Renee De Wet

How to Grow A Food Garden in your Apartment

Just like our favourite community gardener, we believe that every home needs a food garden. Yes, that includes apartments! Rooftops, balconies and even windowsills can become farming spaces.

What Drives the Massive Illegal Wildlife Trade in Africa?

The Novel Coronavirus and the belief that it originated in the illegal wildlife trade, has highlighted this burning issue. Wildlife organisations have called for total bans on the trade; governments have made a range of announcements. But how effective have trade bans been in the past? And what are the market demands that sustain the trade? Can the steady supply be arrested at its source?

New Concerns as Studies Reveal that Climate Change can Hurt Elephant Conservation

Botswana’s elephants made headline news across the world recently when hundreds died mysteriously. The first carcasses were spotted in the Okavango Delta in March. By the end of June, 330 had died. In this article, we discover the cause of the mystifying deaths and what it means for the future of elephant conservation in Africa.

Hope for Pangolin Conservation: Rare Species Returns to Zululand

The African Pangolin Working Group (APWG) returned a young female pangolin to the wild in KwaZulu-Natal recently. “The Temminck’s pangolin has not roamed Zululand for nearly 70 years so this is a historic moment for us and an incredible project of proactive conservation of an extremely endangered species,” said Frances Hannah, project coordinator at the Zululand Conservation Trust. The trust has given high priority to pangolin conservation, allocating funds to protect, rehabilitate and monitor these amazing animals.

Rhino Conservation, Covid-19 and How to Help

The Covid-19 pandemic has reached into every area of life, shaking our sense of security. The field of wildlife conservation has not been immune. In May, South Africans welcomed the news of a dramatic drop in rhino poaching incidents. But it seems that short term gains could fade in the face of long term effects.

Cheetah Conservation in SA: Growth in Populations Inspires Hope

There are fewer than 7,100 adult cheetahs left in the wild, and their numbers keep decreasing. In fact, this cat has vanished from 90% of its range in Africa. But there has been significant population growth in South Africa, home to 18 percent of the world’s remaining cheetahs. The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s cheetah conservation project played a big role in this triumph. The project has almost doubled cheetah numbers in less than a decade.

In this article, we investigate this success story and consider some of the complexities of cheetah conservation.

Conservation Agriculture: A New Future for Rural Farmers

Traditional agriculture can harm the environment, produce greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change. But sustainable farming methods can do the opposite — increase resilience to climate change, protect biodiversity and use natural resources responsibly. Conservation Agriculture is one such system that aims to achieve sustainable and profitable farming while protecting the environment.

Cut Food Waste at Home, Help Feed the World

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reports that 820 million people worldwide were already undernourished when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. This included 135 million people experiencing acute food insecurity. And yet, we lose around 30 percent of all food produced for human consumption globally. That’s 1.3 billion tonnes of food waste…