• Mining

Passionate about more than just gold

- 2022-08-30 00:00:00

The Reserve’s environmental education programme was established in 2014 to promote the fundamental understanding of mining activities and conservation and how these could coexist. The programme involves practical activities to preserve and sustain the natural environment. Activities offered through this programme include but are not limited to ecological studies, leadership training, guided nature walks, career development and mine tours. The Environmental Education programme is open to primary and secondary schools across Namibia. B2Gold avails the Otjikoto Nature Reserve for this programme at no cost to any of the attendees. To date, this programme has reached 4839learners and 590 teachers.

Environmental education officer Simeon Nampala is particularly involved with the practical educational experience offered to learners from grade 6 to grade 12. Fauna and flora, animal behaviour, conservation, recycling and wildlife management are all areas where he shares his expertise. “I take them out on walks, we do drives with outdoor lecturing and we do presentations under the trees. We share leadership skills, especially for members of learner’s representative councils, as well as life skills and leadership roles,” he said.

The Little Shop of Physics (LSOP) is one of B2Gold’s Corporate Social Investment flagship projects. The programme was designed by the Colorado State University in the USA. LSOP aims to take complex physics concepts and theories and demonstrate them in creative and practical ways, using everyday material. An LSOP lab was established at the Otjikoto Nature Reserve where pupils and teachers can participate in the LSOP activities and visit the mine.
“We show adults and young people that science is fun and everyone can learn,” says Paulo Samuel, Education Specialist at B2Gold Namibia.
The Otjikoto Nature Reserve is home to plains game such as Oryx, Eland, Kudu, Zebra, Giraffe, Springbok, Hartebeest, Wildebeest, Impala and Waterbuck as well as large carnivores such as Leopard, Spotted Hyena, Brown Hyena and Cheetah, making it ideal for wildlife veterinary training.
Manager for farms and facilities Duane Rudman elaborated that, “We reclaim the land as we see that we can, to enlarge our footprint,” he said. “The reserve is like a pantry for biodiversity to be able to reincorporate the mine eventually,” he said.

The University of Namibia’s School of Veterinary Medicine, based at their Neudamm Campus, is the only school offering a compulsory Wildlife component to undergraduate classes. For the past five years, B2Gold has offered its facilities to the UNAM for practical training and, as such, veterinary students have gained valuable knowledge and experience.
Another tertiary institution that has partnered with B2GoldReserve and Education Centre is the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) through its Biodiversity Research Centre. One of the goals of the Otjikoto Nature Reserve is to enhance biodiversity and conservation of Namibian wildlife around the mine. To achieve this, the reserve must manage and monitor its wildlife effectively and timeously.

Miya Kabajani, the environmental research, and rehabilitation coordinator says, “I love the possibilities of the research, and you have this open-air lab at your disposal, it’s also beautiful to be part of the process. It is not often that you find a mine with such a huge conservation project on its doorstep,” she said. “We do a lot of monitoring, for example we are continuously working on bush encroachment and every year thinning it out, which is beneficial for grass productivity and the wildlife moving into the areas where the animals can get access. Annual game counts, waterhole counts every 24 hours from ten hides all over the property. According to her, “research supports improving the landscape and area management, supporting mine rehabilitation and opening new possibilities along with summer schools and collaboration with academic institutions on research projects.”

An accurate estimate of wildlife numbers gives reserve management an idea of the health of wildlife populations, growth rates and the effects of predation and other risks. As a leader in researching accurate and scientifically-sound wildlife census techniques, NUST’s wildlife researcher and senior students joined forces with the Reserve in 2020 to determine current wildlife population numbers. The game count results feed directly into management decisions, such as restocking and destocking (in order to obtain a natural and sustainable balance of all wildlife species) and placement of waterholes.
In addition, B2Gold’s Environmental Department has been hosting the B2Gold Environmental Summer School (ESS) at the Otjikoto Nature Reserve since 2019. The programme offers students an opportunity to learn from experts in the environmental management field. The programme is fully funded by B2Gold, and each year the mine’s Environmental Department selects a topic and invites experts to present special lectures and seminars.