Environment

7.12 Community-based nurseries - a broad-based solution

An integral part of the research programme into the rehabilitation of polluted soil and water in South Africa is the transfer of project technology to community-based nurseries. This is being done via a partnership between the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the Directorate of Participatory Forestry of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). AngloGold Ashanti is providing assistance with business plan development, and guaranteed orders for 'designer' plants. The focus of the partnership is capacity-building and extension support for community nurseries, to enable them to acquire a niche market for the mine phytoremediation and rehabilitation industry.

Three community nurseries are heavily involved in the programme as suppliers of indigenous plants (Modula-Qhowa at Botshabelo, Mphakathi at Orange Farm, and Lesedi in Welkom), providing employment for up to 30 people. The Mphakathi Nursery is part of Amsai community complex, and income raised by the nursery contributes to the school and clinic.

DWAF oversees the development of and capacity-building at many community-based nurseries in South Africa, and provides training and extension support. Wits University is responsible for transferring the technologies developed in the research programme to the nurseries, and for obtaining orders from the mines. Wits supplies the nurseries with equipment, tolerant seed and training through funding obtained from the Department of Trade & Industry's THRIP programme, levered as a result of AngloGold Ashanti's funding to Wits. The nurseries are responsible for the production of tolerant inoculated* plants and seed (trees, shrubs, forbs, grasses etc) which are then supplied to AngloGold Ashanti's West Wits and Vaal River mines. In 2005, some of the community nurseries will also start producing compost from municipal waste for use in the plantings on tailings dams, and new community nurseries are planned.

The nurseries are based on the principle of sweat equity. That means they are owned by members of the community, and grow plants to order (being paid once an order is collected). In some cases a mine will provide the nursery premises. The nurseries provide livelihoods for previously unemployed people, and are trained by DWAF in nursery practice, and by Wits in the production of tolerant inoculated plants for mines.

An intensive training course is being set up by DWAF for community nurseries across South Africa in 2005. This will include training by Wits in the production and marketing of designer plants for mine rehabilitation. Business skills training will cover topics such as how to register a business and open a bank account. Wits and AngloGold Ashanti Small Business Development Unit have co-operated with DWAF on a community empowerment and nursery business plan. The Lesedi nursery was established by DWAF in this way, and together with the other community nurseries servicing the programme, is now a formal registered business.

Regular extension visits and nursery-based workshops help to ensure that best practice is followed. They also promote the socio-economic development of skills and raise the level of environmental awareness among communities surrounding the operations.

* Young plants are inoculated with micro-organisms (mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria) which research has shown aid the rehabilitation of polluted soil.