Page 29 - State of Biodiversity 2023-2024

goal was through Biodiversity Stewardship - an approach to securing land in biodiversity priority areas through entering into agreements with landowners with the intention of securing the biodiversity of South Africa. Fortunately, the wetland was purchased by the eThekwini municipality, and together with their incredible support the site was declared as a Protected Environment in 2024. All stakeholders are currently collaborating to initiate extension rehabilitation and subsequent monitoring of this site, which supports a population of the Endangered Pickersgill’s Reed Frog.
This project was built from the amazing work of previous EWT staff, namely Jeanne Tarrant and Cherise Acker. More recently, however, Nonkazimlo Mafa has taken over coordination of EWT’s KZN sites. Nonkazimlo Mafa was born in a tiny village of Mambulwini in uMzimkhulu in KwaZulu-Natal. Where her passion for community development started. She obtained her matric at Ibisi Secondary School and went to further her studies at the University of Fort Hare, where she obtained her degree in Agricultural extension and production. After she completed her degree. She got an opportunity to be part of the Groen-Sebenza internship programme, where she was placed at the World Wide Fund for Nature-South Africa (WWF-SA) as Biodiversity stewardship and Land reform intern. Due to her dedication to the job, she was later absorbed as the Biodiversity stewardship officer. Where her love for helping communities to realize the value of their land and its benefit to livelihoods was put into practical, she facilitated the declaration of Mkhothane Protected Environment and signing of multiply Biodiversity Agreements and provided post declaration support to 13 Biodiversity Stewardship sites. In May 2024, she joined the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) as the Urban ecology: project manager, under the Threatened Amphibian Programme, in the eThekwini area.
Further EWT work in KZN
The EWT’s Threatened Amphibian Programme has several other key focal sites in KZN, where their work is also centered around threatened species and Biodiversity Stewardship. TAP has had a long- term focus on Adams Mission, a proposed protected Environment comprising over 500ha of meandering wetland habitat with several threatened ecosystems supporting threatened amphibian species. Here, TAP’s work also focusses on enhancing socioecological resilience for both local biodiversity and for the benefit of local communities. TAP’s work also extends to Treasure Beach where they focus on protected the Critically Endangered Dwarf Burrowing Skink. The EWT
Waste collection at Adams Mission.
STATE OF BIODIVERSITY REPORT 2023/2024 27