In her spare time, Kyra is also a CREW member and a committee member of the Thicket Forum. Her interests are in landscape ecology, land cover change, land degradation, social-ecological systems and knowledge management. She has served in her current role with the UNDP since 2019. Prior to this, she worked in two roles with the Rhodes Restoration Research Group as a GIS and Knowledge Manager for the Tsitsa Project, and as a researcher on thicket-related work. In her role, she co-authored the Subtropical Thicket Research and Praxis Strategy and in earlier years worked mapping illegal deforestation and conducted carbon and biodiversity baselines for a long-term thicket monitoring project. Kyra has also worked as an independent consultant, contributing to specialist botanical assessments of EIAs for citrus and wind farms in the Eastern Cape.

She is well travelled, and spent time exploring Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, working for a river expedition tour group. Here her interest in the natural world and people’s relationship with their environment was piqued.  

Grant grew up in Pietermaritzburg, attending Maritzburg College, completing his studies at UKZN followed by articles at Deloitte PMB. During his articles he worked on the audits of BSi Steel Ltd, Illovo Sugar Ltd and Bell Equipment Ltd among others. Highlights at Deloitte include counting 5,000 head of cattle on a farm in Dundee and a 4 week of secondment to the Sustainability and Climate Change division.

At the end of 2012 he moved up to Johannesburg, to be closer to his girlfriend, now wife. He joined the family business, H- Systems and gained extensive experience in importing, launching new products, business analysis and general management. Highlights include selling the business to Corialis, a vertically integrated window and door system manufacturer based in Europe and business trips to China, Belgium and the UK.

Grant then took a sabbatical and traveled to some bucket list destinations including Thailand, Dubai, Chobe National Park, Makgadikgadi Pans, Lake Malawi and Victoria Falls.

Grant joined Ironmongery Warehouse Africa in 2018 where he is currently employed. His experience here has centered on managing the finances, cash flow, stock, marketing and IT.

He is also a member of Birdlife SA, Johannesburg Hiking Club and Mountain Club of South Africa. In 2013 he completed his FGASA level 1 to increase his knowledge and awareness of the natural environment. One of this favourite plants is Buddleja auriculata because of its wonderfully fragrant flowers that attract many birds and butterflies.

Murray is the co-owner of Part Time FD and DoughGetters Accounting. He provides part-time financial director services and uses his strategic abilities and love of technology to design and implement financial systems and business strategies for clients, a role he has undertaken since 2011.

Prior to this, he served as Financial Director of Strategic Insurance Systems, an insurance underwriter, and before that he was Group Financial Director of the X-PLOR Group, a subsidiary of the Dimension Data Group, where he was based in the United Kingdom. X-PLOR provided network testing and revenue assurance solutions to clients such as O2, Orange, Vodacom and MTN.

Between the mid 1990s and 2000, he represented Country Escapes Premium Leisure in South Africa as Group Financial Manager, and moving to London in 1999, he joined Delta UK Land Developments PLC as Director of Finance.

Murray earned the leadership position of Bombardier in the Anti-Aircraft Corp during his national service. He is also a member of MENSA.

He brings a wealth of financial and general business experience to the BotSoc team.

Previously, Roland was the marketing manager of Boundless Southern Africa for 12 years, raising awareness about southern Africa’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). During this time he was based in Pretoria at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. In the course of his work, Roland developed close working relationships with stakeholders across the region while implementing innovative initiatives to promote tourism to these Transfrontier destinations. He has worked in a variety of tourism related fields for more than 20 years – as a tourist guide, developing tourism products in rural communities and working on several destination marketing initiatives.

Roland’s current focus is on building greater resilience in conservation landscapes by supporting initiatives that achieve inclusive rural economic development outcomes whilst securing the natural capital of these landscapes. Recent assignments have included leading efforts to develop a national Wildlife Economy Certification Scheme in South Africa, leading a team to develop a global programme on ‘Strengthening the Wild Biodiversity Economy’ commissioned by UNEP, contributing to the development of the new SADC TFCA Programme (2023-2033), and developing and marketing the Garden Route and Klein Karoo as an avitourism destination with BirdLife South Africa.

She moved to a 20-hectare stretch of untouched Strandveld in 1993, where she started and managed Die Winkel op Paternoster, and later the Voorstrandt Restaurant in Paternoster.

During the course of her career, she was involved with the veld food and medicinal plant garden at the Hout Bay Museum. She also worked with Dr Renata Coetzee in her work with Veld Food research and recipe development into the food culture of the KhoinKhoin, and her books, ‘Koekamakranka’ and ‘A Feast from Nature’.

She also remains passionately involved with the food garden at the ‘Kinder Foerdern Zukunft Stiften’, a German non-profit organisation working with local children after school hours.