AWF Blog

• Eco-Schools Limpopo Province Green-Flag Award Ceremony

  Posted: February 16, 2010, 10:22 pm by admin

  AWF was once again invited to the WESSA/WWF Eco-Schools Limpopo Province Green Flag Award Ceremony held in Polokwane on Friday January 22^nd. Just like last year it was a great honour for me to have been part of such a great event. This also means that I must have behaved very well to be given another opportunity to attend the ceremony. It is inspiring to see that there are so many people out there who take conservation to the little ones who would hopefully take the knowledge gained back to their families and who knows, perhaps they can grow up with respect for nature, which they will hopefully pass on to their children…fingers crossed!

  Kids were performing poems that showed that they understood the importance of conservation and how people should play their part. Teachers brought their portfolio files and some of the posters that the students had made. Cathy Dzerefos, the Eco-Schools Limpopo Province Coordinator funded by De Beers was at her best form, beaming with pride and her eyes were twinkling with hope that all this work will not amount to nothing.

  The Department of Education (Mr N. Kgophong), the Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (Mr P. Tsheola), the Department of Water Affairs and Environment (Ms M. Molapisane), the Polokwane Municipality (Mr W. Mathumba), Lapalala Wilderness Node (Mr L. Ngobeni) and Birdlife SA (Mr J. Peu) all contributed towards making the day a special one for their schools. Awards were given to schools that had successfully integrated environment into the curriculum and had undertaken an eco-action project. Most impressive were the five schools that have been with the programme for five years and tackled the five Eco-School themes of Resource use, Local and Global Issues, Nature and Biodiversity, Community and Heritage and Healthy Living. They were presented with the International Green Flag:

  Chuchekani Primary

  Mosesane Baloyi Primary

  Rethušitšwe Primary

  St Patrick Mathibela  Primary

  White Family Home School

  A year behind with four themes were the schools awarded Gold namely:

  Kgomoshiakwena Primary

  Leboho  Intermediate

  Leganabatho Primary

  Malenkwana Primary

  Marken  Primary

  Mashamba Presidential Primary

  Matlou Memorial Primary

  Mmbara Senior Primary

  Mopane Intermediate

  Motholo Lower Primary

  Mpepule Primary

  Nkidikitlana Primary

  Phalaborwa Primary

  Phulanibyihola Primary

  Samson Shiviti Primary

  Sekanekamoyi Primary

  Seripe Primary

  Titirheleni Primary

  In addition 19 schools received the national Green flag for completing three themes in three years, 22 silver awards for two themes in two years and 28 bronze awards for one year and one theme.

  This time Ms. Earth-SA was not there, so I sat next to Mr. Joe Peu of Birdlife South Africa; on the day that I left my leopard perfume. Representatives from the Limpopo Government were there and they delivered good speeches relating to the importance of environmental education in schools. Mr. Peu also gave a speech relating to the importance of green living and he was one of the dignitaries along with the government officials handing out awards to the best performing schools.

  All in all, Eco-Schools is a wonderful initiative and I hope that it will keep on growing to involve all the schools in the province.

• An Elephant’s Tears

  Posted: February 2, 2010, 12:44 am by admin

  “Why is it that poachers kill elephants for their ivory? Can’t they just tranquilize the elephant, cut off the tusks, and let them live? They grow back, right?”

  
  

  -Murphy, New York Mills, NY, U.S.A.

  
  

  I have been asked this question a few times over the years. It’s an ugly question with an even uglier answer.

  Fact:  An elephant’s tusks are actually its teeth, specifically, its upper incisors. Tusks are really only dentine and their composition is no different from ordinary teeth. Elephant ivory has a distinctive luster and shimmer and this has created a  global lust to make pretty things out of them. The elephant uses its tusks for digging out grasses and roots, excavating for water, removing bark from trees, clearing out brush and sometimes as weapons for fighting, among other things. Only about two-thirds of the elephant’s tusk is visible, with the remainder being lodged in tooth sockets and the cranial cavity.

  Tusks are referred to by scientists as ‘alive,’ in that the inside of the tusk is a pulp cavity filled with tissue that contains blood vessels and nerves  If an elephant were to have its tusk broken off, in a worst case scenario, the pulp from the inside of the tusks (i.e. all the nerves and blood vessels) would be exposed, causing a massive infection and an eventual, extraordinarily painful death. In short: cutting off an elephant’s tusk is the same as getting a root canal with your dentist never capping off the work.

  Elephants go through six sets of normal teeth in a lifetime.  Tusks are specialized teeth and elephants have only one set that continue growing throughout the elephant’s life. They are sometimes broken off as a result of natural movements, such as digging and sparring with other elephants. If a tusk is not broken off at its root, then yes- the tusk will continue to grow.

  Warning: this is the part where my answer is going to get very ugly.

  Poaching elephants is illegal in every country in Africa.  Poachers kill elephants rather than tranquilize them because they want to avoid arrest and tranquilizing an elephant is time-consuming,  expensive, dangerous, and requires a very specialized expertise.  Poachers are in the business of making money. When an elephant has been spotted by a poacher as a target, the elephant is killed and it is then mutilated. Because the tusks extend into the elephant’s cranial cavity, poachers hack out the tusks in order to get as much ivory as possible  This is why, when you see gruesome photos of poached elephants, much of their face and cranial area is missing.

  Walking with giants: African savannah elephants roaming in Masai Mara, Kenya (Photo Credit: Craig R. Sholley)

  It is not an understatement to say that poaching of elephants is barbaric. Through the implementation of AWF programs and the dedication of superb on-the-ground colleagues (such as the superstars of the Hifadhi Anti-Poaching Network and the Kilimanjaro Elephant Research and Conservation Project, both located in AWF’s Kilimanjaro Heartland) and our loyal supporters, AWF has been a leader in helping to protect these magnificent giants.

  Wait! Before You Go…

  I know we covered an extraordinarily important yet very grim topic today but don’t think you’re helpless in helping elephants: you are not. You can help AWF by donating to help support elephant conservation in southern Africa, give to AWF’s Elephant Conservation Research Project , help establish a wildlife corridor and of course, Adopt African Acres so you can help AWF help the elephants have as much room to roam as they need.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes