fall with the water levels…and thus were born the
floating wetlands.
The project set about identifying willing partners
who would assist in testing the various designs for
these floating wetlands. The structures needed
to be sturdy enough to carry wetland plants and
substrate, but easy to assemble from materials
which you might find around the farm. The other
critical issue we thought to address is the excess
nutrients which often accumulate in water bodies
in agricultural landscapes, because of fertilizers and
other chemicals. Wetlands are known to act as water
purification plants, extracting excess nutrients and
ultimately cleaning water. We realised this would be
difficult to test in the landscape, and fortunately a
Stellenbosch University student joined the project,
studying the ability of different wetland plants to
absorb nutrients from polluted water. The results
were encouraging, suggesting that those species
which we might encourage farmers to plant on the
floating wetlands, could perform this task.
After much trial and error an optimal design for the
floating wetland was developed, and the project team
has written up a guideline for their construction.
This guideline document also includes information
on the common groups of water birds a farmer
might encounter and their basic ecology. Additional
AgriKultuur |AgriCulture
approaches to creating habitat for water birds and
other biodiversity are also included. Allowing rank
vegetation reed beds to develop in areas, perhaps
creating shallow mud flats in others, or adding some
large tree branches as roosting structures, can all
enhance a dam for water birds. The guideline is filled
with useful information for landowners interested
in turning their dam into a haven for biodiversity. It
can be freely downloaded from our website (http://
www.birdlife.org.za/conservation/important-bird-
areas/documents-and-downloads and http://www.
birdlife.org.za/images/IBA/Floating%20Wetland%20
Guideline%20Final.pdf ), and we encourage readers
to share the guideline far and wide.
Watching Red-knobbed Coots begin to build their
nests on the mini-wetlands, and various species of
dragon flies and frogs returning to a dam, otherwise
devoid of life, was very encouraging. Ultimately, by
providing nature with even the smallest of homes,
biodiversity can be given a chance to flourish.
We would like to thank the Table Mountain Fund for
supporting this project, and all our project partners
and landowners who helped gather the information
necessary to compile the “Floating Wetlands”
Guideline.
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