NEWS
Restoring Overberg Renosterveld through Management Interventions
Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust
This year we celebrate the launch of the UN Decade of Restoration . The main aim of this call to action is to prevent , halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems around the world .
As one of the world ’ s most biodiverse and yet threatened ecosystems , the Renosterveld of the Overberg deserves our focus around this .
South Africa is internationally mandated to conserve Critically Endangered ecosystems such as Overberg Renosterveld , that have suffered extensive habitat loss and have relatively little still surviving .
1 .
It is often said that ecological restoration is needed in areas where so much of a threatened vegetation type has been lost that national and international goals for conserving a certain percentage of a vegetation type are otherwise impossible to meet .
However , ecological restoration is challenging to undertake in Renosterveld vegetation , where small surviving patches of vegetation are now surrounded by high value productive agricultural lands .
Furthermore , once Renosterveld has been ploughed multiple times , changes in soil structure and loss of its original range of habitat niches mean that its former levels of habitat biodiversity have been lost forever .
2 . 3 .
However , we can restore Renosterveld through management interventions that improve the habitat condition and conservation value of what vegetation still remains .
The Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust ( ORCT ) is doing just this through an innovative project funded by
WWF South Africa .
This work builds on two different projects that have been previously undertaken by the ORCT , namely the
WWF
Figure 1 - 4 : The Renosterveld of the Overberg is one of the world ’ s most biodiverse and yet threatened ecosystems .
4 .
A conservation easement is a conservation servitude which encompasses a whole property to ensure conservation in perpetuity of Renosterveld vegetation there . This agreement is written into the title deeds of the farm and runs
21 Grassroots Vol 21 No 3 November 2021