New monitoring project established at Majeje High School

- By Dr Tony Swemmer, Manager, SAEON Ndlovu Node

In February this year, Majeje High School in the rural town of Lulekani in the Ba-Phalaborwa region became the second school to establish an ecological monitoring project with the SAEON Ndlovu Node.

Together with Node staff, a long-term monitoring project has been designed at Majeje High to demonstrate the effect of grazing and cropping on natural vegetation, and to teach learners both “hands-on” scientific and numerical skills.

Majeje High is located in the centre of a residential area, but a considerable portion of its large grounds is not utilised by the school, but instead is grazed by cattle or planted with maize by members of the local community.

The school has agreed to allocate some of this area to the project, and the Node will supply fencing to establish both grazed and ungrazed plots. Learners will be taught a range of monitoring skills, including plant identification, the use of transects to measure grass cover, and tree growth measurements.

The plots consist of land that has previously been ploughed for maize, but is now grazed by cattle and sheep, making it representative of much of the rural area surrounding the small town of Lulekani.

The results of the project will therefore be relevant to many people in the area who still rely on the natural resources to supplement their incomes, and will introduce the learners to the concept of sustainable resource use.

The Southern Cross Wildlife School  was the first school to join the SAEON Ndlovu Node  network of collaborators by setting up a tree monitoring project on its grounds in the Raptor's View Wildlife Estate at Hoedspruit. The project will generate useful data on the growth, survival and phenology of common savanna tree species.