Grootbos Foundation Monthly Update | April 2023

08 May

General

Grootbos Foundation April Update

April has blossomed into a month brimming with progress and passion for Grootbos Foundation's ongoing initiatives. From the nurturing of young minds through captivating activities to the exhilarating strides in conservation efforts, the journey has been nothing short of exhilarating.

Nature Is Art

During the March school holiday, the Grootbos Foundation Sports Development team ran a holiday programme to keep local children active, engaged and safe throughout their school break. 

The team hosts school holiday programmes throughout the year and on public holidays to ensure that children have a safe and fun space to be, even when schools are closed. This is both a fun engagement for children and a reliable service for working parents who may not be able to afford additional childcare during these times. 

Grootbos Foundation coaches ran a cultural engagement programme that immersed children fully in nature. They visited the coastline to learn about sea creatures and the marine biodiversity of the rocky shores and then used their knowledge and experience to inspire art activities.

It is a goal of the Grootbos Foundation to incorporate cultural activities throughout the year to attract those students who may not be inspired by sport and to offer a change of pace and different engagement for the very active, ‘sporty’ children already served. 

Youth development takes many different shapes initially. Learners collected shells from the shoreline and used these as inspiration for creative artwork. In this way, children can fully engage with what they have learnt. Curiosity and fun are the ingredients that create the perfect recipe for meaningful understanding, development, and growth.

Some students were inspired by the spirals of the shells while others were more captivated by the sensory experience of being at the beach simply to enjoy and observe nature. There is no wrong way to create art.

Business in Development

The Enterprise Development Team recently dispersed the second tranche of small grants 
to the Entrepreneurship project participants. These small business owners have been working hard over the past eight months, incorporating the feedback from Grootbos Foundation’s team of mentors. 

Sizwe is an Auto Electrician from Zwelihle. Using his first tranche of funding in September, he purchased a 90-piece tool kit. This month, Sizwe used his second tranche to buy a jack, tools and a 219-piece socket set that he has been dreaming of for a long time.

e is over the moon with these new tools. He now has clients in Onrus and the Hemel en Aarde Valley. Having two sets of tools means that his business can now operate in two places at once.

Diving Headlong Into Scientific Conservation Research

Grootbos Foundation is proud to announce that new research has been published which was conducted at, and facilitated through, the Grootbos Environmental Centre. 

Maisie Brett is a pollination and ecology scientist who completed her Master of Research in 2020 at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Her research looked at the spillover effect of invasive plant species on native pollinators in the fynbos landscape at Grootbos Private Nature Reserve. Her Master’s research has recently been published as an article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

Maisie’s research shows that invasive plant species do indeed affect native pollinators. The article concluded that invasive plant species alter the very structure of native plant-pollinator networks, that they affect the reproduction of co-flowering plants through reduced seed set, and that these changes occur in areas adjacent to invasive Acacia invasion.  In other words, there is a local spillover effect. 

These are exciting results from some of the first research done into the spillover effect of invasive species on plant-pollinator relationships in the fynbos landscape. Kurt van Wyk, a visiting PhD researcher, and Paula Strauss, a Grootbos Entomologist, were co-authors of this article. 

Maisie is currently working on her PhD in which she explores the potential impact for managed bee hives to compete with wild pollinators, working in two heathland habitats in Scotland and South Africa. She spent 2023 gathering data on Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and is now compiling her research in Bristol, United Kingdom.

Earth Rangers: Ambassadors for Nature

Each year, the Grootbos Foundation selects a cohort of learners to participate in our Earth Rangers programme. This is an eight-week programme of inspirational and educational conservation-based engagements for eight to 12-year-old children. 

Each week they experience and learn about the environment, animals, plants, and the region in which they live. This programme is designed to teach children to be ambassadors for nature through a joyful experience of it. At the end of the programme, the Earth Rangers go on an overnight camp to the Grootbos Environmental Centre which lies deep in the fynbos at an off-grid research facility to experience nature first-hand. 

The Grade 7 class from Gansbaai Primary kicked off the Earth Rangers programme with an exercise on how to identify their personal strengths. We look forward to seeing more of the activities in the coming months and watching these young learners become champions for the environment.

On The Fly

Grootbos Foundation entomologists have been running a project called the Pentad project. This Pentad project is a long-term monitoring project involving establishing monitoring blocks, or Pentads, which are specific areas that the team will survey for insects. 

These established blocks can be re-monitored in years to come to see how and if insect communities (assemblages) have changed. These blocks have been set up across different vegetation types and topographies to compare and contrast insect communities according to those variables as well. 

The monitoring process works as follows: four different coloured bowls are filled with propylene glycol, a soapy substance that’s not harmful to the environment, that will trap the 
insects in the bowl once they land on it. These bowls are placed in the various vegetation 
types being investigated. Insects are attracted to different coloured bowls which represent 
different coloured flowers that the insects typically pollinate. The bowls are white, yellow, blue, and red with blue and red acting as proxies for purple and pink.

The team then collects the insects that have been caught in the bowls and records the number of insects found and the different families of insects collected, as well as which coloured bowls each insect is found in.

Research like this helps us understand the relationships between insects and fynbos which in turn gives us a greater understanding of the ecosystems within the fynbos.