Conservation nod for GMSA plant

Huldah Solomon (left), GMSA environmental engineer, and Clayton Whitaker, vice president of GM Africa Manufacturing, take a closer look at the indigenous vegetation on the premises of the Struandale Manufacturing Plant.

The 37ha plant was recognised by the international council - which monitors habitat conservation and management on corporate land - for its control of alien inkberry, rooikrantz and Port Jackson.

Situated in the light industrial belt on Struanway, the site was vulnerable to the importation of alien seed, GMSA group environmental manager Ncedisa Mzuzu said.

"There is a high risk of the species spreading from off-site to on-site, mostly through bird droppings or wind-scatter as Port Elizabeth is a very windy city with high velocity wind speeds."

While the inkberry shrub is originally from Brazil, rooikrantz and Port Jackson trees are both acacias originally from Australia.

Typical of aliens, these three species tend to force out indigenous plants and sap precious groundwater.

But at Struandale, while the inkberry and rooikrantz had been eradicated, some Port Jacksons had been retained to help stabilise the site, Mzuzu said.

"We started in 2014 in line with our obligations under the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act with a survey of the property which NMMU's botany department did for us.

"In line with their recommendations we then began a programme of digging out the inkberry and rooikrantz."

When it came to the Port Jackson, they had to weigh up their removal against the role they were playing in controlling the water table, she said.

"We are in a low-lying area and they suck up lots of water so removing them might have resulted in floods.

"But we have recorded exactly where they are and how many there are and we are ensuring that they don't spread any further."

The plant has corresponded with the provincial environment department on its programme and the department has approved its decision on the Port Jacksons.

Alien plants returned repeatedly so annual surveys were done to check for and remove any fresh shoots, she said.

"At the same time, we are mapping the whole property and the positions of the aliens to facilitate the sustainability and accuracy of the programme."

Besides GMSA's obligations under South Africa environmental legislation, they also had a commitment in terms of their ISO 140001 certification and the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals, both of which call for protection of resources, Mzuzu said.

The next phase is to try to get staff beyond the plant's environmental unit involved in the project and to promote ownership and leadership around it.

To this end, different zones of the property have been assigned to different staff members.

The aim is to replicate the environmental model established at Struandale on GMSA's other properties.

This is already under way at the company's parts distribution centre in the Coega Industrial Development Zone, where landscaping is being done using indigenous plants sourced from the IDZ nursery, she said.

Source: Herald