Cape Town: The last day of July 2024 marks the World Ranger Day. The City of Cape Town has decided to share the stories of three of the passionate rangers who are taking good care of various City nature reserves across the Cape Town.
Reportedly, the women’s month has also kicked off today and there could not be a more fitting time to focus on the committed women rangers, especially the ones who are working hard to conserve and protect the precious conservation areas they have been assigned.
Every year, in August, South Africa celebrates Women’s Month, where they pay tribute to the more than 20,000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on August 09, 1956. The women’s month allows all to gauge how far they gave transformed the society.
The City of Cape Town has supported many ambitious and eager woman field rangers by funding various training courses and providing financial support to expand their education. The opportunities majorly included the financial support to complete and obtain their matric certificate or a degree in Environmental Management and Administration, also considering the learners and driving licences.
Several other training opportunities were introduced such as Fire Marshall training, First Aid Training, Snake Handling and Practical Courses to operate light equipment, like chainsaws, which were pursued by the group.
However, in winters the field rangers focus more on soil erosion control and in the warmer seasons they focus more on cutting of fire breaks, trail and picnic area maintenance and vegetation monitoring.
The rangers also collect the rainfall, capture it and feed it to the South African Weather Services, which also forms a part of their duties as well as bird counts, nocturnal animal night counts and small to large mammal surveys.
Visiting schools and groups for environmental education, is also provided by the rangers, all year round. The recent storms in Cape Town, kept many of the teams busy opening trails where trees have fallen so that areas are safe for visitors to use.
Deputy Mayor and Member of the Mayoral Committee for Spatial Planning and Environment – Alderman Eddie Andrews said that the World Ranger Day, they decided to zoom in, on some of the woman rangers to showcase their interesting jobs and find out what their experience has been like working at the reserves.
Andrews expressed that they are proud to have the individuals such as the three hard-working and nature-loving women whose work in safeguarding the future of the natural environment in the ever-growing City is often overlooked.
“We currently have 25 field rangers, who are women, deployed at the reserves. These include 10 reserves supervisors, 11 field rangers, one senior field ranger, 2 area managers and one regional head, all carrying a wealth of knowledge and experience in nature conservation,” said Alderman Eddie Andrews.