XIV World Forestry Congress, Durban

 

 

Date of Issue : 7 September 2015

World Forestry Congress , Durban

This month in September , the World Forestry Congress was held in South Africa for the first time. Hosted by the South African Government, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the XIV World Forestry Congress took place in Durban from 7 to 11 September. The main theme for this year’s congress was “Forests and people: investing in a sustainable future”.

New stamps in a souvenir sheet issue  by South African Post  aims to raise awareness of the environment and especially forests that are the lungs of our planet.The set of five stamps was designed by Annemarie Wessels, who worked closely with the DAFF. The stamps cover the main topics of discussion at the congress, such as transforming livelihoods and forest governance, as well as indigenous forest plants, trees and animals.

Stamp 1: Transforming livelihoods

Forests sustain small and medium enterprises such as small arts and crafts businesses and entrepreneurs and recreational activities such as tree canopy tours, hiking, biking, and sightseeing.

Stamp 2 Forest products

Logs are harvested from a forest plantation. Almost all timber products in South Africa are produced in forest plantations, thus limiting the pressure of timber harvesting on natural forests.

Stamp 3: Forest governance

Monitoring forest ecosystems and produce through science and research such as measuring growth of seven-week ferns.

Stamp 4: Forest dwellers (conservation): Indigenous forest dwellers from different South African regions

Indigenous animals found in South Africa’s natural forests, such as:

Samango monkey (Cercophitecus mitis)

Knysna Dwarf chameleon (Bradypodion damaranum)

Blue Duiker (Philantomba monticola)

Emperor Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio ophidicephalus zuluensis)

Other forest animals include doves, bush pigs, leopards and elephants.

Stamp 5 : Forest flora and fungi

This stamp features a forest recovering after forest fires showing examples of indigenous plants, flowers, fungi and trees.

Outeniqua yellow wood (Podocarpus falcatus)

James flower(Plectranthus fruticosus)

Falling star lilies(Streptocarpus candidus)

Tropical Cinnabar bracket fungi (Pycnoporus sanguineus)

Lepiota mushrooms (Lepiota species).

Forests are essential to life on our planet and are a source of income and livelihood to many. They provide mitigation and adaption to climate change, adequate supplies of fresh water, biodiversity in nature, food and shelter for humans and animals. Yet this life-sustaining resource is under unprecedented pressure from people, climate and competing socio-economic demands.

The World Forestry Congress was first held in Rome in 1926, and has since become the largest and most significant gathering of the world’s forest sector. Held every six years, its objectives are to inform, direct and influence international action in forestry; to elevate the sector’s role in global development and to project a new vision for the future. This congress was crucial, as the world was entering a new development era with the post-2015 sustainable development goals.

Animal Poaching awareness

 

South Africa Post issued a set of stamps featuring six endangered South African species to raise awareness of illegal animal trade.

Mlu Mathonsi, acting Group CEO of the Post Office, said a total of 50 000 stamp sheets will draw attention to the plight of the oribi, black rhino, grey crowned crane, ground hornbill, sungazer and Cape parrot.

The six were selected by the Endangered Wildlife Trust, an organisation founded in 1973 with the purpose of protecting South Africa’s threatened wildlife species. The artwork on the stamps is by Alan Ainslie, a wildlife artist who has exhibited with world-renowned artists such as Raymond Harris-Ching (New Zealand), Keith Joubert (South Africa) and Paul Bosman (US).

“But the Post Office is doing more than raise awareness. The Endangered Wildlife Trust has trained staff at South Africa’s international mail centres so X-ray machine operators know how to identify animals and animal parts in parcels to foreign countries”, Mathonsi said.

Animal poaching is an increasing global phenomenon. In Southern Africa, poaching has increased at an alarming rate. The situation has become so bad that local newspapers have labelled our national wildlife parks “killing fields”. Estimated to be the third largest illegal industry worldwide after drugs and human trafficking, poaching often has its roots in organised, trans-boundary crime and is among the most serious threats to the survival of plant and animal populations.

Poaching has a detrimental effect on biodiversity both within and outside protected areas. As wildlife populations decline, species are depleted locally, and the functionality of ecosystems is disturbed.

It is believed that sophisticated rhino and other wildlife theft networks are in operation, using helicopters and trucks to “strip South Africa of its wildlife”. Wildlife organisations in the country are therefore forced to continually increase security measures to protect our conservation areas and their wildlife.

Newq Stamp on Tourism theme

Laško – Tourist’s favourite destination

Slovenian Post  released a special stamp that depicts Laško – one of the most famous tourist destinations of Slovenia on the 7^th of March.

Laško is particularly renowned for the tradition of beer brewing and healing water springs. Wellness and health tourism are based on honey and beer treatment and are accessible to all.

The countryside around Laško offers pleasant spots, surroundings with its cultural and natural heritage intact. Unspoilt and interesting landscape is waiting to be discovered and explored. They invite you to countless mountain and hiking trails crisscrossing the local hills and valleys, leading through forests, over meadows and pastures.

In Laško, a large number of food and drink tastings take place all year round, as do several displays and presentations of local growers, craftsmen and artists.

Peru–India Joint issue…

 

 

Date of Issue : 25 March 2013

Peru and India celebrated the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations on 25th March 2013. Peru has issued Joint Issue stamps depicting Machu Picchu mountains and Taj Mahal, the 7 wonders of the respective countries. India has announced India Peru Joint Issue (Set of 2 Stamps) in 2013 Stamp Issue Calendar but till date stamp has not been issued.

Courtesy : Indian Philately Digest , Kasinath R. - Tanjore

 

Stamps for World Transplant Games in South Africa

To celebrate the triumph of the human spirit and the hope that is behind every organ transplant, the World Transplant Games 2013 held in Durban from 28 July to 4 August 2013. The South African Post Office marked this special event by issuing ten stamps and two commemorative covers.

South Africa Transplant Sports Association (SATSA) started off as the Transplant Games Association of South Africa (TGASA), which was established in April 1994 by a small group of organ transplantees. They felt the need for an organization that would promote an active lifestyle and an involvement in various sporting activities for transplant recipients. These goals have been pursued ever since and a South African team has participated in every World Transplant Games since 1995.

In September 2006, the Association’s name was changed to South African Transplant Sports Association (SATSA) and a new Constitution was adopted. SATSA is a member of the World Transplant Games Federation (WTGF) and is recognized by the South African Department of Sport and Recreation. It is also an Affiliated Member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC).

Club News 

Thailand 2013 : World Stamp Exhibition

Mr Pradip Jain of India (Second from Left)  receiving award at Thailand 2013 for his Mahatma Gandhi Exhibit

The African Fish Eagle

 

Date of Issue : 14 June 2013

South Africa Post issued a souvenir sheet featuring African Fish Eagle It is a.part of the South African Post Office’s bird series . This is the first lenticular stamp issued by South Africa. In 2012, the African Fish Eagle was named Bird of the Year – one of several initiatives by Bird Life South Africa aiming to raise awareness about birds, their habitat and conservation.

 

The African Fish Eagle

The African Fish Eagle is one of the most widespread birds of prey south of the Sahara and is officially acknowledged by many African nations. A very distinctive bird in flight, the white head, neck, upper belly, and tail contrast sharply with the chestnut and black body feathers.

The African Fish Eagle is most frequently found at the rivers, dams, lakes and estuaries of Africa south of the Sahara. Although they can hunt at any time of the day, they usually do so in the early morning for about two hours. Fish make up 90% of their diet, while the other 10% consists of young water birds or carrion. They are able to snatch fish weighing 1.5 kg, carrying them off in flight. Anything heavier and weighing up to 3 kg (roughly the same mass as their own body) is caught and “planed” across the water onto the shore. It takes an average of eight strikes for a successful catch.

In 2012, the African Fish Eagle was Bird of the Year – one of several initiatives by Bird Life South Africa aiming to create awareness about birds, their habitat and conservation.

The flight of the African Fish Eagle (Haliaeetus vocifer) stamp sheet was issued as part of the South African Post Office’s bird series. For the first time in South Africa the lenticular technique is applied to the stamps.

What is a lenticular?

According to Paul Meijboom from Joh Enschede Printers in the Netherlands, a lenticular is a combination of a special lens and an arrayed image that simulates animation or depth. Auto stereoscopic images refer to pictures that take advantage of how the human eye processes the two images that the left and right eyes receive. They interpret them as depth and three-dimensionality. A lenticular uses the movement of our bodies in relation to produce a pseudo-hologram that looks like a person running, an apple popping out of a flat poster, or a distant car approaching.

 

From Our Readers…

SOME 100 YEARS OLD PRIVATE POSTCRDS

- Sudhir Jain

In the early 20th Century, Postcards were very popular and cheapest mode of communication.  As the availability of the official postcards was little difficult, especially in small towns, many stationery merchants and shopkeepers had printed private postcards without stamps. Businessmen were purchasing and using these postcards for their correspondence.

 

Here I am exhibiting four such private postcards used 100 years ago. All these were posted in the year 1913 in different months like January, February, May and June 1913. All were sold by different Gujrati shopkeepers of Mumbai. Name and addresses of publishers are printed vertically in Gujrati language and Three Pies stamp of King Edward is affixed in all these postcards. All were posted from SAUGOR Post Office (now name changed to SAGAR0 of Madhya Pradesh and delivered at a small village KHURAI.

 

 

Arrivals of Indians in South Africa…

 

Indian Themes on foreign Stamps

                                                                   - Kenneth Sequeira

Indian South Africans are people of Indian descent living in South Africa and mostly live in and around the city of Durban, making it 'the largest 'Indian' city outside India'. Most Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India  during late 19th-century through early 20th-century. 

During apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indians were called, and often voluntarily accepted, terms that ranged from "Black" to "Asians" to "Indians."

Dutch slavery in the Cape

A significant proportion of slaves imported into the Cape were from India, however these slaves quickly integrated with the rest of the Cape population. White Afrikaners also may have some Indian slave ancestry, an example of this being former President Klerk, who revealed in his autobiography that one of his ancestors was a female Indian slave.

An early Indian to settle in South Africa was Kalaga Prabhu, a Brahmin merchant from Cochin. He was the foremost merchants in Cochin. As punishment for conspiring with the Mysore king Hyder Ali to overthrow the king of Cochin, Kalaga Prabhu and his son Chorda Prabhu were arrested by the Dutch and exiled with their families for life to the Cape of Good Hope in 1771

Indentured laborers and passenger Indians

The modern South African Indian community is largely descended from Indians who arrived in South Africa from 1860 onwards. The first 342 of these came on board the Truro from Madras,followed by the Belvedere from Calcutta.They were transported as indentured labourers to work on the sugarcane plantations of Natal Colony, and, in total, approximately 150 000 Indians arrived as indentured labourers over a period of 5 decades, later also as indentured coal miners and railway construction workers.The indentured labourers tended to speak Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and the majority were Hindu with Christians and Muslims among them. Indians were imported as it was found by colonial authorities that local black Africans were economically self-sufficient, and thus unwilling to subject themselves to employment by colonial farmers, while other colonial authorities believed that the "hunting and warrior" African culture of the time was incompatible with a sudden shift to employed labour.

The Mercury newspaper favoured the importation of labour, although other Natal newspapers were against the idea. In general, the importation of labour was not viewed as politically important by colonists when it was proposed, and the importation of Indian labour was driven by lobbying by a relatively small group of sugar planters, and the long-term consequences of Indian immigration (the establishment of a permanent Indian population in Natal) were not taken into account (by 1904, Indians outnumbered whites in Natal).

The remaining Indian immigration was from passenger Indians, comprising traders, and others who migrated to South Africa shortly after the indentured labourers, paid for their own fares and travelled as British Subjects. These immigrant Indians who became traders were from varying religious backgrounds, some being Hindu and some being Muslims from Gujarat (including Memons and Surtis), later joined by Konkanis, and Urdu speakers. These Muslims played an important part in the establishment of Islam in the areas where they settled. Indian traders were sometimes referred to as "Arab traders" because of their dress, as large numbers of them were Muslim.

Indentured labourers on sugar plantations were frequently mistreated, and lived in unsanitary conditions. However, formerly indentured labourers quickly established themselves as an important general labour force in Natal particularly as industrial and railway workers, growing most of the vegetables consumed by the white population. A large percentage of indentured labourers returned to India following the expiry of their terms, and some of those who returned alerted authorities in India to abuses taking place in Natal, which led to new safeguards being put in place before further recruiting of indentured labourers was allowed to take place.

Passenger Indians, who initially operated in Durban, expanded inland, establishing communities in settlements on the main road between Jo'burg and Durban. Natal's Indian traders rapidly displaced small white shop owners in trade with other Indians, and with black Africans, causing resentment among white businesses.

Apartheid

In 1961, Indians were officially recognised as permanent part of the South African population, the Department of Indian Affairs was established, with a white minister in charge. In 1968, the South African Indian Council came into being, serving as a link between the government and the Indian people.The University of Durban- Westville was built with a Rand-for-Rand contribution from Indian South Africans and the government in the 1970s. Before that, Indian students had to take a ferry to Salisbury Island's abandoned prison, which served as their university.Casual racist expressions were used during the years of apartheid. Indians in South Africa were (and sometimes still are) referred to by the racial term "coolie "

Post-apartheid

Many Indians played an important role in the anti-apartheid struggle and some occupied positions of power in post-apartheid South Africa. Indians who were citizens before 1994, and thus discriminated against by apartheid, are considered black for the purposes of Employment Equity, that is, they are classified as having been disadvantaged under apartheid. They are thus eligible for affirmative action. They are also eligible for Black Economic Empowerment.

South African Post released 3 stamps in Dec 2011 to mark the 150th Anniversary of arrival of Indian workers in South Africa.

SA 1 & 3 are the 2011 stamps . SA2 is a 1994 stamp depicting Indian laborer working in sugar cane field.

:  Kenneth Sequeira : email - kenneth.sequeira@hotmail.com

 

Club News

Stamp Exhibition in Allahabad

13 - 14 Januray 2013

: Moni Kumar - Allahabad

From Our Readers….

 

Maximum Cards : Swami Viviekananda

: Sreejesh Krishnan – Trivandrum : email : sreejesh.nt@gmail.com

 

My recent covers ….

 

Just received these nice covers from my friends. Many thanks to all of you !!

Wolfgang Beyer, Germany

 

The first stamp in the above Wildlife conservation stamp block shows Rainbow Trout !! It’s a lovely stamp  of my theme, Rainbow !!

Charles D. Jensen, Florida USA

 

 

Kiru Naidoo, South Africa