When great white sharks disappeared from two well-known congregation areas on South Africa’s coast recently, the possible reasons were hotly debated…. writes Alison Kock, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. The appearance of a pair of shark-eating killer whales in the area was one. Another was the decline in numbers of smaller shark species that […]

A light dusting of snow fell last night at Semonkong Lodge, Lesotho in southern Africa. Approximately 2 cm fell through the night. These beautiful photos and video, supplied by Love Africa Marketing, capture the enchanting winter scene… Photos of light snow in Lesotho

Over 100 people picketed outside the Pretoria High Court on Monday to show solidarity with the “Deadly Air” case, which had its first day of court proceedings. The case deals with air pollution in the Mpumalanga Highveld. It was brought by two environmental activist organisations – groundWork and Vukani Environmental Justice Movement in Action (VEJMA). […]

The Kruger National Park (KNP) today, 17 May 2021 announced their management plans in anticipation of the coming winter fire season which usually takes place between June and October. Fires are a common and natural occurrence in KNP which is found within the Savanna biome (also knows as the Tropical Grasslands), and like the Fynbos […]

A new School of Climate Studies will be officially launched at Stellenbosch University in June 2021. Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande says with the new academic school focusing on climate change, this will hopefully enable SA’s academics and students to build a well-rounded body of scientific knowledge and skills to not only understand the […]

A new report reveals that water pollution across Cape Town’s rivers, vleis and estuaries has been getting steadily worse for 40 years, except for a few years. A new report shows that Cape Town’s rivers, vleis and estuaries have been getting worse for 40 years, with the exception of a few years. In the rivers, […]

To the untrained eye, the scrubby vegetation in the centre of the track at the Kenilworth racecourse looks like nothing to get excited about, yet this 52-hectare patch of land may be the most valuable real estate in the City of Cape Town in terms of biodiversity. Relative to size – or pound-for-pound as they […]

An enchanting documentary by well known South African filmmakers – Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott – has been nominated for the Best Feature Film category at the International Wildlife Film Festival in the US. The documentary – ‘Kingdoms of Fire, Ice & Fairy Tales’ – charts the award-winning filmmakers’ epic journey from Yellowstone National […]

Forests are good for the planet: they purify the air and moderate the climate. They are abundant in resources, providing habitat, food, shelter and a rich biodiversity of plant and animal life. So it’s a worry that forests located near major cities are exposed to metals commonly found in atmospheric pollution. Metal contamination is one […]

Despite a recent slight decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions continue to accumulate in the atmosphere. They are projected to rise again once the economy recovers. The current pledges by governments across the world to reduce emissions are insufficient to keep global warming within safe levels (that is, below 2°C). Although with […]

Locust outbreaks are currently plaguing South Africa in parts of the Free State, Northern Cape and Western Cape, fuelled further by strong winds, according to Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Minister Thoko Didiza. “Control measures are currently being implemented to curb the spread of the locusts. The current strong winds are aiding the fight […]

The Green Scorpions have ordered the City of Cape Town to sort out pollution in the Milnerton Lagoon, following continued failures at the Potsdam Waste Water Treatment Works. The Green Scorpions have ordered the City of Cape Town to sort out the pollution of Milnerton Lagoon. This follows two earlier warnings. The City has appealed […]

Many of South Africa’s most beautiful and ancient trees and forests are in deadly danger of being destroyed by an invasive beetle. The good news, however, is that research at one of the country’s leading wine farms, renowned for its agricultural and horticultural research since 1700, could help defeat this dreaded pest. The polyphagous shot […]

Most of South Africa’s seasonal rainfall occurs during the warmer summer months, from October to March. As a result, October is an important period for farmers to begin planning when to sow crops (such as maize, wheat and sunflowers) for the growing season. October is also an important period for the tourism industry to think […]

We have learned so much about nature from David Attenborough’s documentaries over the past seven decades. In a new BBC film he lays bare just how perilous the state of that nature really is, why this matters for everyone who shares this planet, and what needs to change. This film is radical. Surprisingly radical. I […]

The newly launched Earthshot Prize, publicised by Prince William in an interview with the famous environmentalist Sir David Attenborough as the most prestigious in the world, will award one million pounds to five people each year for the next decade for their contributions to clean up the environment and the world. The five prizes awarded […]

Appeals against the first phase of a controversial new road link through part of the extensive Noordhoek wetland system in the southern Cape Peninsula have been dismissed by Western Cape environment MEC Anton Bredell. Appeals against a 1.2km road extension impacting the Noordhoek wetland have been dismissed by the Western Cape government. MEC Anton Bredell said […]

As Cape Town was battered by rain and strong winds on Thursday, photographer Nigel Riley ventured out to the iconic Kalk Bay Harbour on the False Bay coast in the Western Cape, South Africa, to capture these impressive photos as waves crashed over the harbour wall. “It was a day filled with lots of action […]

There was much excitement this weekend as Theewaterskloof Dam, Cape Town’s main source of drinking water, appeared to be overflowing. But it turns out that was the wind pushing the water over, and not the dam that was actually all the way full just yet. But it is close… as can be seen by these […]

For the first time in its 77-year history a British animal welfare organisation has awarded a gold medal for honorable service to a rat, an African Giant Pouched Rat named Magawa working to detect landmines in Cambodia. UPDATE JANUARY 2022: Landmine detection hero rat Magawa has sadly died.   In 2016, the same medal, also […]

In May 2017 we (GroundUp) took photos of Cape Town’s dam levels at the height of the drought. This is what the Berg River looked like then: And this is what it looked like on Saturday: And below is what Theewaterskloof, which can hold more than half of Cape Town’s water at capacity, looked like […]

The Zimbabwean government has banned mining inside national parks, after reports surfaced that two Chinese companies had been granted rights to mine for coal in Hwange National Park and conservationists and lawyers kicked into gear to stop it. “Mining on areas held by National Parks is banned with immediate effect. Steps are being undertaken to […]

The Vaal Dam has continued to fall this week, hitting levels unseen since the beginning of 2017, when large parts of the country were in the grip of a devastating drought. But other dams feeding the north of the country have kept good levels. “As the Vaal Dam persists to drop week-on-week, it now hovers […]

When conservationist Menzi Nxumalo spoke to people in rural KwaZulu-Natal, he struggled to communicate with them, even though they were speaking the same language. “We’d go to communities and try to communicate to them about the impact of invasive species, but we failed to deliver the message because of the communication failure,” he explains. Government […]

Between July and August 2020, 10 critically endangered African White-Backed Vultures have tragically been discovered dead in four separate incidents in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Thanks to special GPS tracking units, these are helping identify what the threats to the species are… which unfortunately appear to be man-made threats. Of the 10 deceased birds, four […]