Page 43 - State of Biodiversity 2023-2024

Figure 1: The KwaCele Conservancy members cleaning the MaThole Community Hall’s yard.
The programme also believes that the partnership between government and traditional communities should be founded on recognition of Indigenous Knowledge and co-learning. As part of promoting co-learning between the KwaThoyana traditional community and government officials, including the Natural Resources Division (NRD) officials and Biodiversity Management Department (BMD) officials, the Muthi Plant workshop was held in KwaThoyana. The workshop provided an opportunity for the community members to share their insights about which Muthi plants they use and whether population of each of them was decreasing or increasing. It came out that some of Muthi plants’ population was decreasing and the NRD officials committed to exploring opportunities of propagating them.
As part of exposing the Biodiversity Stewardship sites to different opportunities, the programme organized Resource Use and Invasive Alien Plants Workshops were held in KwaCele, KwaThoyana and Zwelibomvu. The presenters of the workshops included Working on Fire, BMD’s Restoration Ecology Branch and NRD. The workshops also managed to secure presentations from the Western Cape’s Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment officials on aquaculture.
The programme is confident that registration of the Conservancies will ensure that there are biodiversity champions in traditional communities. It also believes that various workshops that were held in these Biodiversity Stewardship sites have sown a seed that will promote responsible management of the communities’ biodiversity and promote fruitful collaborations between the communities and government.
As part of promoting co-learning between the KwaThoyana traditional community and government officials, including the Natural Resources Division (NRD) officials and Biodiversity Management Department (BMD) officials, the Muthi
Plants workshop was held in KwaThoyana.
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