Almost a symbol of the crash in wildlife in Driftsands, and its reported collapse globally, the perdepis tree at the front gate of eco-activist Moki Cekisani’s Gqebera home is dying.
Cekisani, 75, recalls how he grew up in the same wood-and-iron house in Wesleyan Street and people from all over the township used to come to pick leaves from the tree to boil up and drink to combat fever and headaches.
“Now the tree is dying. I’m not sure why. Maybe just because it is old,” Cekisani said.
“But all around us the environment is dying.
“Residents throw down rubbish in the streets. There is a sense of not caring.
“When I was a boy and I went for my circumcision in Driftsands the bush was bustling with wildlife. There were duikers and hares and yellowwood and olive trees.
“Today, they are all gone and the alien wattle and bluegum are everywhere.”
Cekisani, who is founder-director of the Ubuntu & Environmental Organisation, nods vigorously as he discusses the finding of the 2018 World Wide Fund for Nature Living Planet Report that globally 60% of wildlife – the sharp end of the web of life that supports all life on Earth, including humankind – has been lost in 48 years.
“It has been so fast. How many years are left if we continue in this way?
“We need a radical programme to teach environmental awareness and conserve and expand the remaining wildlife.
“We need to get people out into the game reserves to see how important they are.
“We must speak to the children in the schools and the crowds in the stadiums.”
According to the report, it is estimated that globally nature provides services – from clean water and air to food, medicine and building supplies, and soil and pollinators to enable agriculture – worth around $125trillion (R1.73-quadrillion) a year.
But human actions are destroying this natural treasure, the report states.
“We are living through the Great Acceleration, a unique event in the 4.5-billion-year history of our planet, with exploding human population and economic growth driving unprecedented planetary change through the increased demand for energy, land and water.”

According to the report, the main reasons for the sharp dive in wildlife are the loss and degradation of habitat, over-exploitation of resources, pollution, invasive species and climate change.
Literally, wild species and farmers alike are losing the ground beneath their feet as underground organisms that influence the soil’s physical structure and chemical composition disappear.
Another important sliver of fading biodiversity is the pollinators, including especially bees and birds, which are needed to fertilise much of the plant life on which wildlife relies for food and habitat.
According to the report, more than 75% of the major food crops farmed by humankind benefit from pollination by these same species.
“Pollination increases the global value of crop production by US$235-577bn (R3.2-R7.9trillion) per year to growers alone and keeps prices down for consumers by ensuring stable supplies.”
The report’s main finding was calculated using available data for all species and regions.
“It shows an overall decline of 60% in the population sizes of vertebrates between 1970 and 2014.”
The foundation said an urgent global deal for nature and people was needed to “bend the curve” of the present species loss trajectory.
The initial focus should be on the period between now and 2020 when global leaders are due to review progress around the international Convention on Biological Diversity, the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, it said.
The foundation’s director-general, Marco Lambertini, said the report showed nature was not simply “a nice-to-have”.
“The nature conservation agenda is not only about securing the future of . . . all the amazing diversity of life we love and cherish on Earth,” he said. “It’s bigger than that.
“There cannot be a healthy, happy and prosperous future for people on a planet with a destabilised climate, depleted oceans and rivers, degraded land and empty forests, all stripped of biodiversity, the web of life that sustains us all.”..