All smiles at Grin's return

SEDGEFIELD NEWS - After a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19, this year's Grin meeting was held with much enthusiasm at the Pine Lake Marina in Sedgefield from 11 to 13 October.

Grin 2022 was attended by 74 delegates from various management agencies and universities.

The annual Garden Route Interface and Networking (Grin) meeting aims to encourage dialogue on the latest insights from researchers and managers promoting sustainable social-ecological systems.

Dirk Roux of SANParks introduced Grin as a community of practice that emerged from meetings of scientists and managers where there was ample discussion of ecological systems but limited socially engaged research.

Social and ecological worlds are equally important and constantly interacting. Without balance, neither realm can thrive, and the overall system suffers. In a novel partnership, ShareScreen Africa filmed Grin '22 to give students and agencies across Africa free access to cutting-edge research and dialogues on social-ecological aspects of conservation.

Research insightful

Inspiring research shared at Grin included Jaco Barendse and Kyle Smith's fascinating presentation on the "Robberg diaries". Barendse and Smith identified shifting baselines in trophy fish stocks by using fishermen's diaries to plot changes in catches from 1938 to 1986.

"Shifting baselines" describe what we accept as normal change that takes place slowly [over time] or is not documented.

Remarkably, the first live releases of trophy fish were only reported in 2009/2010 in Garden Route newspapers, showing that the preservation of sea life has only recently become a concern in public discourse.

Phumla Nyathikazi's presentation about the knowledge of the fisherwomen of Smutsville was heartening. Nyathikazi showed the value of Sankofa - going back to fetch skills from the past that we can use in the present. Her presentation clearly articulated the significance of knowledge held by elders, the importance of the digital skills of the youth, and how elders and youth can learn from each other.

The Garden Route National Park (GRNP) is unique because it is unfenced with open-access areas where residents and visitors can foster a greater sense of being embedded in a catchment or park.

This also comes with unique challenges and opportunities, and relationships established between key people in this system help to jointly navigate uncertainties across national, provincial and municipal mandates.

Importance of connecting

Relationship-building is an important part of caring for social-ecological spaces.

This year's Grin meeting had a slowed-down programme giving attendees time to connect with one another, including kayaking and walking at Ebb and Flow in Wilderness.

SANParks staff are often under pressure to work beyond their core mandates. Collaboration with communities, creatives and communicators is needed to get accurate and up-to-date social-ecological information more widely disseminated.

One can learn much at Grin about the synergies, tensions and trade-offs between biodiversity and human well-being in South Africa, and its annual meetings are open to citizens outside of SANParks and academia.

The large group of people who took part in this year's Grin. Photo: Johann Kruger – ShareScreen Africa