GOURITZ INITIATIVE FORUM MEETING

OUDTSHOORN EXPERIMENTAL FARM - 21 July 2009

PROGRAMME

Welcome & Attendance register – Jane Green (Acting Chairperson of Gouritz Initiative)

1. Gouritz Cluster Biosphere – boundaries, corridors, nodes, names and all – Jan Vlok (RES), Steve du Toit (WESSA), Willem Smith (DEA&DP), Willem Botha (Business)
2. Fire management and Fire Protection Associations – Tony Marshall (CapeNature)
3. Biomimicry: basing business, lifestyle & technology on nature’s principles – Sue Swain (Private)
4. Environmental Psychology – Vernon Gibbs-Halls (Eden District Municipality)
5. Effects of herbivory on Thicket transformation – Anton Schmidt (NMMU)

Date for next meeting & Closure

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SUMMARY OF MEETING

Welcome – Ms Jane Green (Acting Chairperson of GI) welcomed all and thanked CapeNature and Dept of Environmental Affairs & Development Planning for funding the refreshments for the get-together. The Dept of Agriculture was also thanked for providing the venue free of charge to the GI.

Attendance register

A total of 63 people attended the meeting. See attendance register.

Presentations

1. Gouritz Cluster Biosphere – boundaries, corridors, nodes, names and all – Jan Vlok (RES), Steve du Toit (WESSA), Willem Smith (DEA&DP), Willem Botha (Business)

• Dr Steve du Toit gave presentation entitled: “Towards the establishment of the Gouritz Biosphere Reserve” in which he highlighted the progress made with the application.

Received letters of support from CapeNature, Dept of Environmental Affairs & Development Planning and Botanical Society of South Africa for establishment of Gouritz Cluster Biosphere. Received funding from Table Mountain Fund (R65 000, administered by WESSA) and DEA& DP (R52 700, administered by CapeNature). Application steering committee has been identified – Willem Smith, Steve du Toit, Ivan Donian, Anita Wheeler, Jan Vlok, Jane Green, AnneLise Schutte-Vlok, Willem Botha, Vernon Gibbs-Halls, Hannes Muller.

6 Outputs:

·         Education and Awareness: (complete before end October 2009).     Consultation, through           meetings and workshops with communities (including the commercial and agricultural           sectors, municipalities and other spheres of government) to raise awareness and           support of the Biosphere Reserve concept. To be done in conjunction with           CapeNature’s Stewardship programme.

·         Finalization of zonation (complete before end November 2009). Identification of the           core, buffer and transitional areas within the Biosphere, and pragmatic boundaries for   4 – 5 clusters, incorporating Municipal and Cape Nature demarcation, while ensuring that the biological entities remain in tact. This will entail groundwork and discussion          with local land-owners. GIS mapping is to be done in conjunction with the DEA+DP          GIS unit.

·         Maps printed by DEA&DP and copies made by WESSA.

·         Establishment of Section 21 Company (complete before end January 2010)

·         Compilation and submission of Application for Biosphere Reserve Status (complete           before end March 2010)

·         Presentation of the process and outcomes at Fynbos Forum 2010, and a popular article           to be published in conjunction with the manager of the Table Mountain Fund.

• Mr Jan Vlok presented map showing proposed subdivision of domain into 4 sectors. The reasoning behind the subdivision (see attached map) was explained and comments on the proposal were invited.

The comments from the floor were as follows: The only problematic subdivision is between the Eastern Klein Karoo and the coastal sector (Uniondale area) as this line subdivides the agricultural community along the Langkloof Rd from Herold to Uniondale and include them into the coastal sector with Mossel Bay. The Forum proposed to have one public meeting in Uniondale to discuss the re-alignment of this subdivision.

We also need to discuss this matter with SANParks officials as it may affect them. It was accepted to present the 5 major public meetings in Ladismith, Oudtshoorn, Uniondale, Mossel Bay and Riversdale.

The floor accepted the proposal that the Core zone of the Biosphere will consist of all statutory reserves, Contract Nature Reserves and Biodiversity Agreement Stewardship sites.

Buffer zone will be all extant natural vegetation (all land currently mapped by the CAPE finescale studies as pristine, moderately transformed or remnants of threatened vegetation units) and the remainder of the domain will be the Transitional zone. Acceptance of this proposal was twice requested from the floor and unanimously supported.

Apart from the 5 open public meetings, the floor strongly supported the suggestion to target specific affected parties, especially the local Farmer Associations. Involving the Farmer Associations will require an extended period of public participation as their agendas have already been set for 2009. An attempt must be made to incorporate the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative and CAPE SPAN to align their objectives with those of the Biosphere.

A new GIDS (information pamphlet) should be prepared in which the implications of a biosphere are explained.

Mr Ivan Donian of CapeNature confirmed that CN would attend all these meetings.

• Mr Willem Botha discussed the proposal to establish a Section 21 Company. It is still generally agreed to be the best vehicle to take the project forward and it was accepted by the floor to proceed with this application. Mr Botha indicated there are several immediate actions required by the Forum to establish such a company. He stressed the fact that we should limit our application to the standard application format. Immediate issues that must be addressed are:

·         Decide on a name and 2 alternative names. These names should clearly indicate the explicit intention of the company. Register the name.

·         Directors must be elected. Minimum of 2, but ideally 4. The Forum members suggested that the Directors should reside within the GI domain. Decide on powers and duties, and remuneration of Directors.

·         Decide on who will be members of the company. A minimum of 7 members are required. It was proposed that all Forum members should become members of the company. Anybody who would like to could become a Forum member – it is not imperative that they should live in the GI domain.

·         Once the Directors have been elected, we will require their FICA documents for the formal application.

·         Decide on a physical address for the company.

·         Appoint auditors of the company.

·         Open a bank account as soon as the company has been established.

ACTION FOR ALL FORUM MEMBERS: Please forward suggestions for the name of the Section 21 Company and the 4 sectors, as well as nominations for directors to Jan Vlok ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

ACTION FOR ANNELISE VLOK: Members requested that the information about the Biosphere should be put on the website (www.gouritz.com), preferably into a separate category if possible.   

The meeting proceeded with the presentations by

Mr Tony Marshall, Ms Sue Swain, Mr Vernon Gibbs-Halls, Mr Anton Schmidt.

Date for next meeting. Although the date was set for the 6^th Oct 2009, we have since been informed that it clashes with the Arid Zone Ecology Forum Conference which will be taking place during that week. We suggest that the meeting should be moved a week later to the 13^th October 2009.