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Our project can be divided into 4 categories :
- The conservation of 10000 acres of the home of the critical endangered Cape Leopard (only 1000 left in the world), small game like the blue duiker, klipspringer and grysbok.
- The fight and control of invasive plant species like blackwattle.
- The resettle of natural plant species especially Spekboom
- Conservation of natural small game species, such as klipspringer, grysbok, and blue duiker and Kudu.
Spekboom, also known as pork bush or elephant’s food, is our own indigenous wonder plant. Besides being edible (and high in Vitamin C), the medium-sized shrub found predominantly in the Eastern Cape is resilient and an important ‘weapon’ in the fight against climate change.
This carbon sponge can sequester more than 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year per hectare planted, making it more effective than the Amazon rainforest at sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. The unassuming-looking bush with its round, succulent leaves is especially good at photosynthesis (making plant food from sunlight), which produces a byproduct we desperately need: oxygen.
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Governments in Europe and other parts of the world want to reduce industrial pollution, therefore businesses that produce high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, like transport companies, can buy carbon credits to offset their carbon footprint.
Here are some properties of this wondrous plant:
– It’s easy to grow and can live for up to 200 years
– It grows to between 2 and 5m tall
– It’s edible and high in Vitamin C
– Spekboom is very resilient and can survive frost, drought, and fire
– it’s one of the most effective plants at sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it is able to use two of the three types of photosynthesis, while most other plants only use one.
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South Africa is a semi-arid country. The plants and animals that have evolved to live here grow slowly, taking just enough to get through the good times and keep stores for the inevitable droughts. This makes local ecosystems vulnerable to competition from plants and animals that take
in a lot of water and nutrients and grow quickly. The damage done by invasive plants alone is R6.5-billion every year.
The total of ecosystem services — the free benefits such as erosion prevention, pollination or pest control that a functioning system gives to the economy — is R152-billion a year.
Invasive alien plants in South Africa pose huge risks, but they can be stopped
This is according to a tome of research put together by the South African National Biodiversity Institute. Its nearly 400 pages describe alien species and what happens when they become invasive (that is when they kill indigenous species).
The Status of Biological Invasions and Their Management in South Africa is the first report of its kind in the world. It notes that there are 775 invasive species (mostly plants) in the country and 107 of these species have a “major or severe impact on biodiversity and/or human wellbeing”.
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These plants and animals use billions of litres of water, fuel violent wildfires, kill indigenous species, make people sick and take away land from animals. The report says that 1% of the country’s terrain has been taken over by invasive species. This has denied 115 000 large animals, such as cattle, the space to graze.
Government and the private sector are stopping the spread of invasives by about 3% each year. It costs the department of environmental affairs, alone, R1.5-billion a year.
Invasives are growing by between 5% and 10%. Battles are won, but the war is being lost. Plant invasions now cover 80 000 square kilometres of the country and suck up 7% of our water.
The greatest negative effect is in the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, where dams are losing their water to invasive trees in their catchments. The report notes that this exacerbated the water crisis in Cape Town.
And, according to the report, unless more attention is paid to fighting invasive, it will only get worse.
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WE are currently funding everything ourselves, but we need all the help we can get! Any donations will make progress faster and more efficient..
Due to the massive invasion of the alien blackwattle species, natural spekbos and fynbos ecosystems, and home of smaller animals, klipspringer, blue duiker and cape grysbok are in the balance. Due to a decline of the game numbers, Cape Leopard now prey on livestock of local farmers, and therefore being hunted, caught in traps and killed.
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