Fiona Macleod
Mpumalanga province declared its first internationally protected wetlands on World Wetlands Day on Wednesday.
The Verloren Vallei Nature Reserve, 10km north of Dullstroom, is the province’s first proposed Ramsar site. This means it will be recognised internationally as a wetland system of importance, and will be protected against degradation and development.
“We started the process of applying for Ramsar site status in 1994, and now it’s virtually complete. All we need is the national politicians to rubber-stamp our application before it is registered with the Ramsar authority in Switzerland,” says Frans Krige, the reserve’s manager.
Trout farms in the Dullstroom area, perennially popular with wealthy fishing syndicates from Gauteng, are a constant threat to the Verloren Vallei wetlands.
There’s a moratorium on the building of any new trout dams in the area for at least a year. But the trout farmers and local chamber of commerce say this is harming Dullstroom’s tourism economy and they have approached Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils to find a solution.
“The damming of water for trout hatcheries has a huge impact on water flow into the wetlands,” says Krige. “We are losing the natural wetlands, as well as the species that naturally occur in them.”
The 6 055ha Verloren Vallei reserve was established in 1983, with the aims of setting up a core conservation area in the Steenkampsberg – the highest plateau in the then Transvaal – and of protecting the source of two major rivers, the Crocodile and Steelpoort.
The move was not popular among local farmers at the time, because parts of a number of farms were expropriated to create the reserve.
But Krige says most of these farmers now view the reserve in a positive light.
“They benefit from it because their trout hatcheries and breeding dams receive clean water from it.”
When the Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) took over Verloren Vallei in 1994, it set to work with the Rennies Wetlands Project and the Highlands Crane Breeding Project to manage the reserve’s 39 individual wetlands and their resources.
The Dullstroom area is the breeding home of two of South Africa’s most endangered bird species, the wattled and blue cranes.
“Wattled cranes are on the verge of becoming extinct in Mpumalanga,” says Krige, “and there are only about 250 of these large birds left in the whole of the country.
“In the early 1980s, there were 33 breeding pairs in Dullstroom. Now there are only three pairs, and a total of 14 birds in the area.”
Trout farming is not the only reason for their decline: aforestation and human development have reduced their habitat; some have died after flying into power lines; and a number have been shot or poisoned by farmers.
“Wattled cranes like to build their nests on a small piece of open water in a wetland. The large open pools created for trout dams don’t suit them,” says Krige.
“They also tend to move away from the human activity around trout dams.” Verloren Vallei is attempting to counter the decline of wattled cranes by breeding them and releasing them into the wild.
So far the project has succeeded in rearing and releasing the birds, but it is too early to tell whether they will become successful breeding pairs because they only start breeding after seven years.
Krige’s favourite success story at Verloren Vallei is the discovery within its borders of 54 indigenous orchids – and it’s likely still more will be found in the future.
Says Anton Lindstrom, the MPB’s wetland ecologist: “Verloren Vallei is ecologically important because it supports a high diversity of rare, vulnerable and endangered plant species.
“A recent study showed that close to 45% of Mpumalanga’s wetlands has already been destroyed by activities such as mining, forestry, agriculture and urban development.”
When the politicians give their stamp of approval to Verloren Vallei’s application, it will become the 17th wetland system in South Africa to receive Ramsar status.
World Wetlands Day is celebrated on February 2 each year to mark the signing in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar, of an international convention to protect the world’s wetlands.