Wildlife ACT’s Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project is calling attention to and actively mitigating the concerning decline of vulture populations.

The project, which falls under the conservation organisation’s Vulture Conservation Programme, calls on volunteers from around the world to assist in daily on-the-ground conservation efforts being made in the Southern Drakensberg region to protect cliff-nesting vulture species.

Vulture numbers are in serious decline, with only 50 to 100 breeding pairs of the critically endangered Bearded Vulture in South Africa and Lesotho and about 4 500 breeding pairs of vulnerable Cape Vultures left in South Africa.

The initiative is made possible through a collaboration between Wildlife ACT, the Drakensberg Conservation Initiative and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.

The project involves the monitoring of nesting sites, managing and maintaining safe vulture feeding sites, conducting a long-term remote camera trapping survey in the area, and responding to emergency events.

It further helps to support the national and provincial vulture conservation strategy of developing vulture-safe zones across the region.

Additionally, the camera-trap survey provides long-term insights into the ecosystem health and current species status within the Maloti-Drakensberg Park Unesco World Heritage Site.

"We are excited about the Southern Drakensberg Conservation Project and look forward to focusing some significant energy on the regionally critically endangered Bearded Vulture," said Chris Kelly, Co-founder of Wildlife ACT.

Vultures face a number of threats, including poisoning, electrocutions and collisions with energy infrastructure, habitat loss, and food shortages.

“Vultures provide vital ecosystem services in our natural, agricultural, and rural environments,” explained Wildlife ACT’s Vulture Conservation Programme Manager, Anel Olivier, citing the role played by vultures in disposing of rotting flesh, bone and other organic waste, thereby reducing spread of disease.

Phillip Swart, Priority Species Monitor, Southern Drakensberg, said the project demonstrated the importance of collaboration with conservationists and landowners both within and around protected areas.

 “We are fortunate to have a number of local landowners supporting conservation efforts by offering our team access to their properties in order to monitor nests and conduct surveys. Without their support, we would risk missing out on vital information.”

A voluntourism initiative

In order to sustain the work being done at its various projects, Wildlife ACT has a voluntourism model in place which allows volunteers from around the world to actively participate in conservation efforts while working alongside conservationists.

During their time at the project, volunteers live in a farmhouse situated in the buffer-zone surrounding the Maloti-Drakensberg Park.

As South Africa heads into the colder months, the Bearded Vultures of the Maloti-Drakensberg region prepare to nest, so volunteers can expect plenty of activity.

Wildlife ACT is hopeful that the breeding season will prove successful and that volunteers will join to help support and sustain the conservation project.