HEAL AFRICA

A SOUTHERN AFRICAN BLOG

Friday, May 19, 2017

A Crisis situation can be an opportunity for re-evaluation

Drought in Cape Town
Any crisis situation can be regarded as a lesson to be learned. It is simple! We need to learn how to overcome (or survive) the crisis and how to prevent it from happening again in the future. A crisis can be a situation of do or die at some levels and for some people and animals. When people suffer there are 100x more animals that suffer, because people look after themselves first.

Considering the crisis of the drought in Cape Town. We need to consider of the biggest environmental impact on the environment during the last two decades and ask the question: could we have managed it better of would it have been better if we never did it at all (The removal of large trees and alien vegetation in Cape town for instance)​?

The biggest impact on nature was the removal of trees and the clearing of bush land for formal an informal settlements, as well as the removal of alien vegetation, and replacing it with plants that are more vulnerable to weather changes or not replacing it at all.
Rietvlei and Table Mountain are good places to study the removal of large trees and compare the impact of drought on the surrounding land. There are comparisons of places where tree planting was done with expertise like at Century City, or at the Botanical gardens. Tokai forest may be another study project as well as Kirstenbosch.

We never had such an opportunity in Cape town to study and compare the effects of drought. What a wonderful opportunity for conservation students to learn from real life.

A similar crisis exist on the global financial market place, with an equal opportunity to revisit our economic empowerment actions, or inactions, and policies of the past.



Statistical or scientific data provides the best platform for a change in policies

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