Protecting South Africa’s environment

Bianca McKelvey is the Conservation Manager of a major wildlife NGO in South Africa.


WESSA (the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) is a truly South African non-government organisation (NGO) with a proud history in our country.  This year, 2011, WESSA is celebrating its 85th birthday – that is, 85 years of proactive engagement with the challenges and opportunities presented by South Africa’s unique natural heritage and the social and economic systems that depend on it.
 
Celebrations include numerous events and campaigns across the country right throughout the year, with emphasis on its mission of building public participation.

Bianca McKelvey joined WESSA in July last year as Conservation Manager. A colleague has written in the organisation’s newsletter that Bianca has “hit the ground running‟, and that WESSA is extremely fortunate to have gained her wide knowledge and expertise in this crucial and demanding portfolio.
 
Bianca has a long history of environmental awareness. Many of her family members walked this path before her, sharing their passion and, from an early age, nurturing her interest in the natural world.

As a result, she studied as an ecologist, doing a Wildlife Sciences degree at the then University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Soon after graduating, she joined Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife‟s Scientific Services, where she was based in the Integrated Environmental Management Section.

Here she gained much experience over a seven year period, advocating for biodiversity conservation wherever proposed developments, across the province, placed our natural heritage at risk. This also provided the opportunity to give input into government policies and draft legislation, as well as to pursue a growing interest in the conservation of estuaries, a vital issue since estuaries tend to be poorly understood by decision-makers and often fall between the cracks in our generally robust environmental law.
 
Bianca says that taking up the duties of Conservation Manager presents many exciting challenges, not least of which is being able to reinforce and help build on the excellent work that has gone before under the guidance of Di Dold, who can only be described as an „environmental dynamo‟ and, “although there is still much to be done, with our growing environmental troubles being tipped into crisis, I think the conservation community is equal to the battle call.” says Bianca.

Although Bianca is often rushing off to interminable meetings, or hidden behind a daunting mountain of paper work - tick-tacking away furiously on her computer making sense of EIAs, RODs, ATBIs, LAFs, LAACs and other strange and incomprehensible beasts that remain a mystery to the rest of us - she is a veritable mine of information, and always gives of her time to share her knowledge. Her special ability is her attention to detail, her logical, analytical approach, and her skill at explaining complex issues in a way that makes them more easily understood, even without having her scientific background and extensive experience.”