In the last 100 years we seem to have moved away from nature and her medicinal plants. In our never ending quest to search for new cures and remedies, man has now been forced to return to nature.
Two hiking tourists were airlifted off Table Mountain in separate incidents after the sweltering heat got the better of them on Tuesday.
This year the theme of the day is ‘Wetlands take care of water’ and the aim of the day is to draw attention to wetland habitats and the vital role they play in the environment and the human economy.
Raptor enthusiasts across the world were overjoyed and relieved to learn that a migratory female Amur Falcon Falco amurensis finally reached her wintering grounds at Newcastle in Kwa-Zulu-Natal on the 10th of January 2013 after an eventful 14 500km journey from the species’ breeding grounds in northern China and Mongolia.
One of the most stunning natural events our atmosphere offers us is the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Waves of color dance across the sky during the night, displaying different colors and patterns. But what makes this happen?
Sleep in sturdy tents with carpeted floors and thick mattresses, eat heartily from the gas and electricity supplied camp kitchen and clean up in the tented hot water showers and flush loos... and that's just the beginning.
Every morning, I wake up to the sunrise over the sea and go for an early morning walk in Burman Bush. Upon entering this nature reserve, the sweet scent of the many plants tickle your nostrils and your ears pick up the many different bird calls.
I am amazed to see the interest in our swimming pool conversion into a natural habitat for wildlife, which might also include ourselves, if needs be. Some readers would also like to put their pools to better use, so I will share my learning as we go along.
"It is hard to care about something if you can’t recognise or name it, so learning to name what you spot in nature is important.” So said Carmel Mbizo during the launch of iSpot, an online biodiversity application where all citizens from taxonomists to the domestic gardener can participate in biodiversity recording, monitoring and indentification.
“If the bulldozers come my wife must look for another husband because I will fight to the end…”
Over the centuries, nature had to overcome every obstacle that we humans are also faced with today. How to transport liquids, colour things, cure illnesses, fix objects to all surfaces - to name but a few.
This is the title of a comprehensive and unusual gardening book and an all-round treasure for the environmentally conscious gardener.
Deforestation is just one of many crises facing the world. It is closely related to environmental crises such as climate change. Modern human relationships with nature are profoundly dysfunctional and, on the current trajectory, can only lead to a global ecological catastrophe.
“There is another reality that we can personally discover....we are not alone," says Michael Harner.
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf has become an Honorary Councillor of the World Future Council (WFC).
Nature as teacher is the main principle behind The Center for Ecoliteracy's publication 'Smart by Nature - Schooling for Sustainability.. This requires thinking in terms of systems - one of nature's basic characteristics.
The Proteus Initiative is privileged to host Craig Holdrege of The Nature Institute, upstate New York, to participate and teach in 'Discovering how a genuinely holistic perspective affects our thinking with respect to every aspect of environmental concern' in August 2011.
There are still people who believe that economy and ecology are mutually exclusive systems. How then did the earth thrive for so many millions of years?
More than 300 community members from Paarl-based township Mbekweni participated in an extensive tree-planting initiative, launched by KWV yesterday. 500 fruit trees were planted as the first phase of a project that aims to establish 2 670 trees in the next year.
Backsberg Wine Estate and Starke Ayres Garden Centre came up with a novel way to encourage tree planting last month.
With the purchase of a case of wine from the Backsberg Tasting Room during September, people had the option of taking home either a Halleria lucida tree or a voucher for Starke Ayres in Cape Town. The latter, in turn, gave away a bottle of Backsberg Chenin Blanc 2009 with every tree purchased.
