUVENIR BROCHURE

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NATURE Conservation
Award
CAPE LEOPARD TRUST: SNARE AWARE
Proudly sponsored by
Unsustainable hunting for bushmeat indiscriminately kills animals and reduces prey availability for large
predators. The Cape Leopard Trust (CLT) launched the Snare Aware project to investigate the extent of wire
snaring in the Boland region, remove snares from the landscape, and educate and inspire communities to
integrate snare patrols into farm management strategies.
A CLT Snare Officer has patrolled over 1,400 km, removing 673 traps and gathering extensive data. This data was analysed to
determine which factors influence the spatial distribution of wire-snares and direct future snare patrol efforts. The CLT also
developed a web application to encourage citizen scientists in the Western Cape to report snare discoveries. The CLT team
educates the public about the detrimental effects of snaring by creating resources and leading workshops about the value of
fynbos wildlife, the illegal practice of hunting with wire snares, and effective snare patrol techniques.
The Snare Aware project shines a light on an emerging but hidden threat to biodiversity, and by raising awareness this work is
positively impacting the long-term survival of leopards and other wildlife. Farming communities have become empowered to reduce
snaring both by removing snares regularly and ameliorating some of the drivers behind snaring behaviour.
CTEET: RIVER AMBASSADORS
CTEET is a registered NPO and PBO, was established in February 2001, and believes in educating, supporting,
and capacitating individuals and communities to be responsible stewards of the natural world. CTEET’s model
is defined by three phases: Education for Sustainable Development, Green Skills Training and Development, and
Employment in the Green Economy through their Nature Care Fund. They educate, not only to grow responsible
citizenry, but to nurture effective employability.
Cape Town’s natural asset base is its strongest resource, with the coastline and mountains offering educational, recreational,
tourism and business opportunities. However, its river courses are negatively viewed as ‘crime and grime’ stormwater conduits
carrying little more than pollution and infested with alien invasive vegetation, impacting negatively on adjacent property values.
The River Ambassadors Project provides an opportunity to address both the social and environmental challenges along Cape
Town’s urban rivers and the adjacent communities. In addition to gaining a Nature Conservation: Resource Guardianship NQF2
qualification, participants on the River Ambassadors Project take part in additional accredited short learnings, as well as jobreadiness
training, increasing their opportunities to enter the field of conservation and build a career. Developing South African
youth in such a way empowers individuals to be stewards for nature, to be more employable, while also bringing more people
into the Green Economy.
ELEPHANTS ALIVE
As a longstanding NPO, Elephants Alive’s quest involves delivering innovative research solutions, which
acknowledge elephants and people and their shared world as an integral part of the ecosystem they occupy.
Several projects represent the culmination of many years of work to bring together the value of elephants,
bees, plants and people. To ensure conservation success, and the long-term preservation of free-ranging elephants,
Elephants Alive believes it is critical to empower, inform and involve local communities through the following programs:
1) The Ndlopfu Gogos (Elephant Grandmothers)
Within rural communities, the grandmothers (Gogos) are like the elephant matriarchs, that are the leading elders within a herd.
Gogos are respected story-tellers who carry the history of their people forward. Elephants Alive creates experiences where Gogos
are introduced to elephants to enrich their stories and remind future generations that once human-elephant-coexistence was
standard and can be again today.
2) Partnering with the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit (all-female Anti-Poaching Unit)
This partnership protects wildlife while empowering women to keep bees and adopt permaculture practices. Beekeeping, in
conjunction with permaculture, increases the pollination and productivity of crops, creates entrepreneurial opportunities,
provides food and medicine while creating soft boundaries for elephants (bees and unpalatable crops).
3) Collaborating with Wild Shots Outreach
Wild Shots Outreach photography courses are run with key communities where there is potential human-elephant conflict.
Programs include local students who create content for local schools, document elephant collaring and photograph the Ndlopfu
Gogos for community exhibitions. All these efforts are replicated in the community-owned corridors in Mozambique.
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