PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The teams at Nature's Valley Trust conservation NPO are relieved after being granted permission to continue some of their fieldwork during lockdown Level 3. The volunteers had to down tools when all national parks were closed during the national lockdown, but they may resume their research in and around Nature's Valley and Plettenberg Bay.
"SANParks gave us the go-ahead on Wednesday to continue with our work within the national park on our current research permit," said Kellyn Whitehead, conservation volunteer manager at NVT.
The conservation group is yet to be given clearance from CapeNature to work in its reserves, which means they are unable to access Robberg or Keurbooms nature reserves as yet.
However, they can still do some necessary fieldwork. "We can do land-based observations for the boat-based tourism project, but we are still not allowed to do boat-based observations out at sea and are not allowed to continue with our marine debris and coastal projects as we do not have permission to access the beaches," Whitehead explained.
"We can again do our weekly flower phenology work along the Kalander Kloof and Salt River hiking trails, waterbird counts on the Groot River estuary and bird ringing within the Phyl Martin Park. Wildlife monitoring will take place within the residential area of the valley."
A school of bottlenose dolphins which was spotted by an NVT team during fieldwork.
Their immediate plans for fieldwork are to get back on track with their long-term projects and, where possible, begin data collection for new projects.
The field teams will need to follow the standard social distancing, mask and sanitising protocols, and may not operate in groups larger than four at any stage.
"The teams are very excited to get back out into the field and continue with our important work. We are also very grateful to all those who have made it possible for us to do so."
Last week, Garden Route National Park spokesperson Nandi Mgwadlamba stated that the park is undergoing a phased reopening, starting with its open-access areas. This is largely why conservation entities such as NVT are able to resume fieldwork.
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