Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group (KEAG)

KEAG is dedicated to the preservation of the natural environment and to the upliftment of our living environment. This is achieved through the managing and running of diverse but interrelated projects that create employment and deal with real environmental needs.

In late 2009, The Cadiz Foundation donated R 240,000 to this worthy cause as part of expanding the company’s corporate social investment footprint.

Background

KEAG is a non profit organisation established in 1991. In 1993, the organisation created the KEAG Environmental Education Centre on Imhoff Gift Farm. KEAG specialises in project management, and over the 15 years of their existence have run dozens of employment-creating environmental projects.

Some of KEAG’s main achievements are:

• Managing some of the first ever alien vegetation clearing projects on the Cape Peninsula on Slangkop Mountain and all the way from Ocean View to Scarborough.
• Ran the campaign that prevented parts of Slangkop Mountain from being developed for housing.
  
• Active involvement in the ongoing rehabilation of wetlands such as the Bokramspruit and the Wildevoelvlei.
  
• Pioneers of permaculture in the Western Cape.
  
• Saving the island at ‘the Kom’ from potential development.
  
• Pioneers of pro-active baboon management on the Cape Peninsula.
  
• KEAG’s ecologist has been the faunal consultant for Environmental Baseline Studies of Soetwater, Millers Point, Slangkop and Plateau Road.
  

Creating employment

KEAG employs over 100 people from the impoverished areas of Masiphumelele, Lavender Hill, Red Hill and Ocean View on a contractual basis in Poverty Relief Projects. KEAG’s aim is to set up a number of small enterprises for ex-contract workers where they largely manage their own projects with KEAG’s support.

“We believe that this is true empowerment and we are proud of these initiatives,” says KEAG spokesperson.

PROJECTS

Working for the Coast Southern Peninsula (WftC)
KEAG was approached by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in October 2000 to start the first ever WftC project. Three weeks later they had the first team out in the field, and have been running teams since then. In those early days, KEAG played a vital role in the national implementation and were even used as a funding conduit by the Poverty Relief Unit to pay teams as far away as Kosi Bay and Port Nolloth.

Marine Monitoring

In 2004, KEAG was approached by South African National Parks to set up the first Marine Monitor Project, and link it to the Working for the Coast team. Ten people have been trained to use handheld computers to collect data from coastal users. The team records fishing catches, notes all coastal activities and records all of this onto a database that is then forwarded to the Table Mountain National Park, Marine and Coastal Management and the University of Cape Town. The area covered is the southern Cape Peninsula from Chapman’s Peak to Muizenberg.

Craft from Waste

The Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group runs a number of litter clean-up projects on the Cape Peninsula. Hundreds of bags of litter are collected each month – of particular concern was the large amount of non-recyclable material being collected, in particular plastics. With this fact in mind, the organisation began to explore the concept of making crafts from waste. With a grant from the Claremont Rotary Club they employed a local artist, Monique Fagan, to do product development. Once it was established that a market existed the work began in earnest and the Ilithalomsa project was launched. Ilithalomsa is a Xhosa word meaning a new dawn, an appropriate word considering that both the crafters and the junk collected have been given a new lease on life.

Bird Scaring Lines

Long line fishing is practiced in every major ocean of the world. More than one million hooks are set each day, with up to 200 million hooks per year set in the Southern Ocean alone. It has been estimated in recent years that 300,000 seabirds are killed each year globally.

A tori or bird scaring line consists of a line with a number of streamers attached to it. The streamers are designed to cover the point where the bait enters the water and distracts foraging birds from taking the baited hooks. This method may reduce bycatch rates by up to 80%. KEAG, under the WftC project has been asked by WWF-SA and Birdlife SA to make 500 tori lines over the next two years. KEAG is doing this in partnership with the Ocean View Association for Persons with Disabilities.

Baboon Monitoring

Baboons are a familiar sight along the scenic routes of the Cape Peninsula but these Peninsula animals are in danger of extinction unless the public, tourist and conservationists co-operate to protect them. KEAG has a long and proud tradition of involvement with baboons on the Cape Peninsula. It was the extermination of a baboon troop in Kommetjie in 1991 that led to the organisation being established. Outraged at the wiping out of an entire baboon troop because one or two individual animals had been entering houses, KEAG vowed to ensure this would never happen again.

KEAG was a major roleplayer in the formulation of the Baboon Management Team, an action group formed by various authorities, NGOs and primatologists. The aim of the Team is to ensure the long term conservation of the baboons on the Peninsula. A number of conflict alleviation techniques have been tried over the years. The only management tool that has proven to be effective is the Baboon Monitors. The monitors are employed to actively keep the baboons out of the villages in the southern Peninsula. KEAG has been administrating the Baboon Monitor Project since its inception.

Working for the Coast National

Working for the Coast (WftC) is a national project that helps coastal communities to keep the coast healthy and clean for everyone’s benefit. All along our coast, jobs have been created, the coastal environment is being improved, people are being trained and small businesses are being started. Some of the most needy coastal communities are being given a chance in a lifetime and – through an education, training and development program – they are being given a foothold to sustain their lives in the future.

The main thrust of the Working for the Coast (WftC) programme is poverty alleviation through sustainable development. Over 2000 people, mainly women and youths are employed by the programme. The aim is to give people in the programme the tools to develop and harness their entrepreneurial opportunities and create their own business or to become more employable.