Walk on the wild side at Kirkwood fest

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One of the most loved attractions at the Spar Kirkwood Wildsfees is set to return bigger, bolder and more interactive than ever before.

The popular Walk on the Wildside exhibition will again bring conservation, wildlife, tourism and family fun together under one roof from June 26 to 28.

This will take place at the Sentraal-Suid Koöperasie (SSK Agriland) in Nqweba, formerly known as The Co-Op.

Visitors can expect an even larger marquee for the Walk on the Wildside for 2026 due to growing public interest and exhibitor demand.

In celebration of World Theatre Day, the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex kicked off its two-day Culture Media Tour showcasing the city’s vibrant arts, culture and heritage offerings. The annual tour saw media from across SA visit the homes of legends George Pemba and Dudley Tito among other highlights that formed part of the region’s pioneering history in the arts. The tour provided the opportunity to engage with local cultural leaders, township tourism leaders and heritage initiatives. Lucky Christmas Ngqawana, 46, the son of late jazz legend Zim Ngqawana, was also part of the tour. Ngqawana’s son said he was happy the tour gave him the opportunity to recall his father’s legacy. “We are really happy as the Forum of Tourism in New Brighton, led by Phumelele Heritage Kondile, but we do need support from the municipality. “Two years before my father died, he told me I should prioritise protecting his legacy because he had left a huge legacy. “I still have his journal, with his handwriting, we will have his statue as well, because Zim was a global figure,” he said. MBTC chief executive Monde Ngonyama said the institution was a schedule 3A declared institution which made it a national entity. This was their way of extending the national footprint of the institution as well as the rich heritage the province had to offer, he said. The institution is celebrating 40 years of the Barn Theatre, and Ngonyama said a host of activities were planned. Among the upcoming events is the April Fools Comedy Season from April 24-25, May 9 Remembering Zim Ngqawana (with the University of KwaZulu-Natal) and many others. “We are excited to announce our partnership with our Indian community for an Indian Arts Cultural Week, we will announce our annual opera collaboration week. “We are also introducing a new segment with the universities’ jazz schools, we will bring Wits, UKZN and Rhodes International Library. “We will also launch the weekly schools programme. “As we speak, the iconic late Athol Fugard’s production My children! My Africa! is in Kirkwood, but that is a start,” Ngonyama said. For more on the MBTC’s programme, readers can follow its social media handles.

This year’s conservation focus shines a spotlight on owl, shark and penguin conservation, while visitors can also learn more about vultures, cheetahs, leopards, rhinos and blue crane protection initiatives.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to meet the team from Vulpro and learn how Africa’s endangered vultures are being rescued, rehabilitated and protected through innovative conservation programmes.

Well-known Gqeberha conservationist Mark Marshall will present educational talks on owl conservation and snake handling demonstrations throughout the festival, while Algoa Bay Conservation will encourage visitors to support efforts against long-line fishing practices harming sharks, dolphins and whales.

Visitors can also enter a lucky draw to win a boat cruise and shark cage diving experience with Raggy Charters, valued at R9,200.

Story audio is generated using AI On World Environment Day, conversations often focus on climate targets, biodiversity commitments and sustainability strategies. Yet environmental loss often unfolds in far more immediate ways, through the destruction of ecosystems that remain unprotected. In December 2022 Papiesfontein, environmentally sensitive state land near Jeffreys Bay, was unlawfully occupied, resulting in the clearing of natural vegetation, establishing of informal structures and opening access routes across fragile habitat. The environmental harm was immediate but 3½ years later, the legal and governance battle to protect the land continues. Papiesfontein is a 528-hectare area, comprising three provincially owned land parcels, which has long been recognised by conservation authorities and government departments as environmentally significant and unsuitable for settlement development. It contains one of the last relatively intact remnants of Humansdorp shale renosterveld, an endangered vegetation type already pushed to the brink through decades of habitat loss and fragmentation. The area also forms part of an important ecological corridor and supports highly sensitive biodiversity systems that cannot simply be restored once destroyed. In addition, Papiesfontein provides critical habitat for at least eight red-listed bird species, including the breeding habitat for the endangered black harrier. And yet, despite years of policy alignment supporting conservation, the land still lacks formal protection. That gap between recognition and implementation is where environmental vulnerability takes root. Ecological systems do not wait for bureaucratic processes. A destructive event can unfold within hours, amplified through social media and rapid occupation, while recovery, if it comes at all, can take decades. SA’s environmental legislation is, on paper, robust. The country has also committed internationally to protecting 30% of its land, freshwater and ocean ecosystems by 2030 under the global “30 by 30” biodiversity framework. But conservation is ultimately a race against habitat loss, and implementation continues to lag behind ecological urgency. Provincial authorities have repeatedly acknowledged the conservation importance of Papiesfontein for more than three decades. During a 2024 meeting of parliament’s portfolio committee on environment, forestry and fisheries, Eastern Cape officials once again confirmed that the land was environmentally sensitive, unsuitable for settlement development and intended for transfer for conservation purposes. Yet years later, the transfer process remains unresolved. In a recent written response to the Eastern Cape legislature, the Eastern Cape MEC for economic development, environmental affairs and tourism, Nonkqubela Pieters, stated that attempts to engage the department of human settlements since 2023 had yielded no progress. Responsibility has shifted between departments and spheres of government, but the land remains unprotected, which is why it was so easily invaded 3½ years ago. The pattern is not new. Over several decades, Papiesfontein has faced a recurring cycle of threats precisely because it remains without formal statutory protection. It has been earmarked for inappropriate development, subjected to illegal municipal dumping and unlawfully leased for grazing. In each instance, the harm arose not because the land’s ecological value was unknown, but because the absence of legal protection left it perpetually exposed to shifting political, administrative and development pressures. World Environment Day should not only be about celebrating protected areas already secured. It should also force reflection on the landscapes that remain vulnerable despite broad agreement that they should be protected. The challenge facing conservation today is not always a lack of environmental knowledge. Often, it is the unwillingness of political leaders to act quickly enough before ecological thresholds are crossed. The declaration of the neighbouring Kabeljous Nature Reserve in 2025 showed that progress is possible when political will, public pressure and institutional co-ordination align. But it also sharpened the question surrounding Papiesfontein — if the ecological value has already been recognised, what still justifies the delay? Over the past three years, stakeholders under the banner of the Greater Kabeljous Partnership have continued to engage with both national and provincial leadership on this issue. In recent months, the GKP has written to Pieters and forestry, fisheries and environment minister Willie Aucamp, who both have the authority to declare the land a nature reserve, again calling for urgent intervention. World Environment Day is ultimately about accountability as much as awareness, because biodiversity commitments mean little if vulnerable ecosystems remain trapped indefinitely between policy agreement and implementation. Papiesfontein is more than a local land dispute. It is a test of whether SA can respond to environmental threats with the urgency that biodiversity loss now demands. Days can destroy what centuries built. The real question is whether environmental governance can move fast enough to prevent the next one. Dr Wentzel Coetzer is a registered professional natural scientist with a doctorate degree in nature conservation from the Nelson Mandela University. He is a member of the Greater Kabeljous Partnership

Families and children can look forward to an exciting Kiddies Conservation Corner featuring storytelling with Tippie and ATKV, clay modelling activities with Animals 4 Africa, conservation-themed educational activities and a giant community owl artwork project.

Adding even more excitement is a greatly expanded Tourism Expo featuring 25 tourism exhibitors from across the Eastern Cape and Tsitsikamma region.

Visitors stand a chance to win lucky draw prizes worth about R100,000, with winners announced on the SA Tourism Main Stage on the Sunday.

Popular tourism attractions such as Monkeyland, Birds of Eden, Bloukrans Bungy and Stormsriver Adventures will be showcasing adventure experiences, while rural tourism storytellers and authors will also form part of the exhibition.

Only on the Garden Route are little critters saved by citizens coming out in force when they are needed. Following May’s devastating rain, big starfish washed up on a Heads beach in Knysna among all the debris. A post on social media saw members of the community flock to the beach to gently pick up the starfish and put them back in the water. The same sort of thing happened in Mossel Bay when puffadders were washed onto beaches. While I think they should have been washed away forever, snake catchers in the area collected those that had survived and put them back into their natural habitat, hopefully far, far away from urban areas. Every year, from about March to July, hundreds of endangered loggerhead and leatherback turtle hatchlings wash ashore along the Garden Route and Western Cape coastline. The tiny turtles hatch on the beaches of northern KwaZulu-Natal between October and December and are swept south by the warm Agulhas Current. Many become cold-stunned, dehydrated and exhausted when they encounter the colder waters around the Cape and are unable to continue swimming. These weakened hatchlings wash up on beaches from Plettenberg Bay westwards and require urgent rescue and rehabilitation. This rescue effort is co-ordinated by the Turtle Conservation Centre at the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation, which relies on a vast network of volunteers, conservation organisations and members of the public. Before each stranding season, the aquarium visits Garden Route towns including Plettenberg Bay, Sedgefield and Stilbaai to train local communities, distribute rescue resources and strengthen the rescue network. During the 2026 road trip, the team connected with an impressive 400-plus people and 73 organisations across the region, the Aquarium Foundation said. This is real dedication for a little creature! For beachgoers, the most important message is simple: Never put a stranded turtle back into the sea. A turtle that has washed ashore is usually sick or exhausted and may drown if returned to the water. Instead, rescuers who find them should place the turtle in a dry, ventilated container lined with a towel, and blow me down if there isn’t a dedicated Turtle Rescue Hotline on 083-300-1663. The turtles are taken to the aquarium for care and ultimate release. The latest rescue of Knysna dwarf chameleons on the Garden Route was especially heartwarming. While the focus was on damaged roads and infrastructure, among the wreckage another rescue effort was quietly unfolding involving the region’s small, but famous little reptiles. The Knysna dwarf chameleon is one of the Garden Route’s most distinctive endemic species. Found only in the indigenous forests and well-vegetated gardens of the southern Cape, its range stretches from the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains to the coastal forests around Knysna. The species is particularly associated with dense forest and thicket habitat, where it spends much of its life hidden among leaves and branches, but it is also found in suburban gardens. As thousands of trees and branches were damaged or uprooted by heavy rain and gale-force winds during the recent storm, residents began discovering chameleons clinging to fallen vegetation, tangled in debris piles and exposed to danger during clean-up operations. The George Herald community newspaper reported on what happened next and helped with awareness to mobilise troops to save the chameleons. One of the busiest rescue operations took place in Blanco, George. The community went out at night (May 28 and other nights) to find chameleons which were on fallen trees that had to be moved and chopped up as part of the mop-up operation. At night, chameleons glow under UV, and it’s one of the only reliable ways to spot them, so the George SPCA called for donations of torches and UV lights to help spot the chameleons trapped in the debris. “At night, UV lights help us spot chameleons hidden among the debris as their bodies glow under the light. “Without these lights, many of them will never be seen in time,” they explained. CapeNature recommended only chameleons found on fallen trees, broken branches or vegetation destined for removal be relocated. Those still living safely in standing trees, shrubs or gardens were best left alone as chameleons were highly territorial and moving them could affect their chances of survival, even disrupting local populations, CapeNature said. George animal advocate Donatella Pontesilli, who led the rescue operation there, said hundreds of chameleons were saved before broken vegetation was taken away or put through a wood chipper. Pontesilli encouraged children in Blanco by offering a R10 reward for each chameleon found, along with hotdogs and sweets. The little reptiles were caught using twigs, rather than hands, put in containers and then relocated to the Garden Route Botanical Garden in George. Pontesilli explained that one chameleon was placed per tree. In just one night on May 26, some 80 chameleons were saved with more than 100 people searching for them. “It was a massive success and an amazing experience for all,” Pontesilli said, adding it was a wonderful platform to teach children about kindness and looking after nature. About 400 chameleons were rescued from the Blanco dump site in George (before the wood chipper came along), while Pontesilli said she knew of 700 from the George area, but she estimated more than 1,000 were rescued by residents in George. In many areas across the greater Garden Route area, there are still fallen trees waiting to be removed. If you find a chameleon that has been displaced in the storm debris, the SPCA advises to pop it into its own separate box (one per box, to keep stress and injuries down) and bring it to their centre for care. Call the Garden Route SPCA on 044-878-1990 or for after-hours emergencies, contact 082-378-7384. I remember as a child growing up in the Natal Midlands there were always chameleons in the garden. Those days have gone, which is why an initiative such as this is so admirable, lest we find one day that they are all gone.

Festival organisers said Walk on the Wildside continued to grow into one of the Wildfees’ most unique attractions by blending entertainment, education, conservation and tourism into one immersive experience for all ages.

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