The Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs, Rural Development and Land Reform's Biodiversity Stewardship Unit, Research and Development Units in conjunction with various stakeholders such as the Northern Cape Protected Area Expansion Review Committee, the Kolomela Mine, World Wildlife Fund South Africa (WWFSA) and Wilderness Fondation Africa (WFA) converged in Kimberley for the bi-annual Committee Meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to review private land for conservation worthiness and the appointed panel recommendations for the protected area status.
The meeting also evaluated all the candidate sites in the Province.
About seven candidate sites are to be reviewed, where the appointed voting committee members make recommendations and the conservation authority then begins with the declaration process which is then submitted to the MEC Mase Manopole for approval.
The Biodiversity Stewardship Programme entails an approach to securing, protected and managing land priority Biodiversity Areas through entering into a agreement with private and communial landowners.
The process is led by Conservation Authorities as it is influenced by a number of Legislative Acts.
Several protected areas have already received technical assistance while others are in the process of getting theirs such as fencing material, solar borehole system, signage boards for the listed protected areas and camera traps for use on the listed protected area.
The Biodiversity Stewardship Unit holds the Northern Cape Protected Area Expansion Review Committee Meeting Biannually.
ISSUED BY THE NORTHERN CAPE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, RURAL DEVELOPMENT AND LAND REFORM.