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Achievement Report Karongwe July 2016

Report Title
Karongwe Reserve Work Progress

Objective
Contribute to large-scale reserve management projects alongside the Warden in accordance with
the reserves management plan. Our goal is to complete 3 major reserve work projects per year.
Summary
In accordance with our long-term objective of completing 3 reserve work projects per year, we have
started to focus specific reserve work drives on the eradication of prickly pear and erosion control.
This is in addition to our road clearing/bush clearing drives.
Report
In line with the above objective, we have decided to focus on two key areas on the reserve, which
desperately need managing. Prickly pear eradication and erosion site control.
The prickly pear plant is a type of cactus, and is an invasive species to South Africa. It will compete
with and replace indigenous species, causing them to eventually disappear. Dense populations will
then reduce the grazing capacity of the land, meaning the grazing animals such as rhino and buffalo
may eventually struggle to find palatable material. Not only is it a pest in relation to other plants, if
an animal does indeed eat the prickly pear, then the spines can get stuck within the animal causing
injury. Therefore, to ensure good reserve management practice, prickly pear must be eradicated
from the reserve. After discussions with the reserve warden, a decision was made for GVI to focus
on the northern section of the reserve, with the hope of eradicating every plant by the beginning of
2017. To eradicate we have purchased a chemical that kills the plant within three days of injection.
As you can see from the photos below it is quite successful. Although we are in the stages of the
project, we hope to have completed our target by the end of the year.

Healthy Prickly Pear before injection Infected Prickly Pear 3 days after injection

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As well as the prickly pear eradication, we are focusing on erosion control in certain problem areas
within the reserve. There are multiple areas on the reserve that have been severely eroded over
time, due to natural causes such as wind, water and lack of vegetation to maintain soil structure.
Having spoken to the reserve warden, in addition to our prickly pear project, we are also in the
process of attempting to fix these eroded areas. This will be achieved by trying to create new land,
which is viable for vegetation growth and will eventually become a new grazing area for the general
game on the reserve. On recent reserve work drives, we have cleared a designated area from all
loose material such as branches and logs. The plan going forward is to plough the soil to bring seeds
below the soil surface upwards to aid with new growth and for soil aeration. The resulting ditches
from the ploughing will be packed with logs to ensure no further erosion. We will then cover the
area with horse manure to help the bare soil receive the nutrients needed to start regeneration. It
will be a long wait before we see the results of our hard work but we are looking forward to those
first seedlings.
Although these are relatively long-term projects, within the past month we have made large strides
to help with the reserve management of the reserve, and we should therefore be on target with our
hub objectives.