Stranded giants on the move — rescued baobabs hit 900km road to sanctuary

Detailed summary

Five giant baobabs — thirsty, shrunken, but still alive after three months out of the soil — are heading back homeward from the port of Durban after conservationists mounted an…

Five giant baobabs — thirsty, shrunken, but still alive after three months out of the soil — are heading back homeward from the port of Durban after conservationists mounted an urgent and costly rescue operation to shift them to a new sanctuary in the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, which straddles the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces.

“Operation Baobab” hit the road late on 11 November when the first of five iconic African baobab trees were loaded on to “abnormal truck” rigs that will convey them more than 900km by road to Mpumalanga as part of an urgent rescue plan initiated by South African baobab champion Dr Sarah Venter.

Venter, an ecologist and founder of the Baobab Foundation, has been instrumental in helping to raise the necessary funding to shift the giant trees to a suitable sanctuary after they lay abandoned on their sides for more than three months in an open parking lot at a shipping warehouse in Durban’s Mobeni industrial zone.

The trees were “intercepted” by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment in late July, just before their scheduled export to the Black Sea nation of Georgia, apparently destined to decorate properties owned by billionaire former Georgian prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

According to the department, the exporter was not able to produce valid permits or licences for their removal, transport or export – leading to their extended, three-month-long sojourn in the parking lot of a Durban shipping warehouse.

Venter stepped in last week after reading about the plight of the stranded trees in Daily Maverick and also learning about the apparent difficulties of securing funding for their relocation to a suitable recovery site.

“I am just really relieved that Timbavati have stepped up by offering to pay for the costs of loading, transport and replanting,” she said.

“If they had died in Durban, or been exported to Georgia, I think this would have sent the wrong message to the world about South African conservation – as this…

“We…

Opening of the article, excerpted from Daily Maverick. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.