Contact Details Tel/Fax: 013 752 6504 Manager: mamatsharaga@sanbi.org Physical address R40 Off Sabie/Lydenburg Road Nelspruit Postal Address P.O. Box 1024 Nelspruit 1200

The garden has been offering guided tours for schools and a need for formal educational programmes was inevitable. The Environmental Education Centre was built with funding from the Poverty Relief Fund through the Extended Public Works Programme. The staff moved in February 2006 and started offering Environmental Education programmes to learners and educators in the Lowveld. This was preceded by the recruitment and training of Assistant Education Officers (AEO) of which 4 qualified by the beginning of November, 2005. The centre is currently manned by a team of 5 that includes a manager, an administrator, a horticulturist, an admin aid/cleaner and 2 interns. The current staff ensures that both garden-based and outreach-greening services are available to the Lowveld community.

The garden has variety of biomes, including a unique rainforest created outdoors within a naturally savanna ecosystem. The changes in water regime using sprays to simulate rain and the changes in humidity as a result of the presence of tall closed-canopy plants is used as an example of what global warming is taking away from us. Other biomes in the garden include the savanna, the bushveld and an arid section in the garden that receives very little water where succulents/xeric plants are grown. Garden-based learning programmes are designed around these areas, providing valuable lessons of how plants grow in different climatic conditions.

The National Lotteries funded the programmes, but schools can still make their own arrangements for either guided or unguided educational programmes with the centre. Programmes are offered four days a week and cater for grades R to 12. While special programmes can be arranged on request, currently available learning programmes are indicated in the table below.

Programmes on offer to learners at the Lowveld Garden EE centre.
All our programmes are offered in English and run for a maximum of 3 hours (09:00-12:00).

Programme	Grade	Language
Treasure hunt	Grade R-4	English/SiSwati
Plant-soil interaction	All	English
Biodiversity	Grade 9-12	English
Food chains and food webs	Grade 4-12	English
Plant adaptations	Grade 7-12	English
Wetlands	Grade 4-12	English
Useful plants	All	English

Greening the Nation Projects

Greening of the Nation projects are also run from the centre. In Mbombela municipality, road islands along the R40 and N4 roads, 3 cemeteries a nursery and 10 schools are being greened. In the Greater Tubatse municipality a community park, a nursery and 10 schools are developed using strictly indigenous plants. In Nkomazi municipality, a community park at Masibekela Dam, and 15 schools are being developed with indigenous plant gardens.

 Outreach Greening

Outreach greening programme, also funded by the National Lotteries, was also started in February 2006, and the programme is aiming at greening 50 schools in Ehlanzeni region over three years. Twenty schools (first intake) from around White River – Hazyview, Likazi, Matsulu, and Ngodini areas already have starter gardens. Fifteen new schools have already joined in the programme and are busy with their gardens.