Proudly South African
Nsikazi District started a project titled Proudly South African led by Lucy Magagula. 84 Cubs, Scouts and Rovers were involved in the Indigenous Plants Project. An instructor from the environmental organization Ecolink implemented a workshop on 4 different types of plants, invasive alien plants that need to be removed, alien plants that need permission to be planted, alien plants that shouldn’t be added anymore and indigenous plants.
After the workshop the Scouts went out with the instructor to identify the different types of alien plants and indigenous plants with paint. The presentation from Ecolink was very interesting and motivated the Scouts to learn more about the subject of biodiversity in South Africa. He asked questions to find out, how much the Scouts knew about the subject. The presentation focused on the identification of the indigenous plants and three categories of alien plants and their
threats to local biodiversity. After the presentation they went around to identify the alien and indigenous plants around the Ecolink premises in White River. The scouts were able to identify the different plants. At the end of all 4 projects the Scouts that participate in the activities said they have identified a lot of alien plants at home. They encouraged their parents to remove those plants and explained to their parents why these plants are bad for South African biodiversity. In future they will be aware not to plant alien plants, for some of the Scouts it was their first time being confronted with that topic. Having been able to expand the project to 5 of 6 districts in the province has shown the importance of biodiversity. All Groups have managed to raise great awareness around the subject and reached as many Scouts as possible.