Wetland Consulting Services Pty Ltd.

Wetland Consulting Services (Pty.) Ltd. was established in 1998 and offers a specialised service in wetland and river consulting. Since inception, Wetland Consulting Services (Pty.) Ltd. has undertaken over 1000 specialist consulting projects ranging from local projects in South Africa through to participation in international studies. These projects have included specialist studies for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA’s), mines, toll roads, and research projects. In additional to the above Wetland Consulting Services has expanded its field of expertise in biodiversity assessments, soils (including soil surveys), ecological assessments and land use management.

The company also has extensive experience with wetland delineation and mapping and has been involved with developing mapping methods for wetlands nationally and has mapped over 100 000 hectares of wetlands in southern Africa. We have also undertaken numerous wetland specialist studies for some of the large mining companies and have been involved in mitigation and rehabilitation design on various mining projects, and were the first company in South Africa to develop off-site wetland mitigation methods for the mining industry.

Another key competency is wetland reserve determinations as part of the Water Act Resource Protection and Assessment Policy Implementation Process. In this regard the company has undertaken a number of wetland Reserve studies and has been involved at the specialist level with the Letaba River Reserve Study for the national Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, and similar studies in Mozambique and Swaziland. We were also involved in the study on the Mhlatuze River, which involved defining the Reserve and designing a monitoring programme to assess the efficacy of the Reserve. The company has also been involved in the assessment of impacts and the development of management plans for a number of game lodge and resort developments where rivers and wetlands have been involved and/or where there has been a need for specialist input on waste water treatment form these developments. In this regard, the company also has significant expertise relating to the design of artificial wetlands for ecological and aesthetic purposes and bio-filtration systems for waste water treatment purposes.