Biodiversity Management

Biodiversity is under threat from human activities and climate change. There is now a need to generate new models to manage it so that it becomes more resilient and survives. This, though, is a specialised activity. Applied management must base its decisions on good scientific information and socio-economic tendencies.

But natural resource management over privately owned land requires special skills including communication, social, economic, environmental and networking skills. It is recognised that preservationist conservation strategies have not been effective in halting the decline of natural resources. Instead a more integrated approach, recognising the intertwined environmental integrity, social and cultural well-being, coupled with economic efficiency and political aspects, is a far more holistic and successful way of resource management.

What do we want from good biodiversity management? Well, there is a good argument for the management of biodiversity to maintain or increase the ecosystem services required to supply products of the environment, and to promote those that are not so visible (such as regulating the chemistry (CO2) of our atmosphere and a clean and healthy water supply). Biodiversity is directly involved in recycling nutrients together with fire, and providing fertile soils.

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Project: Nuwejaars Special Management Area

The Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area (SMA) is an area in which 25 private landowners and local communities work together to collectively manage our land for conservation.

Through this unique conservation model, some 46,000 hectares of often critically endangered habitat is now protected on the Agulhas Plain - at the southernmost region of Africa. The primary goal of the Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area (SMA) is to protect - and use - the land included in the Special Management Area sustainably, according to triple bottom line principles. We aim to find the balance between environmental integrity, human wellbeing and economic efficiency within the area.

While biodiversity and wetland conservation is promoted, so too are sustainable farming practices. As such, farming and conservation work hand in hand. Endangered plants and animals are protected. At the same time, food security from farmland in the Nuwejaars Wetland Ecosystem is not threatened.

This collaboration between landowners and local communities is the first of its kind in South Africa. It required significant commitments from all landowners and communities involved. Read more