Fiona Macleod
A campaign similar to the one which saved the Brenton Blue butterfly from extinction is being mounted to protect a rare butterfly species in Gauteng’s premier nature reserve complex.
The Heidelberg Copper, so named because of the golden metallic sheen of its wings and its discovery at Heidelberg in 1959, is threatened by a proposed low-cost housing development.
Research shows it is so fragile that even smoke from fires burnt for cooking food would have a disastrous impact on its prospects for survival.
A precedent was set in 1997 when former minister of environmental affairs and tourism Pallo Jordan used Section 31A of the Environment Conservation Act to halt a development project at Brenton-on-Sea near Knysna, and a state reserve was established to protect the Brenton Blue.
It was the first time this law was used to conserve an endangered species. The move was widely hailed as an indication that the South African government takes its international obligations to preserve biodiversity seriously – even where there are no direct economic incentives.
Now the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (Wessa), one of the initiators of the Brenton Blue campaign, is calling on the Gauteng government to relocate the proposed development at Heidelberg, south of Johannesburg.
The society says this will be in the interest of preserving not only the Heidelberg Copper butterfly, but also other insects and at least 22 plant species listed in the Red Data Book as rare or endangered.
“We recognise the dire need for housing and services provision, and our intention is not to stand in the way of delivery,” says Lyn Brown, conservation ecologist (northern areas region) at Wessa. “But an alternative site needs to be found, taking into account the broader environmental importance of the area.”
The site earmarked for development falls between the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve and the Alice Glockner Reserve, run by the Gauteng Directorate of Nature Conservation.
Wessa and a group called the Friends of Suikerbosrand would like to see the two reserves become the core of a biosphere reserve to be used for conservation, research and recreation for Johannesburg’s stressed-out city slickers and low-impact agricultural activities.
Instead, the Heidelberg Town Council has plans to settle about 14 000 people in a 130ha informal settlement between the two reserves. The council does not have the funds to provide electricity and piped water so, at least initially, it plans to simply identify stands for residents to occupy and to provide “bucket night soil” sanitation services and taps in the streets.
Wessa’s fear is that the future residents will burn fossil fuels for cooking and warmth.
A recent study of the Heidelberg Copper by scientists Peter Roos and Graham Henning points out that the butterflies are particularly susceptible to air-borne pollutants. They communicate by means of pheromones, and an increase in smoke pollution could quickly disrupt their communication systems.
The Alice Glockner Reserve has been identified by Roos and Henning as one of only two sites in South Africa where the Heidelberg Copper butterfly has any hope of a future. The other site is a small private game ranch in Mpumalanga.
“The unexpected threat of human settlement such as that proposed at Heidelberg brings potentially catastrophic dangers to the Alice Glockner reserve,” say Roos and Henning.
Trish Hanekom, head of Gauteng’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation and the Environment, is not unsympathetic to Wessa’s stance: “The public sector has a responsibility to ensure that the survival of species is not threatened by unsustainable development,” she says.
“But we don’t know enough about the Heidelberg Copper butterfly yet. Saying no to the housing development may not be the only way to handle it; we need to make absolutely sure there are no other viable populations of the Heidelberg Coppers.”
The campaign to save the Brenton Blue took about four years to realise its goal. Brown is not sure the Heidelberg Copper has that much time to spare: “I’m very worried,” she says, “that the authorities aren’t taking their possible extinction seriously enough.”