The Ida’s Valley Community Trails (IVCT) has recently been named a winner of the World Economic Forum @wefuplink BiodiverCities Challenge.
The accolade was bestowed upon the organisation for their contribution to the conservation of the Ida’s Valley Nature reserve and their work in the community.
“As a community organisation we are honoured to receive acknowledgement for our work. The last two years we have consistently worked to uplift our community and transform the Ida’s Valley nature area into an Adventure Tourism Hub. These awards make the journey worthwhile and keep us motivated to do what we do,” said Etienne Basson, co-founder of IVCT.
Basson says the achievement provides Ida’s Valley Community Trails with an international platform to showcase their project and the work they have done. “The platform supports connection and networking opportunities with international organisations and partners. We can use the platform to pursue funding and sponsorship opportunities; this will go a long way to ensure the financial sustainability of our organisation and ensure that our projects on and off the trail can go ahead and move us towards our goal of providing education and training opportunities to youth in our community.”
In the future the IVCT wants to transform the area into an Adventure Tourism Hub that is both recognised on international and local level and provide recreational and educational opportunities for locals and tourists.
“Our main focus this year is to erect proper signage on the trails to ensure trail users are informed and can use the trails safely. We want to bring more trail running and mountain bike events to the area. We have partnered with Wild Runner Trails Series, that will see the Trail Series Super League event being hosted in Ida’s Valley Nature Area. The Trail Series attracts around 500 to 800 participants and we are excited to welcome these participants to Ida’s Valley Nature Area. Off the trails we are planning an educational schools outreach programme and establishing an indigenous plant nursery at one of the local primary schools,” he adds.
Idas valley Community Trails is currently a finalist for the BIE- Cosmos Prize, Expo 2020 Dubai under the Sustainability Theme, Connecting Minds, Creating Future. “Our project poster is part of a presentation at the Expo with projects from across the World. The winner will be announced at the Expo on 31 March.
Basson in his capacity as project lead for the Ida’s Valley Community Trails has also been nominated as a semi-finalist for the World Policy Forum Young Global Changers Recoupling Award 2022 from individuals around the world that are implementing change projects. Finalists will be announced in the next two weeks. If chosen as a finalist, I will have the opportunity to present our project in Berlin, Germany in March 2022.
