The History of WESSA

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (previously known as the Wildlife Society of Southern Africa) is arguably one of the country's oldest and largest independent non-government environmental  organisation. Although its origins go back to the 1890s, it has been in continuous existence since 1926, making the year 2011 the occasion of its 85th consecutive AGM. 

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) is a membership-based organisation that has, since its inception,  always been non-racist and a-political.  It currently enjoys a membership of 13 000, although this is misleading as many members consist of schools, families, corporates and clubs, such that a conservative estimate of actual numbers of members (as opposed to computer addresses) is considered to be 40 000 - 50 000. The members are grouped into 52 Branches throughout South Africa, which in turn are grouped into 8 geographical Regions.

WESSA employs approximately 100 permanent staff, but perhaps more importantly, and in line with its Mission statement of “promoting public participation in caring for the Earth”, it provides opportunities for its thousands of members, school children and the general public, to become involved in environmental issues at local, national & international levels.

In addition to the two national magazines, African Wildlife, and EnviroKids, each Region produces its own monthly or bi-monthly newsletter which keeps members informed and up-to-date.

What the Society stands for, what it hopes to achieve, how it plans to do this, and its general ethos are clearly set out in its Vision and Mission statement. 

The Society changed its name to the “Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa” (WESSA), as it was felt that this name more accurately describes the nature and scope of its activities.

Throughout its existence, the Society has been at the forefront of “promoting public participation in caring for the Earth”, and its many, many achievements in this regard are, for the period 1926 to 1980, documented in the book on the Society's history, “The Conservationists and the Killers”, as well as the special Diamond Jubilee issue of our own bi-monthly magazine, African Wildlife. 

The following are just a few highlights of the Society's activities in the early days-

1926 - successfully campaigned for the establishment of the National Parks Board, (the Society has been represented on the Board ever since) and the  (official) proclamation of the Kruger National Park;

1929 - campaigned for the protection of the  Cape Peninsula mountain chain;

1931- successfully campaigned for the establishment of the Addo Elephant Park;

1937 - after 8 years of petitioning by the Society, the Mountain Zebra Park was established;

1946 - produced the first issue of African Wildlife magazine, which has been in continuous production (6 issues per annum) ever since (54 years);

1948 - the Society was a founder member of the IUCN (the World Conservation Union) - one of only two founder members in southern Africa;

1964-68 - successfully campaigned to save the Mkuze Reserve from de-proclamation;
the Society successfully campaigned to halt the proposed mining of coking coal in the Kruger National Park;

1968 - the Society started one of the first environmental education projects in South Africa.  It now has many such projects throughout the country, and is acknowledged as one of the leaders, both in South Africa, and in the world in this field;

1972 - established the first conservation magazine for young people.  Toktokkie, now called EnviroKids, has been produced bi-monthly for the past 29 years;
successfully campaigned to have the Eastern Shores of Lake St Lucia included in the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park.

Some of the Society's more recent successes and highlights:

• Produced the first Environmental Conservation Strategy for South Africa in 1980 (the first NGO in the world to do so).
• The Society surveyed the Transkei coast in the late 1970s, and made recommendations for its conservation, and also pioneered the first public hiking trails along this section of our coast.

• Established the Umgeni Valley Project, one of the first environmental education centres in South Africa.

• Successfully campaigned against the mining of the Eastern Shores of St Lucia and to save the Mapelane Dune Forest from destruction by mining.

• Established the Wildlife Clubs scheme (mainly for school groups) with some 350 Clubs country-wide.

• Pioneered and promoted the very successful Metropolitan Open Space Systems (MOSS) in most large urban areas of South Africa.

• Pioneered the “Friends Scheme” whereby groups conserve local areas.

• The Society played a key role in the establishing of the first “Conservancy” in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands.

• The Society initiated the “People and Parks” process in KwaZulu-Natal - one of the first initiatives to bring conservation authorities and their neighbours together to discuss their common futures.

• Over the years the Society campaigned for the establishment of many lesser, though important, nature reserves, examples of which include; the Beachwood Mangroves, Amatikulu Nature Reserve, the Ben Lavin Nature Reserve, and the Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve.

• The Society established the Drakensberg Wetland Project in 1995, and then ran the world-famous Twinstreams project in 1996.

• The Society was instrumental in bringing about a meeting (in 1996) of all of the Wildlife Societies of southern and eastern Africa, the result of which was the formation of the Alliance of Wildlife Societies of Africa.
• The Society has produced many books and field guides, as well as its well-known Share-Net series of booklets

• The Society's National Office, at Howick in KwaZulu-Natal, was selected from all the applicants from the 14 member states of SADC (Southern African Development Community) for the establishment of a regional SADC office to promote environmental education throughout the 14 member-states of SADC.

• The Society manages the National Wetlands Project, a collaborative initiative which has been in existence since 1991.

• The Society has been actively involved in developments with respect to national parks.  We were one of the original campaigners for the development of the Addo Elephant Park and are currently involved in the expansion of this park.  So too are we involved in the exciting developments to establish the Pondoland National Park, a new national park for South Africa, which will conserve pristine coastline and adjacent forests in the old Transkei area.

• In the past 10 years, the Society has been actively involved in numerous community-based projects: The developments at the NgoyeForest (KwaZulu-Natal), the Utshwayelo community campsite at Kosi Bay, the Vosloorus and Khutsong education programmes (Gauteng), the education programme at the Tsoga Centre in Langa (Cape Town), and the community greening programmes in the Eastern Cape and Northerm Cape regions.

• Education and training are key priorities for WESSA and numerous environmental education courses have been developed to respond to growing concerns about environmental issues.  The Society works in partnership with Rhodes University as implementing agencies for a number of courses, e.g. the year-long Certificate course in Environmental Education, the Industry Course for Education and Training, and the 2-month SADC International Course in Environmental Education.

• As a relatively small NGO, and competing with ninety other organisations. WESSA was extremely proud to have been a finalist in the 1999 Corporate Governance Awards.

• WESSA was acknowledged by the United Nations University as a Regional Centre of Expertise in July 2007.

BACKGROUND TO THE MAGAZINES
PUBLISHED BY THE WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa began producing a bi-monthly magazine for its members in 1946.  This magazine, African Wildlife has been in continuous production ever since, making the year 2000 its 54th anniversary.  Not only does this mean that African Wildlife is South Africa's longest running conservation magazine, but it is also one of the longest-running magazines of any type in South Africa.

African Wildlife magazine is the main means of communication between the management of the Society and its members, as well as being the main public mouth-piece of the organisation. 

Copies of the magazine are also sent to members of similar organisations in neighbouring countries (for example the Wildlife Society of Namibia), as well as to members of the UK Branch of the Wildlife and Environment Society, and to members in countries as diverse as the United States, Germany, and Australia.

African Wildlife has a minimum of 48, full-colour pages, and covers all topics related to environmental issues, from natural history articles, to articles on “brown” issues, development issues and environmental education, as well as news and views of the Society.

In line with the Society's Mission statement, African Wildlife magazine has always played an environmental “watchdog” role, bringing to the attention of its members and the general public, controversial issues, thereby encouraging public participation in caring for the earth. 

Some of the many issues addressed in African Wildlife  magazine over the years reflect the diverse and changing nature of environmental concerns both within the Society and within South Africa.  These issues include:

- proposed mining of coking coal in Kruger National Park (vol 32/10)
- the Dieldrin scandal (vol 39/1)
- the illegal use and consequence of DDT (vol 39/2)
- illegal lion hunting in Botswana (vol 39/3)
- pesticides and locusts (vol 41/4)
- the threat of acid rain in South Africa (vol 43/2)
- the threat and consequence of mining the Zululand dunes (vol 43/3)
- the depletion of the ozone layer and the role of aerosols (vol 43/4)
- the fight to save St. Lucia (vols. 44/1, 45/1)
- squatters and the Dukuduku forest (vol 44/6)
- over-population (vols 35/4 and 45/2)
- ecotourism (50/3)
- proposals for the Greater Addo Elephant Park (vol 52/1)
- tuberculosis in Kruger's lions (vol 52/2)
- proposals for the Waterberg Biosphere (vol 52/5)
- the Tuli elephants (vol 53/1)
- opposition to the mining of Wavecrest (vol 53/2)
- an exclusive on the first photo's of Gunning's Robin (vol 54/2)
- environmental impact of oil pollution from The Treasure (vol 54/5)
- Ndumo Land Claim controversy (vol 54/6)

Over the years, African Wildlife magazine has won a number of prestigious awards, including the following:-

• Specialist Press Association Award in the following years: 
  1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1988, 1993, & 1998
• Environmental Planning Professions Interdisciplinary Committee Award in 1993, 1995, 1998 and 1999.
• SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year Award: Merit Award for 2000

EnviroKids is a top-quality magazine for young South Africans who are members of WESSA.  Our ‘junior' magazine provides information about the environment and encourages action to address environmental challenges. The magazine has been in production for the past 27 years, a proud track record for a non-government organisation. The one aspect to the Society's junior publication EnviroKids, which has always distinguished it from other junior environmental publications, has been the integrity of the content.  A key aspect to our publications is that they should reflect the most up-to-date and scientifically sound information. Over the past couple of years, WESSA has produced each issue of EnviroKids with a different theme.  This has been in response to particular environmental issues, e.g. Fire, or to support the need for resources for environmental days, e.g. Heritage Day. The educational value of the magazine is important and WESSA has implemented actions to publish the magazine so that it will provide classroom support for teachers too. And there is evidence to suggest that a growing number of teachers use the magazine as an education resource in the classroom.  The inclusion of the OBE in Action insert into each issue of the magazine, was part of WESSA's response to the need for good environmental resource materials to support the implementation of ‘environment' as phase organiser in the new curriculum.  This was a key outcome of the recent evaluation of Curriuculum 2005.  While content is important, our experiences in environmental education have shown that unless we move beyond mere environmental information, our chances of addressing environmental problems are minimal.  Hence, EnviroKids encourages young people to get out there and ‘do something' about local environmental issues.

---