Nora Kreher (Red Baroness) - Bateleurs

09 Nov 2008
Mission accomplished for Bateleurs' Red Baroness
James Clarke (Sunday Independent)

The conservation movement in South Africa has lost one of its most successful and energetic activists with the death of Nora Kreher of Westcliff, Johannesburg.

Kreher - known to many as the "Red Baroness" - was the founder of the Bateleurs, a voluntary "environmental air force" that has achieved a great deal throughout Southern Africa since it was formed 10 years ago.

Kreher got the idea of forming a voluntary air wing for conservation purposes during the campaign to stop the mining of Lake St Lucia's Eastern Shore dunes in the early 1990s. St Lucia is now a World Heritage Site.

Kreher was at the forefront of that battle which resulted in the biggest petition in South Africa's history.

Dr Ian Player of KwaZulu-Natal had organised volunteer private pilots to fly politicians and officials over the St Lucia dunes and over the nearby Richards Bay mining concession. They were able to see the impact of mining along the Richards Bay dunes and consequently refused the mining licence.

Realising the value of aerial surveys and realising, too, that conservation groups and even government agencies were often unable to afford vital air reconnaissance and surveillance, Kreher devised a non-profit, non-political corps of volunteer flyers that would undertake aerial missions throughout Southern Africa without payment.

The Bateleurs now has 120 pilots and, since 1998, it has flown hundreds of missions using fixed-wing aircraft and microlights. They have performed aerial surveys of a wide range of land abuse cases and helped in illegal land-use investigations as well as wetland rehabilitation schemes. They have undertaken wildlife population counts and relocated various mammals and birds. They have even counted vulture eggs from the air.

Player, a close friend, described Kreher as a "very brave and noble lady [who was] critically helpful to the Wilderness Leadership School", which gives young people the chance to appreciate the importance of the African wilderness.

Kreher's life as an environmental activist began after she experienced a Zululand wilderness trail with Player.

Kreher was recently quoted as saying: "We may have some of the most sophisticated environmental laws in the world, but people and corporations are still getting away with murder because of both enforcement apathy and simple ignorance.

"By taking the issue to the sky, we are able to help organisations monitor urgent situations and gather photographic evidence needed for public education and legal action."

Paul Dutton, another friend of Kreher and one of the volunteer Bateleurs, said: "It has been a great honour to fly in her squadron. I felt very humbled by a call from her [just before she died] - the warmth and good cheer so typical of her friendship still evident even when she knew the end was so near.

"The Red Baroness had flown her final mission. How we will all miss her!"

When, in 1977, Ian Player organised the world's first World Wilderness Congress in Johannesburg - now held every four years in different cities around the world - Kreher helped fund it by organising a concurrent international wildlife art exhibition. It remains the biggest ever seen in South Africa.

Kreher was a founder of the National Parks Support Group and a trustee of the Wilderness Leadership School.

She was born in Johannesburg and went to Parktown Girls High. In 1957 she married Roland Kreher (a founder of Cargo Motors). The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary not long before Roland died in October last year.

The couple were intrepid travellers and together explored both polar regions and Alaska as well as some remote parts of Russia (from which Kreher's parents came), the Middle East, India, China and the Americas.

As a result they had a worldwide circle of friends - many of them renowned conservationists - who were frequent guests at the Krehers' home on Westcliff Ridge.

Kreher leaves a son, Sven, and a daughter, Corinna, both of Johannesburg.