Strategic partnerships between environmental organisations and local businesses are often critical for the success of activities aimed at disadvantaged communities. In order to help grow the Wildlands’ local Mahogany Ridge social and environmental programme, print operation Paarl Media KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is extending their financial contribution of R100 000 per year for another two-year period.

 The operation made its first donation of R100 000 last year. The total contribution of R300 000 leverages Government funding to enable the full-time employment of 11 local community members who have been employed to clear alien plants and plant relevant indigenous trees in order to restore and conserve the riverine ecosystem which underwrites the Mahogany Ridge area and buffers it against flooding and climate change.

 Wildlands is an organisation which aims to enable sustainable access to the economy for unemployed members of disadvantaged communities by nurturing green jobs, in turn creating an ‘African Green Economy’.

 “As a responsible corporate citizen, we believe it is important to preserve our natural resources. By partnering with Wildlands, we can help develop a local green economy which ultimately helps both individual families and community members as a whole,” says Pieter Le Roux, Group Executive at Paarl Media KZN, which forms part of the Paarl Media print division of Novus Holdings, previously known as the Paarl Media Group.

Louise Duys Walker, Partnerships, Marketing and Events Director at Wildlands says, “Working with local businesses allows us to leverage funding received from Government to build a strategic network of green jobs and create a win-win scenario. Creating jobs around the restoration and conservation of ecosystems allows disadvantaged communities to both protect and benefit from their natural environments.”

The Paarl Media KZN team also joined forces with Wildlands by participating in the first Mahogany Ridge Tree-a-thon hosted during Arbour Week in September this year.

The Novus Holdings Group, which listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in March 2015, is committed to making a sustainable difference in the communities in which it operates, through the creation of strategic social partnerships and investments.