Scientists and game reserve managers meet

A group of researchers and reserve wardens and managers got together on August 2, 2006 at the Hans Hoheisen facility near Orpen Gate to discuss how scientific research has helped them manage private conservation areas in the past, and how they saw research helping them in the future.

The meeting was a continuation of a series of informal networking sessions that have been taking place for over a decade under the auspices of Locores – the Lowveld Coordinated Research Forum. Dr Mike Peel from the Agricultural Research Council’s Range and Forage Institute, which has played a pivotal role in Locores over the years, looked back over the issues that the forum has discussed since 1991.

These issues included the identification and importance of soil types, use of fire as a management tool, different methods of bush clearing, vegetation monitoring, different census techniques, and a variety of other issues that scientists study and protected area managers put into action. The discussion then moved on to how research could help reserve managers in future.

A topic that provoked much discussion was how existing research could be tailored to fit in with the new national and provincial legislation that guides the issuing of permits for activities such as hunting, game take-offs, culling and other management actions.

Several managers present shared their experiences on the different criteria for the issuing of permits. Computer-modelling of the fluctuations in animal numbers in a private reserve over different time frames and conditions appeared to be of increasing importance to managers.

The apparently increasing need for private reserves to employ environmental lawyers was also highlighted. Those attending were treated to a presentationon the role of the Ndlovu node of the South African Environmental ObservationNetwork (Saeon) in the lowveld’s protected areas.

Dr Rina Grant, Kruger’s northern plains and plant-animal interaction expert, explained to those present what the node means to managers and wardens in the lowveld. The Locores forum and the close link between management and research in the lowveld’s private protected areas was one of the factors behind the region being chosen for the first long-term environmental observation node for Saeon. Some current research projects on the go in the lowveld were also discussed.