Partners or Predators?

It all depends on how we manage stupidity.

Or:

How to survive and flourish as a conservancy; lessons from nature and experience

(Speech by Anthony Balcomb at the 2026 AGM)

Since this is my last AGM as chairman, I would like to give a brief summary of where we have come from and what lessons we have learned.

A brief history of Munster Conservancy

5th Feb 2021: I get a visit from a stressed out old fisherman by the name of Tim Hornby, who tells me that he had just resigned from the MRRA committee because they were planning to "clear the undergrowth in the Admiralty Reserve so we can see in there properly".

It was a very stupid idea and something had to be done to stop them.

The next day I visit the chairman of the MRRA to share my concern. I get a very frosty reception and was told to put my concerns in writing. When I visit, the person whose idea it was he tells me that there were hundreds of ratepayers and the concerns of one ratepayer were of little concern to him.

Faced with stupidity of this magnitude we had to do something drastic. That same week two stressed out old fishermen decide to start a conservancy.

12th Feb 2021: A group of friends meet on the deck at my house the result of which is the following letter:

"To everyone interested in starting a conservancy in Munster"

"As Munsterites, we are privileged to own property in an area that has so much indigenous bush, so many birds and animals, and such a beautiful beach. But we cannot take all this for granted and we need to do all we can to nurture and protect our natural environment. One of the ways to do this is officially to make our area a conservancy. The purpose of a conservancy is to stimulate interest and participation among all ratepayers in the protection, rehabilitation and conservation of our natural environment, to create environmental conservation awareness in our community and to promote eco-tourism. Starting a conservancy means registering with an umbrella organization called Conservancies KZN. Conservancies KZN is the largest and most active voluntary conservation organization in South Africa, linking local communities, conservation and sustainable livelihoods to address environmental and economic challenges. It will connect us with all kinds of people and resources in the area of environmental management, use, and enhancement."

A few friends met on Friday 12th February at my house in 20 Munro Drive and invited Anna Jordan, who is the Ugu coordinator for Conservancies KZN, to tell us about her organization and answer questions. She had lots of ideas about what we could do and got us all very excited about the prospect of becoming a conservancy.

""We would like to start a Munster conservancy, but our first priority is to get on board as many people as we can. We are setting up a Munster conservancy WhatsApp group and would love to hear from you. If you are interested in joining us in this exciting adventure, or simply learning more about it, please send us a WhatsApp so we can get back to you."

Tony Balcomb
20 Munro Drive
Munster"

This is sent out to all of the friends and contacts of the group of friends that met that day.

27th March: I meet with the new MRRA committee to share the vision. They invite me to address the wider community on the 4th May. I could not be there, so I asked David Halle, my cousin and well-known environmentalist on the South Coast, to represent me.

There were very few people at the meeting but, crucially, the Kinseys attended, at David's personal invitation.

The rest is history. (To have the Kinseys on board meant that we were half way there!)

20th May: twelve of us meet at Sithela, the Kinsey estate. We take a walk through the delightful Kathleen Kinsey Nature Reserve and then elect a committee and establish the boundaries of the conservancy. I was elected chair (for a year!), Jeanne-Louise vice chair, Tim Hornby treasurer and Robin Broide secretary. We open a bank account the following week.

Around this time we receive a proposal from the MRRA that the conservancy become an MRRA project with a separate bank account.

The committee turns this down because we had already registered as a conservancy with a separate constitution, falling under Conservancies KZN, but we reiterate our desire to have the MRRA as a partner.

Elize Scott joins the committee as representative of the MRRA and works tirelessly for closer partnerships and growing our membership.

For the next two years we are persona non grata with the MRRA, but continue to extend the hand of friendship at every opportunity.

23 Feb 2023: we have an official meeting between MC and MRRA committees facilitated by Johan Bester, a friend of Rod Kinsey, in order to establish a working relationship.This does not really produce tangible results and relations continue to be strained.

Sometime in 2024 I get a phone call in the middle of the night from a member of the MRRA committee, saying that the chairman had resigned and the committee wants to work with us.

We help them find a new chairman.

The rest is history.

The present chairman of the MRRA is at this AGM and will be giving a vote of thanks later.

Thus ends the brief history.

Two incidences that made our presence felt

The first involved a small piece of indigenous forest, not more than about three hectares in size, on the macadamia farm opposite the Munster Shopping Centre. We heard that it was coming under threat by the new owner of the farm. He intended, we were told, to cut it down to plant macadamia trees. When I heard about this I could not sleep that night. I had this perpetual image in my mind of that forest being flattened and uprooted by bulldozers. I simply could not live with the possibility of this happening. I contacted Anna Jordan at five the next morning and told her I was in a flat panic. We could not allow this to happen. We had to stop it. She told me not to panic and that she would alert the CKZN. I started to mobilize people like my life depended on it. I took pics of the forest and posted them to everyone I thought might have some influence in saving it, both locally and internationally, with a passionate plea to save it. This included government organizations, environmental violation report centres, environmental rights lawyers, religious bodies, the press, the academic community, and activists from the old struggle years against apartheid. The response was extraordinary. I received messages from all over the world. Friends in Germany were ready to activate the vast green network in Europe, family in England the same. The well known environmental rights lawyer Richard Spoor contacted me about how he was battling against the mac farmers who are devastating the environment in the Lowveld. Enraged friend and colleague, Sinegugu Zukhulu, picked up the phone immediately and started getting his network activated.

Some very creative responses came from our own small group of friends on the Munster Conservancy WhatsApp group, one of which caught my attention: "why not pick up the phone and talk to the man!?" A fairly novel suggestion in the light of the fact that we were busy mobilizing an army to descend on him! Most people rejected this, saying he would never listen, he was ruthless, money came first, he had no concern for the environment, etc. etc. I kept putting it off, expecting a contemptuous and angry response. But I eventually picked up the phone and called him. When I mentioned my name, he greeted me as though he had known me for years. I was completely blown away, he knew all about me and was expecting my call! Without my needing even to tell him the purpose of the call, he proceeded to assure me that he would not touch the forest, that he would put it in writing if I wanted him to, that he had invested over a hundred million rand into the are,a and was as concerned about it as I was, that I must come round for a cup of coffee to discuss things etc etc. I felt like a general who had mobilized his army only to have the enemy come out with a white flag and surrender before the battle began! So I had to go back to the troops and tell them to hold their fire and lay down their weapons. Some of them seemed a little disappointed. "What's this", they asked, "we were expecting a fight!"

That was in 2021. I still haven't had the cup of coffee and I am not naïve enough to think there has been a kind of Damascus Road change of heart, but the incident created enough buzz to draw a lot of attention to ourselves, and helped put Munster Conservancy on the map. And some significant lessons were learned.

The second incident involved a property in McCleod Street where the trees were being cut down. The sound of chainsaws attracted our attention and Tim, Ali and I went across just in time to see the last tree being taken down. It was absolute carnage. Red Milkwood, White Milkwood, Red Beech and others had all been felled. I was beside myself with grief, anger and frustration. The owner pleaded ignorance, but we soon discovered that he had been warned that it was against the law. We took pics and posted them on the group and named the property owner. (I would not do this again. We were motivated at the time by the idea that government would do nothing, and the law would not take its course. It turned out that we were mistaken). We also notified the Forestry department, and two officials came out a few days later. That was the first surprise. They spent quite a long time talking to the owner and then went back home. Over the next few weeks I continued to pester them telephonically to take it further. They said that they had opened a case with the police. But they did not give me a case number, so I didn"t believe them. Again, I was led to believe by those who had been in the game much longer than I that nothing would be done. But to my astonishment, I received a call from the Port Edward police station to say that they wanted to take a statement from me about the incident. Warrant Officer Nobanda duly arrived and spent an hour with me taking a statement. She left and I thought that would be the last that I would hear of it. I phoned her several times over the next year asking what progress had been made. She kept telling me that it was in the pipeline and that the perpetrator would eventually end up in court. I did not believe her but I was proved wrong. She phoned me some time in 2023 saying that he had appeared in a Johannesburg court and had been given a fine. I was astonished. I am open to correction, but I think it is the first time that a person committing an environmental crime had gone to court and paid a fine as a result of the actions of a conservancy.

I wrote the following on the 10th July 2021, five months, almost to the day, after our first meeting in my home:

"Here are a few of the lessons I have learned when starting a conservancy:

• Our commitment to the cause of conservation must be as though our lives depend on it. Things get done when people feel the hurt that nature feels.
• Conservation is not only about the environment, it is about people. While rage is essential, it should not get in the way of courtesy and respect. We will never get anywhere without all of these things.
• The fundamental idiocy behind environmental ignorance and destruction, although systemically, economically and psychologically normalized , should not translate into the belief that everyone except ourselves are idiots. Idiots, among whom I count myself when I compare my knowledge of the environment to that of others, can change."

It had been on an extremely steep learning curve.

Conclusion:

Lessons to be learned from nature in order to survive and flourish as a conservancy:

1. Commit to the cause of conservation like your life depends on it, because it does.
   Conservation is not just about "enjoying nature", although it includes this aspect. It is about the survival of the planet. If we do not do it, we will all perish. The default mode for the "modern" consuming human being is the disconnect between their survival and the survival of nature. Milk and apples don't come from cows and trees, they come from supermarket shelves. Enjoying nature is one thing, using it another, and realizing the interconnectedness between all living things yet another.
2. Make the presence of the conservancy felt as though its life depends on it, because it does.
   The first rule of survival in nature is to make your presence felt. The sounds made by insects, frogs, birds, and lions are projected way beyond what seems possible for their size. That's because their survival depends on finding partners, warning competitors, and warding off predators. Silence is not an option if you want to survive. The unique presence of individuals, whether human or other than human, is a survival technique, not designed to make them sound or look nice, though it may sound or look that way for others. Your presence must be "out there" and it must be loud enough to get attention. The same thing needs to happen for conservancies. They need to make their presence felt, however disturbing and uncomfortable this may be, because that's the way to find partners and ward off predators. And without partners we will never survive.
3. Turn predators into partners
   Predators will always be there. But the one difference between humans and animals is that, while in the latter, predators will always remain predators. In the former, they can change from being predators into being partners. Don't give up on the predators, no matter how objectionable they first appear! They may change, they could change, they do change. Our partnership with the Munster Ratepayers and Residents" Association is a classic case of how, after a long and hard battle (very briefly touched on tonight) changed from being a predator to becoming a partner. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, who I call our "Big Brother" in conservation, is also a crucial partner. Conservancies have no legal leverage over people who break the law. To be able to call on our friend Thembalakhe Sibozana, the Chief Compliance Officer of the DFFE for Kwazulu-Natal, and before him Wiseman Rozani, now most unfortunately passed away, has been an enormous help. Another crucial partner has been Sean from Sean's Garden Services based in Southbroom. It is not easy to find ethical garden service providers who will not cut down protected trees unless a permit is shown, and who consults the conservancy every time he does work in Munster. Then there are, of course, all our members and associates who give us support, both moral and financial, as well as their time, sometimes. These are our best partners and we must grow the numbers and quality of commitment of this special cohort of friends!
4. Overcome stupidity, especially your own
   There are many definitions of stupidity. The one I like most comes in the form of a simile. Being stupid is like being dead, you don't know you are, it's the people around you that suffer. Stupidity is not the same as ignorance. Ignorance can be overcome with education. Stupidity is far more difficult to root out. Clearing the undergrowth in the admiralty reserve, the idea that caused us to start a conservancy in the first place, although stupid, was based on ignorance of how ecosystems work. Stupidity showed itself when our concerns were dismissed. But seeing stupidity in every one else but yourself, which this definition implies, is a recipe for isolation. And I think one of the reasons why conservancies don't grow is because they think everyone except themselves are stupid. As insiders we spend an enormous amount of time talking about the stupidity of outsiders, instead of reaching out and trying to educate them. And that's stupid!
5. Realize that you're in a marathon, not a sprint
   Ecosystems take tens, sometimes hundreds of years to get established. They can be destroyed in days. The cause of ecosystem conservation and rehabilitation must be based on the premise that this is a never-ending journey. We're in it for the long term.
6. Take a leaf out of nature's book: forgive people, forget the past, and live in the presence.
   Nature is incredibly forgiving, and never stupid. Look at Frogland! This was a wetland that thrived, became a parking lot that had been flattened, then returned to its original state as a thriving wetland because we simply made sure it was no longer used as a parking lot. The previous residents of this piece of real estate --the frogs, insects, water lilies, grasses and birds-- forgave us for taking away their habitat and returned to it as soon as we allowed them to do so. We did not have to rehabilitate the area, they did that. We just needed to vacate it. We now have the pleasure of their company, of living in their presence, once again.

Before I close, I must extend thanks to the members of Munster Conservancy committee who have been with us for the past five years. And I must especially mention the names of Jeanne-Louise Kinsey who has been a rock of reliability and source of great wisdom, Elize Scott who has been an influencer of note in the Conservancy's growth and "toenadering" between the Conservancy and the MRRA, Dominique Coetzee who has been an absolute revelation, doing far more than the work that her portfolio of treasurer demands, and my own dear wife, Felicity, whose sweet and consistent presence I could never have done without. Also Ali Nel, who accompanied me through so many of those early struggles and whose passion for nature is unsurpassed.

I am enormously excited about the future prospects of the conservancy with Corrie Lotter in the chair and an extremely dynamic and talented committee working with him. Corrie not only has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural environment, but is a compassionate and humble human being who is always alert to the needs of the infirm and elderly. He also has enormous recognition and respect in the wider community. We are truly blessed to have him in the chair and very grateful to the MRRA for seconding him to us. Everyone wants a piece of Corrie Lotter and we now have a sizable chunk!

Although this is goodbye as chairman and committee member, I will not be disappearing into the sunset. I am keen to develop what I call the "bridging" aspect of the Conservancy's outreach programme into the Kwanzimakhwe community and will continue to help with the Alien Invasive Plant eradication programme.

Viva the Munster Conservancy, viva!