"Conservation officials in the Eastern Cape will be getting free eye-in-the-sky flights over the Wild Coast to monitor illegal developments which threaten the region's unspoiled environment. 

The aerial monitoring service will be provided once-a-month for the rest of 2006 by The Bateleurs, a national network of volunteer pilots who provide their skills, aircraft and fuel at no cost to promote environmental conservation.

The flights will be particularly useful for the cash-strapped Eastern Cape Environmental Affairs department as it will enable officials to take photographs from the air and record the exact position of illegal activities or unplanned development using GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite technology.

An eagle-eye view to check on poaching, indigenous forest cutting or unauthorised road building will also be invaluable as large stretches of the coastline are inaccessible by road and difficult to patrol by vehicle. According to Paul Dutton, a private environmental consultant and KwaZulu-Natal based Bateleurs volunteer pilot, it is possible to record the latitude and longitude of any development from the air, to a ground accuracy of half a metre using GPS equipment.

Dutton, who flew over the entire coastline between Mzamba and the Kei River, last week said several photographs were taken of new roads, tracks and holiday cottages, including some of the 16 homes which were declared illegal last month by the Mtatha High Court.

Apart from the removal of one cottage roof, Dutton said there was little visible evidence that the owners had started to demolish their cottages voluntarily as ordered by Judge Selwyn Miller.  If the cottage owners fail to act before the April deadline, the Sheriff of the Court has authority to demolish them by force. The Eastern Cape environment department has been trying to halt the proliferation of unauthorised holiday cottages on the Wild Coast for more than a decade.

Several conservation groups fear that uncontrolled holiday developments will degrade the coastal environment, though many cottage owners argue that they provide income and seasonal jobs in poor communities. Dutton, a former coastal management officer for the Wild Coast region, said a recent strategic development plan for the area had clearly mapped out zones along the coast which were either open or closed for development.

He said officials were also concerned about the number of new roads and tracks which had been built in several areas and they would investigate a large new development seen near the Mzamba River estuary.