J4C Annual Report 2018/19
The jobs for Carbon project showcase beautifully how simple, well-funded projects can have far-reaching and lasting effects far beyond the original expectations of the project goals – effects that truly change people’s lives and the environment for the better.
The literal expression of the project is the planting of spekboom (Portulacaria afra) cuttings in areas where it used to grow but has been degraded. Spekboom is excellent at carbon sequestration, especially in arid systems, like the Klein Karoo. Pristine Spekboom Thicket, as found in parts of the Klein Karoo, can have carbon stock similar to arid forests in some cases. Much of the carbon can be found in the soil.
Spekboom is a woody succulent tree that has the ability to change between the CAM and C3 photosynthetic pathways, depending on environmental conditions. CAM plants tend to sequester carbon at night thereby reducing water loss during the day. This allows Spekboom to be efficient in both water use and carbon sequestration under harsh conditions such as during dry periods. Spekboom is indigenous to and found abundantly in Spekboom Thicket and Spekboomveld, in the Eastern Cape, and drier parts of the Western Cape, such as the Klein Karoo.
Spekboom shrubs accumulate significant stores of carbon dioxide in their above-ground biomass, underlying litter, deadwood, roots, and soil carbon. The underlying litter reduces water and soil erosion by increasing water infiltration and retaining water longer. This triggers the return of indigenous plants and animals.
The cuttings are sustainably harvested from healthy stands of spekboom, by local people who are employed through the project.
Spekboom does not recover naturally if livestock pressure is reduced, therefore in order to restore this type of vegetation active rehabilitation measures need to be employed. The indirect expression of the project are far-reaching and indeed possibly not all even quantifiable – in addition to job creation and restoration with the intent of carbon farming, the project influence has permeated through the local community bringing tangible positive change to the lives of individuals, directly and indirectly, involved in the project, whilst simultaneously restoring the degraded landscape with spekboom.
Trite as it may sound the project in its essence is about healing that which has been damaged: healing a broken and dying landscape and healing a broken, marginalized and isolated community.
Training
Over the 5 years of its existence, the Jobs for Carbon Project has upskilled its team members far beyond the norm – building their capacity and confidence and helping them to become the assured, skilled individuals that they are today.
The team members have undergone training for First Aid, Health and Safety, Snake awareness and relocation, Fire Protection, Entrepreneurship, Veld Rehabilitation, Alien Clearing, Landscaping, Junior Management, Unofficial human development training (such as public speaking) confidence-building exercises, and leadership development.
There has always been a great emphasis on human skills development through all the supplementary training courses run during the Jobs for Carbon Project.
The training of the individuals employed through the project also became an asset for the community – the confidence that individuals displayed in their work filtered through to their personal and family lives, to the point that the positive effects could be seen in their children at the local school: confident parents lead to more stability and happiness in the homes.
Work Ethic
Not only has the project added incredible value to the lives of its employees, it has also demonstrated over time the incredible work ethic nurtured in the individual – on numerous occasions members for the Jobs for Carbon team have prioritized the success of the project over their own desires, selflessly volunteering help in after-hours towards the project.
INTRINSIC VALUE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The project has also developed and nurtured an inherent love and respect by the team members for the natural environment. This is evident not only in their work ethic but in their change of behaviour and response to the environment in which they live, and how they translate that ethic to their families and community.
ENVIRONMENT
By planting spekboom – which is native to the area – the natural vegetation is encouraged to re-establish over time as the spekboom grows and creates more favourable conditions for the sensitive plant species. With the recovery of the veld the soils begin to regenerate, as well as the carious ecosystems services such as flood and erosion control. Notably, the restoration of spekboom-rich vegetation also has the important attribute of being able to capture atmospheric carbon at rates that may make carbon farming a possibility.
The water harvesting that results from spekboom restoration is significant – quantified at up to 10,000L per hectare from 10mm of rain!
To date, a total of (xxx) ha of active restoration has been done, and a total, (xxx) ha of passive restoration has been set aside. Of the active restoration (where spekboom was planted), the project has seen unparalleled successful survival rates of between 75-80%
HIGHLIGHTS
Jobs for Carbon was ready to start under the DOB banner on the first of March 2018 as an ongoing project.
We reached all our targets and beyond.
The DOB Conference at Rooiberg Lodge: J4C play a huge role in hosting the DOB Conference from the 17th to the 24th of June 2018.
November 2018: J4C was invited by Conservation @ Work to attend their conference where the project was awarded as The Best Landscape initiative. The award was presented to Wendy Crane and Andre Britz, on behalf of the GCBR, for excellence in the field of conservation. We also attended the Conservation @ Work conference in November 2019.
Nov 2018: A delegation as part of the Spekboom Economy Research Project, paid a visit to the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust to study conservation easement integrated management plans. The outcome of that study was received in December 2019.
May 2019: The visit by Maas Goote and Andrea van Schie to the J4C project was quite a highlight. Especially a visit to the Kleinvlak rehabilitation site and the entrance of the VDI (Vanwyksdorp Development Institute) botanical garden.
July 2019: We started the Calitzdorp team when we met with the 12 harvesters and planters on a farm near Calitzdorp. We introduced them to the ethos of j4C, discipline, dignity, respect, hard work, opportunities, and fun.
July 2019: J4C and Living Lands of the Baviaanskloof hosted, under the facilitation of Dr. Nicola Favretto, a knowledge exchange program. Team members visited and were educated on the different sites at Vanwyksdorp and Baviaanskloof. We wrap up the knowledge exchange exercise and discussed the outcomes at a meeting at the George Experimental Farm.
August 2019: Voetspore, a very well-known TV program, visited J4C. We hosted them at Rooiberg Lodge and on-site. Team members of J4C prepared the dinner for the evening of their stay over. The next day J4C invite Voetspore to the planting site at Kleinvlak and gave Voetspore an experience of a lifetime. Each of them has to plant a spekboom or more in the veld.
PRESENTATIONS:
We did a lot of presentations to different audiences.
March 2018: Presentation at Gouritzmond where we explain the J4C project and #Spekkies. #spekkies is a commercial spekboom inisiative.
April 2018 and 2019: J4C represented the project and the GCBR at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK). Team members (workers) set up and run the stalls at the KKNK.
June 2018: The 60 seconds film by Martie Willemse, was shown at the United Nations State President meeting in New York.
September 2018: We did a presentation at the Energy Indaba in Mossel Bay.
February 2019: The Garden Route Municipality invited J4C to do a presentation at their Skills Development Summit. This was followed by a visit to J4C in Vanwyksdorp.
April 2019: We did a presentation at the Women’s Agricultural Association near Groot Brak.
September 2019: J4C attend the 8th World Conference on Ecological restoration under the banner of the Society for Ecological Restoration. J4C did a presentation linking land and water conservation to community development in ecological restoration policy and projects lessons from South Africa. This presentation was moderated by Dr. Nicola Favretto from Leads University and done by Andre Britz, the J4C project manager, and Liz Eglington, J4C landowner.
November 2019: Forum Meetings: We send delegations to attend all the Forum meetings of the GCBR. The J4C team did a presentation about all the work that they do in the different departments of J4C.
GENERAL
We equipped our supervisors with good and fit-the-job LDV’s.
April 2018: A trailer was designed to meet our needs and purchased at Cradock.
March 2019: We planted the grass of the VDI sports field in a record time of 4 days. This was quite an achievement.
August 2019: J4C was asked by Landcare to implement a Drought Relieve project to provide employment to 24 members of the community.
September 2019: J4C team helps with the preparations of the Vanwyksdorp Church Festival. This was a training and skills development exercise. The J4C members act as security guards, cleaners, food preparators, and constructors at the festival. The exercise builds out the image of the J4C team and everybody who attend the festival was overwhelmed with the professional approach of this team. Everybody was in agreement that this successful event couldn’t be done without this brilliant J4C team.
November 2019: Johan Rademan and Martelise Brink from RSG did a live interview with Pieter Coetzee, Willem Botha, Petrus van Staden, Deon Waal, and Andre Britz regarding J4C, VDI, GCBR, and Environmental Education.
December 2019: We hosted our year-end function at Rooiberg Lodge with a gala evening. We were privileged to have Willem Botha present that evening. His last official appearance on behalf of the GCBR.
J4C, on behalf of the GCBR also managed with Cape Nature the farm Rietkraal outside Vanwyksdorp.
Team members, over the years, act as marshals and manage water points at different mountain bike cycle events. At the Dorsland Mountain Bike Event, it was the first time where they did the management, organization, and planning as well as the set-up of the waterpoint, all by themselves.
SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS, CHANGES, OR INTERVENTIONS:
August 2018: A selected team was trained in landscaping by Ina Scholtz Landscaping. As a first attempt, they take part in the design and construction of a brand-new garden at the GCBR head office in Riversdale, with the theme of spekboom in low maintenance, water-wise, indigenous garden. This team underwent more training in landscaping, but also in the planning of logistics and finances at Uniondale. This was their preparation to design and construct the botanical garden at the entrance of the VDI.
December 2018: J4C started a nursery where Spekboom Bullets, small cuttings in six-packs, were rooted and then been taken out to be planted on the sites, after a period of three months.
As part of the nursery, J4C did an experiment to find the length of time it takes for not treated and treated, with rooting hormones, cuttings to form roots.
Kleinvlak rehabilitation site. J4C did an experiment, as a method of rehabilitating totally degraded veld vegetation and erosion gullies, by ripping on the contours of 25 ha of land, instead of making holes by hand.
We covered 2HA with donated materials (bio-degradable blankets and sausages). We planted this area with 22 300 spekboom bullets (rooted plants). We also measured the rainfall. As part of the spekboom nursery, J4C experimented with indigenous plant species.
GUESTS
November 2018: The board of directors of the GCBR and the office staff visited J4C.
February 2019: Garden Route Municipality, Mayor, Speaker, and Councillors visited J4C.
February 2019: Students from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University visited us under the leadership of Ken Coetzee, director of the GCBR.
March 2019: The Voetspore organizing team visited our offices to do preparations for the shoot of film for a TV program.
March 2019: Jan Peter Mout visited the Kleinvlak rehabilitation site, the J4C offices, and nursery.
March 2019: The J4C Team attended a presentation about the important role of bees in nature.
May 2019: Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Ivan Meyer, visited J4C.
June 2019: A delegation of Woodlands Dairies visited us to investigate the possibility to do carbon trading with J4C and the GCBR.
June 2019: Jan Coetzee of the WWF visited to have a site visit at Rietkraal.
August 2019: Judy Sole of Mother Channel, an internet television channel, visited J4C and shoot five hours of film, which will be broadcast all over the world.
September 2019: The Minister of Education of the Western Cape, Debbie Schaefer visited J4C, the VDI, and Vanwyksdorp Primary School.
October 2019: Prof Ben Erik van Wyk and Dr. Margaret Hulley visited us and hosted a meeting where they came to thank the team and community members for their contribution to Margaret’s Ph.D.
December 2019: We received a visit from Willem Botha, chair of the GCBR board of directors, his wife Petro, and Dr. Steve du Toit at our offices and nursery.
TEAM MEMBERS WHO STOOD OUT:
Jannie Cloete, Conroy Dulman, Johandre Moos, Melvin Oosthuizen, Cornelia Radeloff.
They serve the project with excellent work, loyalty and are always prepared to walk the extra mile.
