The award is presented to agencies or organisations that demonstrate a cooperative effort to maintain or restore ecological function during transportation operations above the regulatory requirements.
The Bakwena Platinum Corridor Concessionaire (Pty) Limited congratulates the Endangered Wildlife Trust on being awarded the ICOET International Stewardship Award for their Wildlife and Energy and Wildlife and Transport programmes.
They received this award at the International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET) held in the USA recently.
The International Stewardship Award is presented to agencies or organisations that demonstrate, through the results of their actions, a cooperative effort to maintain or restore ecological function during transportation operations above the regulatory requirements.
Bakwena’s public relations manager, Charmaine van Wyk, said the award bears testimony to the dedication and incredible work Wendy Collinson and the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) have done in establishing and running the EWT’s Wildlife and Transport Programme.
“Wendy and her team oversee numerous research projects that are working to address environmental concerns and challenges, through putting plans in place to implementing mitigation methodologies – incredibly making them one of the first African NGOs to do this.”
Bakwena holds a 30-year Concession Contract with the South African National Roads Agency (SOC) Limited (SANRAL) to design, build, finance, operate and maintain 385km of road.
A mutually beneficial partnership
The Wildlife and Transport Programme includes valuable training that is provided by the EWT to Bakwena’s route patrollers on wildlife incident data collection, species identification and mitigation measures.
By developing wildlife incident data collection and the management thereof, the negative impacts of transport infrastructure on wildlife are reduced.
Fraser Shilling of the Road Ecology Centre at UC Davis and the main organisers of ICOET said: “The EWT unites industry and wildlife impacts in Africa, working towards shared objectives, expanding knowledge, and understanding how to ultimately minimise threats to wildlife.”
Road safety is one of Bakwena’s core pillars, which is why this project is so significant. Bakwena has supported various initiatives by the EWT over the past eight years.
In addition to being a core supporter of the Wildlife and Transport Programme, it has also supported the organisation’s Livestock Guarding Dog Project, part of the EWT’s Carnivore Conservation Programme.
Van Wyk concluded: “Bakwena is proud to be a partner and supporter of an organisation such as the EWT. Their dedication and commitment in protecting and preserving the country’s precious wildlife is recognised and appreciated.
“We thank the Endangered Wildlife Trust and Wendy for the exceptional work they are doing to protect one of this country’s greatest resources – its wildlife.”