| Clubs: | Partnership in Understanding | Food Gardens | Chimpanzoo | | |||
|
|||
|
 |
Newsletter -- MAY 2005 ROOTS & SHOOTS GAUTENG A busy 2005 is underway and from what we hear there seem to be some exciting Roots & Shoots projects on the go. We look forward to hearing more details about them and sharing the information with other groups! IT’S COMPETITION TIME!!!! We are running two very exciting competitions: GREAT APES COMPETITON This is a poster-based competition for all groups. Size of poster: About A3 (bear in mind that they may need to be folded and posted to us) Great Apes are under major threat due to deforestation, use of these animals as bush meat and many other issues. Find out about the amazing great apes though libraries, the internet or any other contacts that you have and then make a poster about one of them and the particular plight that they are facing. There is also extensive information about Dr Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. Select a specific ape group and then make a poster that depicts the specific plight that they are facing. These posters will be used for educational purposes. The deadline for this competition is 31 August. Details about delivery and postal addresses will be included in the next newsletter. FOOD GARDEN/INDIGENOUS GARDEN COMPETITION Groups are encouraged to make a food garden and/or indigenous garden on the school or organizations premises. Food gardens can be used to grow and sell food to make money for other Roots & Shoots activities or to donate food to charities as part of the people project. Indigenous gardens can be used to encourage birds, butterflies and insects to visit the garden by planting specific trees and shrubs. Nurseries and books on indigenous plants will provide the necessary information. Groups wishing to participate in this project need to provide a brief written summary of all the steps involved in creating their garden as well as some photos. The deadline for this project is 31 October and prizes will be awarded for the best and most productive gardens. The competition will be split into Food and Indigenous Gardens. INDABA PICNIC FEEDBACK The people attending the Indaba were divided into 4 groups and had to discuss their feelings about how they could develop the Roots & Shoots programme within their schools and organisations. Below is a summary of the ideas as well as problems and solutions generated within each group. In future newsletters, we will discuss some of the identified issues in more detail. Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 IDEAS FOR ROOTS & SHOOTS ACTIVITIES ANIMAL PROJECT IDEAS Pine Cone Bird Feeders For meat eaters, push bits of bone meal (you can get it from the butcher at a very small cost), peanut butter and bacon rind between the scales of the cone. For seen and fruit eaters, melt the lard and peanut butter in equal quantities. Dip the cone into the mixture and sprinkle with birdseed. You can add chopped up dry fruit. This will attract both seed and fruit eaters. Attach a piece of string to each pine cone in order to hang it from a branch of a tree. Urban Owl Box Project Through the positioning of owl boxes with a suitable pea gravel substrate it is believed that pairs of owls will begin to use these artificial nest boxes in which to lay eggs and rear their young. The resident owls occupying these nest boxes will contribute to the control of rodents as well as numerous insect species. Owls generally breed once a year and usually rear between 2 and 5 youngsters. There is also a school project where nesting boxes are placed in schools. This could be fun project!! To find out more about the project, please contact Jonathan on 072 365 9777 PEOPLE PROJECT IDEAS Get all pupils to knit squares (about 15cm x 15cm) and make these up into blankets that can be donated to charities. As an incentive, prizes can be awarded for the class with the most squares. Also, why not get pupils to bring an extra sandwich on a certain day of each month and donate these to a local school or charity? It is rather fun if a table is placed outside the school hall and all the collect items are displayed so that pupils can see the results of their effort. A table piled with squares and then completed blankets is very motivating!! Also, take photos and include them in school magazines (and send copies to us!!). P.A.S.A ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATORS WORKSHOP in UGANDA by Sue Slotar It was a great privilege for me to attend the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance Environmental Educators workshop again this year. The workshop was held on Ngamba Island, which is a Chimpanzee Sanctuary. A vast percentage of the Chimpanzees on the island are orphans, from the DRC, as their parents are killed and sold to be eaten, as bushmeat. The sale of bushmeat is a huge crisis in many countries in central Africa. Many of us are not aware of the rate at which animals are being killed and sold as bushmeat. There were sanctuary educators from many African countries - Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya, DRC, Congo, Zambia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Uganda. I was there to represent The Jane Goodall Institute South Africa. As we do not yet have our own Chimpanzee Sanctuary, I used activities done by Roots & Shoots groups as part of my presentation. It was an inspirational trip and I have come back with lots of new ideas.
THE SCIENCE FESTIVAL IN GRAHAMSTOWN by Sue Slotar Di Sheard and I went down to Grahamstown to hold two workshops for people interested in starting a Roots & Shoots group. Although the turn out was not very good, it was beneficial as we would rather have three or four very good groups, than lots of groups that are not totally committed and it certainly seems to be that way in Grahamstown. We met with the group from East London and it was a pleasure not only to meet Phiwe, the leader of their Roots & Shoots group, but also to get a chance to speak to the teacher as well as a past teacher who still has an interest in the Roots & Shoots program. We worked with two of the guys that I had met last year when I was in Grahamstown, Thabani and Ticket ( everyone calls him Ticket as his name is really difficult to pronounce). They are going to start food gardens in the informal settlement and a student from Rhodes University, Rachel, is going to help them with their program. Rachel will also be setting up a new program for Rhodes. She is interested in medicinal plants and their uses and Thabani and Ticket are going to help her with this. It is really great to see groups sharing ideas and working together!! There were no students from our newest group, The Victoria Girls High School, but Rachel also helps out there and she will give them feedback from the workshop and assist them with ideas for their programs. So the Eastern Cape now has four really committed groups and we look forward to lots of good things from them!!! Some interesting international news: African Leaders Sign Rainforest Treaty Brazzaville, Republic of Congo: Leaders of seven Central African countries signed a landmark treaty to work together to help save the world's second-largest rain forest. The forests make up the very heart of Africa, encompassing 500 million
acres stretching through 10 countries. They are also home to more than half Africa's animal species, including the world's entire population of lowland gorillas. Nearly 20 million people depend on the forests for food and shelter. But illegal logging, poaching, ivory trafficking and a rampant bushmeat trade are destroying the forests at an alarming rate. To read the entire article, please visit http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4781396,00.html Great Ape Conservation Groups Work Together Forty years after Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall began their pioneering work with great apes in Africa, the two organizations they founded have formed an historic partnership to work together in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In their separate spheres working on behalf of great apes, both the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) and the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) have developed the same conservation philosophy: Effective conservation must begin with the needs and priorities of local communities. With that shared approach, the two organizations will join forces in an area of Eastern Congo that has significant gorilla and chimpanzee populations. The joint project will help improve health care, provide family planning training and methods, and help local people develop sustainable and more efficient agricultural and livestock practices. The project will build on a three-year-old Fossey Fund program working with community-based reserves and national parks to protect the eastern lowland gorilla and other endemic species in an 8.6 million acre landscape. It will use a community-centered conservation model developed by JGI in Tanzania. Says Dr. Goodall: “We’re thrilled to partner with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International to further community-based conservation in the DRC. With great apes in the wild in danger of extinction, it is so important that conservation organizations share their resources and energies. Both our organizations take a holistic approach to community conservation that ensures a productive partnership – and, I hope, even a model one.” Some interesting local news from one of our groups in East London They have been doing great fundraising at events such as a Derby Day to support charities such as SANCCOB, the Zoo and aquarium. They have also had a speaker about the Cape Parrot and many members now want to assist with counting the birds. In addition, they have made toys for animals at the zoo as part of a cage enrichment programme and have taken them to the zoo as a fun outing. Well done and keep up the hard work!! Kind regards, Sue and Di
|
Email Us | Write: Roots & Shoots Program, Jane Goodall Institute South Africa, legal & privacy | terms & conditions | site map | JGI SA |