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ESTATE NEWS

NEWS FROM THE ENVIRONMENTAL TEAM

"An understanding of the natural world is a source
of not only great curiosity, but great fulfilment."
Sir David Attenborough

fter last month’s extensive article on • Keeping our people happy in a highly to even work harder to achieve better

the environmental happenings in artificial environment, within the integration of our environmental goals on
Athe Estate, here is some information constraints of keeping our ecological the Estate.
on how we became one of the top 10 Most footprint as small as possible.
Eco-friendly Golf Courses in the World. Natural areas on the Estate :
A very important fact to emphasise, even We are lucky that we have a large
Sustainability is an ever-growing necessity though it was the golf course receiving environmental area in the 50+ha game
in today's world as a never-ending process the accolade, is that we as members of the reserve which provides shelter for many
and should be part of everyone’s lifestyle. team looking after the Estate look after the flora and fauna species such as the game
WHOLE environment as ONE entity. We that is resident there.
According to Golfscape, golf courses are have two different teams looking after the
joining the global movement of caring for Estate’s environment with ONE VISION: The golf course is interspersed with eco-
the environment and Silver Lakes Golf and areas, where locally indigenous fauna
Wildlife Estate had the honour of being • Namely the HOA buildings, streets, our and flora of the area are protected. These
chosen by Golfscape as one of the Top gardens and Game Reserve and; plants play host to the butterflies we saw
10 Most Eco-friendly Golf Courses in the • The Golf Course. migrating this past season. They need
world. specific plants to hatch eggs and rest.
We sit on each other’s committees, and Several resident bushbuck, duiker and other
I will expand a bit on what we do in the combine them in one bigger committee, small animals such as guinea fowl and hares
Estate, the way forward and why we were the Environmental Committee where we from before the Estate was developed, live
awarded the accolade for our golf course. cement Policies and Protocols to run the in these pockets of natural areas. The more
It was not only an honour, but testimony Estate. It is super important to us that you, we provide eco-areas outside of the Game
to people working very hard towards one Reserve, the fewer problems we will have
as homeowners come and join us on these
objective: Committees to help us create a living with residents and gardens being eaten by
environment that is in tune with the world buck!
around us.
As you know we also have a mostly locally
Our environmental and golf teams eat, indigenous, tree-planting programme,
sleep and dream our environment! Thanks which includes maintaining street trees
a million to you all. We develop protocols, and trees on the golf course. These trees
policies and drive the way forward so that are host to many birds and, together with
we can manage the environment in the the eco-areas, homes to small wild animals
least intrusive way possible by our staff that have been living on the greater part of
through teamwork! the Estate since its inception.
This was relevant and evident when we We began looking into creating floating
completed the forms before we received islands when I became Environmental
our GEO certification five years ago to Director as part of a programme of wildlife
become the only golf course in Africa to habitat improvements. I will explain below
have this accreditation. We do not see how these floating islands provide a
this as an ‘end’, we see it as the inspiration sanctuary for birds and fish, as well as how

30 INTRA MUROS MARCH 2020