CITW & Ingcungcu join forces for impact

The day started at both Crestway and Sibelius secondary schools, where over 40 learners joined a team of Wilderness Touring guides for their trip out to Cape Point Nature Reserve. Eleven expert Wilderness Touring guides volunteered their time, along with spades of passion and giant servings of knowledge, about all things Cape Peninsula-related for the excited learners. An interpretive hike to the lighthouse at the top of Cape Point was led by Ingcungcu’s energetic Eco-Club Co-ordinator, Joel Simons. 

An obligatory group photo at the Cape of Good Hope was co-ordinated by the co-founder of A2A Safaris, Jose Cortes. Jose is an accomplished wildlife photographer, and also volunteered his skills and time for the day. Some of the learners are keen budding photographers, and Jose spent much of his time showing them the ins and outs of photography, surely an enjoyable task with the amazing landscapes at the tip of the continent setting the scene. 

While the learners enjoyed touring the Cape Peninsula, the Wilderness Touring operational team, some Cape Town office helping hands, and Wilderness EXCO committee members prepared an amazing braai (barbecue lunch) at the Soetwater Environmental Education Centre. The centre’s manager, “Oom Lappies” Labuschagne, welcomed the learners and Wilderness guide team with a nerve-wracking, but fascinating snake handling session. Steven, the experienced snake handler, introduced the learners to the wonders of what is a rather maligned sub-order of animals, yet is critical in functionally robust ecosystems. Some of the learners, and a few Wilderness team members, might have even progressed from a state of tolerance to a state of reverence for snakes. 

After lunch we learnt about student Muneeba Lamera’s research work looking at nectar volumes in flowers, and correlating this to sunbird visitation rates at the stepping-stone garden sites. Her next project, at Master’s level, will consider avian nectarivores and their spatial ecology using satellite tracking techniques. Ingcungcu founders, Ceinwen Smith and Dr Anton Pauw, did a deep dive on the project’s mission and how the sunbird and sugarbird guild act as a pollination control, with which one can measure the effectiveness of the stepping-stone gardens’ connectivity, and one day realise the vision of connecting isolated Table Mountain National Park with the rest of the Western Cape fynbos biome. In simple terms, when the abundance of nectar-producing plants increases, the abundance of nectar-feeding birds increases, which leads to enhanced seeds set, and a further increase in plant abundance (Schmid et al., 2016b; Pauw and Johnson, 2018). 

As important as pollination restoration in fragmented habitats is, the really exciting success of the project is measured by the positive engagement and energy the Eco-Clubs produce amongst the learners. It’s no secret that a correlation exists between the amount of nature people experience and their degree of conservation-mindedness (Soga and Gaston, 2016), and we are proud to say that biophilia is growing as well as the gardens at some schools in the Cape Flats. Wilderness Touring, together with CITW and Ingcungcu, are hoping to empower future leaders in conservation, even within the peri-urban environments of Africa like Cape Town.  

Special thanks to all involved, and particularly Derek de la Harpe (Chief Risk and Corporate Affairs Officer), Vince Shacks (Group Head of Impact), Lindy Nieuwenhuizen (Group CITW Co-ordinator), Michelle Reyneke (General Manager Wilderness Touring Cape Town) and Brendan McCarthy (Operations & Product Manager Wilderness Touring Cape Town).