f i v e
Best served with
bird-friendly wine
Vineyards across South Africa have united to protect
the Cape Floral region, one of the most biologically
significant areas in the world. They’re serving
biodiversity by the bottle with the Biodiversity and
Wine initiative, which helps wine producers embed
environmental practices into their business.
One vineyard in the region has taken a unique
approach – Vergenoegd Wine Estate introduced a
herd of 800 Indian Runner Ducks to act as biological
pest control, devouring the snails and insects that
would otherwise need to be eradicated by pesticides.
These daily “duck parades” help to attract hordes of
visitors to the vineyard every year.
But Vergenoegd also cares about the region’s native
waterbirds: with the assistance of BirdLife South Africa,
they are inspiring farms across the region to restore
wetlands by installing floating islands on their dams,
made from indigenous plant species.
vergenoegd.co.za
S T E P
S T E P
S I X
Cap it off with a
shade-grown Yerba
Mate
What do you see when you think of plan
tations? Rows
of uniform trees stretching as far as the
eye can see? It
doesn’t have to be that way. Paraguay
’s shade-grown,
organic yerba mate plantations resonate
with frog
and bird calls as rain drips from rainfores
t branches
above. Yerba Mate is a South American
tree related to
European Holly. Shade-grown yerba
producer, Guayaki,
proudly proclaims that it “combines the
strength of
coffee with the health benefits of tea
and the euphoria
of chocolate”. It is usually grown in full
sun, but BirdLife
Partner Guyra Paraguay, with the help
of the Darwin
Initiative, has set up a new model in the
San Rafael
Nature Reserve. Here, they work with
the indigenous
Mbya Guarani people to provide susta
inable livelihoods
that also benefit Endangered birds such
as the
Vinaceous-breasted Amazon Amazona
vinacea.
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