Improving the quality of life for all South Africans is the Nedbank-funded Green Trust’s work.

Fourteen years ago, Nedbank had the foresight to launch The Green Trust, leading the field in corporate support for conservation.

A powerful partnership between Nedbank, WWF-SA (leaders in conservation management) and communities throughout South Africa, The Green Trust has raised over R60-million for 141 conservation projects throughout South Africa.

At The Green Trust’s annual workshop in Stellenbosch, its current projects were reviewed.

One of the most recent Green Trust projects is the Sea Turtle Project. Its aim is to sustainably manage the giant turtle populations in northern KwaZulu Natal and southern Mozambique through community involvement in turtle monitoring, conservation and tourism initiatives.

Another new Green Trust project is the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative (BWI). Its aim is to secure the participation of South African wine farmers in the conservation of the smallest, richest plant kingdom in the world - the Cape Floral Kingdom – in which ninety percent of South Africa’s wine producers are situated.

Longer-standing Green Trust projects include:

• Continuing its support of environmental education in South African schools by supporting several Eco-Schools around the country.
• Greening the Cape Flats: supporting communities in the transformation of this urban desert into a productive, green environment with permaculture gardens and community peace parks.
• Conserving South Africa’s grasslands - notably 1.6-million hectares of threatened, high-altitude, moist grasslands between KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Free State. The area provides water for the whole of Gauteng.
• Supporting the community conservation movement to rehabilitate the Klip River in Soweto (one of Johannesburg’s key water sources) and establish a green belt through Soweto.

“From the outset The Green Trust has championed the call to include people in conservation,” says the manager of The Green Trust, Thérèse Brinkcate.

It has sponsored pioneering ventures like the Kosi Bay and Sokhulu marine resources projects on the KwaZulu Natal north coast.
 
“Both projects were led by women conservationists, in collaboration with rural women on the ground,” explains Brinkcate. “They overcame enormous obstacles to successfully establish sustainable marine harvesting of mussels, crabs, fish and other shellfish by the local communities who, in the process, took ownership of the conservation of their environment.”

So successful was the outcome of these projects that they were instrumental in establishing the national subsistence fisheries policies of our Marine Living Resources Act.

“By supporting The Green Trust you are supporting the broader conservation machine which plays a significant role in promoting critical political decisions concerning our natural resources,” states Brinkcate. “We thank you for your contribution.”

09/11/2004