The Water Dancers

Synopsis

Dragonflies are the sentinels of the Earth. Being among the oldest creatures on our planet, they have lived in harmony with the indigenous plants and animals of Earth’s bountiful landscapes for 300 million years. Humans threatened that harmony.

Now, South Africa's scientists are turning back to nature’s messenger, the dragonfly, for a new way forward in conservation, using a system of connected corridors, called Ecological Networks.

The Water Dancers, a name from the Zulu Jigamanzi, meaning 'dancing on water,' invites you into the precious world of the small things to discover how their sensitive nature can help us design a passage into the future.

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Research

MONDI ECOLOGICAL NETWORK PROGRAMME

The Mondi Ecological Network Programme aims at designing landscapes for the future, based on the main premise of large-scale ecological networks (ENs). ENs are networks of corridors and nodes which maintain compositional biodiversity and ecosystem services in an agro-forestry setting. ENs include all features that a nature reserve would have, and therefore show emergent principles over simple corridors. These emergent principles include maintenance and management of such valuable landscape features as hilltops and wetlands. The findings to date are very encouraging, and emphasise that ENs are a conservation measure that will enable sustainable forestry into the future.

THE WATER DANCERS

Synopsis

Dragonflies are the sentinels of the Earth. Being among the oldest creatures on our planet, they have lived in harmony with the indigenous plants and animals of Earth’s bountiful landscapes for 300 million years. Humans threatened that harmony.

Now, South Africa's scientists are turning back to nature’s messenger, the dragonfly, for a new way forward in conservation, using a system of connected corridors, called Ecological Networks.