Page 32 - State of Biodiversity 2018/19

4.6.2. Restoration ecology
Restoration ecology, a science that emerged as a separate field in ecology in the 1980s, looks at renewing and restoring ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed by human activities to a stable, healthy and sustainable state. It is the practice of employing human intervention and action for conserving biodiversity and ecological integrity. Examples of ecological restoration include the active management of habitat for species, e.g. burning of grasslands or removal of IAPs, and the creation of new habitats in areas that may have been historically transformed for farming and other human activities, e.g. replanting forests or recreating wetlands.
Historically, the Restoration Ecology Branch of the EPCPD has had a budget allocated to IAP control and reforestation. The management of natural areas allows for a unique opportunity to address one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, i.e. poverty. Two programmes, Fire and Invasive Species Control (FISC) and Working for Ecosystems (WfE), have been developed
to tackle the problem of IAPs in Durban. Both FISC and WfE are sustainable development programmes that aim to alleviate poverty and develop skills by employing people to manage aspects of the environment such as the burning of grasslands and IAPs. Both programmes also have a strong education and training component. In the 2018/2019 municipal financial year, however, delays in the supply chain management system resulted in these budgets and appointments of FISC and WfE operators being appointed only at the very end of the financial year and thereby reducing the amount of work normally accomplished by the Restoration Ecology Branch.With the appointments now complete, 2019/2020 should show a regular return of work.
Table 6 indicates the breakdown of EPCPD IAP control in terms of budget spent and total hectares cleared while Tables 7 and 8 indicate a year-to-year comparison of key performance indicators of the Working for Ecosystem and Fire and Invasive Species Control programmes.
STATE OF BIODIVERSITY REPORT 2018/2019
28