As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Creation of new nature reserve protects important bird habitat in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) is celebrating the publication of the Notice of Intent to Declare the Beaumont Nature Reserve in the Swartberg region of KwaZulu-Natal. 

“The proposed Beaumont Nature Reserve is 1050 ha in size and forms part of the Thule Conservancy, which was created in 2012 ," said Cobus Theron, the EWT’s African Crane Conservation Programme’s Southern Drakensberg / East Griqualand Stewardship Facilitator.

Southern bald ibis
"Many of the properties in the conservancy will also be proposed as Nature Reserves or Protected Environments in the near future. Nature Reserve status represents the highest category in the Biodiversity Stewardship Programme and the Beaumont Nature Reserve will become the first declared nature reserve that EWT has negotiated.”

The Biodiversity Stewardship Programme is a national governmental initiative that aims to complement the expansion of protected areas in the country with particular focus on private and communal land. The programme, which is a process that landowners voluntarily enter into, consists of legally binding agreements with government to enter their land into the protected area network and manage it for biodiversity.

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