Jaqhama
Race Dog
- Joined
- May 7, 2006
- Messages
- 619
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- Location
- Sydney Australia
- Bike
- Kawasaki Super Sherpa
This from a local Cape Town newspaper...I am of two minds about this destroying the desert stuff...I've heard the same thing here in Oz.
Some lichen in the desert gets destroyed...who cares I ask?
It's just bloody lichen...lichen has been growing and dying all over the planet for a million years.
The sand in the desert is being affected by bikes/quads and you can see the images in google earth?
Again who cares? It's just sand for heavens sake, if the quads don't move it around the next big wind will.
I am against people riding in fenced off protected areas however.
The greenies will not be happy until no one can drive or ride anywhere except a tarred road.
The majority of greenies are too fanatical and just not realistic enough.
Most of them still drive cars around..tsk, tsk...helping to add to the planets pollution themselves.
Anyway...here is the article...
South Africa: New Drive for Quad-Bike Ban
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
January 25, 2007
Posted to the web January 25, 2007
John Yeld
West Coast environmentalists are determined to get conservation officials to enforce the ban on off-road vehicles - including quad-bikes - on beaches and coastal dunes following another festive season of lawlessness in places.
Concern is also being expressed in Namibia, where damage by off-road vehicles to the sensitive Namib Desert is visible on satellite images.
The environmentalists are also waiting anxiously to hear whether the Western Cape's statutory conservation authority, CapeNature, will sanction a controversial proposal to host a major quad-bike championship in the Elands Bay sand dunes.
Former rally driving champion Sarel van der Merwe wants to hold the semi-finals of the Polaris African Star Challenge quad-biking event in the dunes between March and May, with the finals being held in the Namib Desert later in the year.
The Elands Bay dunes are a protected area managed by CapeNature, which has not yet announced how it plans to process Van der Merwe's request in terms of an environmental impact assessment.
Suzanne du Plessis of Friends of the Swart Tobie (Afrikaans for the iconic, but threatened, African Black Oystercatcher), said the association intended to take conservation officials to task this year, "especially after the high season and all the damage done at the Olifants River mouth".
"It was a highway for quad-bikes, 4x4s and the launching of motor-boats, which is illegal," she said.
The association is concerned with the conservation of the West Coast, particularly north of Lambert's Bay.
CapeNature is responsible for managing boat and jetski traffic at the mouth of the Olifants, while inspectors from the Marine and Coastal Management branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs are supposed to police traffic on the beach and in the dunes.
In an e-mail message to Du Plessis, Rodney Braby of Namibia said quad-bikers were causing environmental problems in his country, and there was a debate about whether residents wanted them there. (Jaq: I bet the residents want the money the tourists bring in however. I have the feeling Mr Brady may not be speaking for the majority.)
"The Namib is extremely sensitive to uncontrolled or even controlled off-road vehicle activity that has been found to have negative impacts on soil surfaces, apart from the negative aesthetics related to the numerous tracks left behind," said Braby.
Large tracts of the central Namib containing lichen colonies had already been destroyed through off-road driving and mining, he pointed out.
"The lichen fields in the central Namib are regarded as one of the wonders of our planet. We cannot afford to lose more," he wrote.
Braby said quad-bike owners had generally behaved "very poorly" over the holiday season along the central coastline, and had also left tracks in other sensitive areas in Namibia.
"We have been trying to accommodate quads in certain areas during the holiday season in a very friendly manner but without success, and have been treated with hostility and disrespect in return," said Braby.
"Signage asking for co-operative behaviour has been up since 1998, so it's nothing new. But even areas clearly demarcated, cabled off and well signposted as bird-breeding areas were ignored. Barriers were broken and tracks seen everywhere inside these areas.
"The endless 'wheely' circles are visible on Google Earth in the central Namib."
Braby said some organised "quad-tour" operators had gone out of their way to try to help solve the problem, but there had been little co-operation from the general quad-biking community.
"They will need a lot of positive publicity to improve the image they have here. The quad bike-promoters have got a very long way to go to make (these machines) environmentally acceptable to the general public."
Some lichen in the desert gets destroyed...who cares I ask?
It's just bloody lichen...lichen has been growing and dying all over the planet for a million years.
The sand in the desert is being affected by bikes/quads and you can see the images in google earth?
Again who cares? It's just sand for heavens sake, if the quads don't move it around the next big wind will.
I am against people riding in fenced off protected areas however.
The greenies will not be happy until no one can drive or ride anywhere except a tarred road.
The majority of greenies are too fanatical and just not realistic enough.
Most of them still drive cars around..tsk, tsk...helping to add to the planets pollution themselves.
Anyway...here is the article...
South Africa: New Drive for Quad-Bike Ban
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
January 25, 2007
Posted to the web January 25, 2007
John Yeld
West Coast environmentalists are determined to get conservation officials to enforce the ban on off-road vehicles - including quad-bikes - on beaches and coastal dunes following another festive season of lawlessness in places.
Concern is also being expressed in Namibia, where damage by off-road vehicles to the sensitive Namib Desert is visible on satellite images.
The environmentalists are also waiting anxiously to hear whether the Western Cape's statutory conservation authority, CapeNature, will sanction a controversial proposal to host a major quad-bike championship in the Elands Bay sand dunes.
Former rally driving champion Sarel van der Merwe wants to hold the semi-finals of the Polaris African Star Challenge quad-biking event in the dunes between March and May, with the finals being held in the Namib Desert later in the year.
The Elands Bay dunes are a protected area managed by CapeNature, which has not yet announced how it plans to process Van der Merwe's request in terms of an environmental impact assessment.
Suzanne du Plessis of Friends of the Swart Tobie (Afrikaans for the iconic, but threatened, African Black Oystercatcher), said the association intended to take conservation officials to task this year, "especially after the high season and all the damage done at the Olifants River mouth".
"It was a highway for quad-bikes, 4x4s and the launching of motor-boats, which is illegal," she said.
The association is concerned with the conservation of the West Coast, particularly north of Lambert's Bay.
CapeNature is responsible for managing boat and jetski traffic at the mouth of the Olifants, while inspectors from the Marine and Coastal Management branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs are supposed to police traffic on the beach and in the dunes.
In an e-mail message to Du Plessis, Rodney Braby of Namibia said quad-bikers were causing environmental problems in his country, and there was a debate about whether residents wanted them there. (Jaq: I bet the residents want the money the tourists bring in however. I have the feeling Mr Brady may not be speaking for the majority.)
"The Namib is extremely sensitive to uncontrolled or even controlled off-road vehicle activity that has been found to have negative impacts on soil surfaces, apart from the negative aesthetics related to the numerous tracks left behind," said Braby.
Large tracts of the central Namib containing lichen colonies had already been destroyed through off-road driving and mining, he pointed out.
"The lichen fields in the central Namib are regarded as one of the wonders of our planet. We cannot afford to lose more," he wrote.
Braby said quad-bike owners had generally behaved "very poorly" over the holiday season along the central coastline, and had also left tracks in other sensitive areas in Namibia.
"We have been trying to accommodate quads in certain areas during the holiday season in a very friendly manner but without success, and have been treated with hostility and disrespect in return," said Braby.
"Signage asking for co-operative behaviour has been up since 1998, so it's nothing new. But even areas clearly demarcated, cabled off and well signposted as bird-breeding areas were ignored. Barriers were broken and tracks seen everywhere inside these areas.
"The endless 'wheely' circles are visible on Google Earth in the central Namib."
Braby said some organised "quad-tour" operators had gone out of their way to try to help solve the problem, but there had been little co-operation from the general quad-biking community.
"They will need a lot of positive publicity to improve the image they have here. The quad bike-promoters have got a very long way to go to make (these machines) environmentally acceptable to the general public."
