Volkswagen sponsors vehicles for Dyer Island Conservation Trust

Dyer Island's surrounding waters are home to African penguins, great white sharks, seals, dolphins and whales - the "Marine Big 5".

The Dyer Island Conservation Trust (DICT) plays a pivotal role in the research and conservation of the animals in the area and has partnered with leading universities, the Department of Environmental Affairs and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs). One of their main efforts is focused on supporting education to the community.

Against this background Volkswagen South Africa has decided to sponsor two vehicles, a Touareg with BlueMotion Technology and a Polo BlueMotion to assist DICT with beach rescues, transporting researchers and volunteers and the general running of the organisation.

"Volkswagen's vision is to become a company with meaning and impact in terms of environmental consciousness and an industry leader in environmental responsibility. We believe our partnership and support of the Dyer Island Conservation Trust will play a critical role in assisting them to conserve the rich marine life in the Gansbaai area," said Mike Glendinning, director: sales and marketing at Volkswagen.

Involvement aims to generate awareness

"Our sponsorship forms part of our Think Blue initiative by which we try to implement small changes that will make big differences in the future. This is our contribution to the ecological sustainability of our Marine Big 5. As Volkswagen, we hope our sponsorship will generate public awareness that will lead to more funding that can be used to support the work of the DICT," added Glendinning.

Wilfred Chivell founded the trust in 2006 when, together with CapeNature, they started a penguin housing project to address the issue of the lack of breeding habitat for this species. Past extensive guano scraping removed the African penguins' natural breeding habitat and left them exposed to predators and other elements.

"We continuously conduct studies on penguins, whales and dolphins, but at the moment we have a strong focus on the great white shark. We are studying their phenomenal healing abilities and also, through acoustic tagging and tracking as well as looking at environmental parameters, their inshore seasonal migrations. Our database of extensive fin identification studies is crucial in building population estimates," Chivell said.

"The DICT is excited to be associated with Volkswagen's Think Blue Initiative. We are confident that our partnership will give our projects exposure to national and international communities."