Big gain for Renosterveld as new nature reserve declared

The Renosterveld is good at keeping secrets. A passing glance gives you rolling hills of grey, roundish and rather boring bushes that makes it clear why it was named after a nose-down rhino. 

At the right time of the year, however, it explodes into colour as hundreds of geophyte bulbs burst into flower. Their names dance on your lips: morea, lachenalia, abuca, brunsvigia, oxalis, cyanella, wurmbea.

Buzzing and crawling through it all are different and specialised insects, many only found in Renosterveld: oil-collecting and megachilid bees, bombyliid and tabanid flies, Table Mountain beauty, hairstreaks and blues butterflies, geometer moths, scarab beetles and myrmecochory ants.

At night secretive animals emerge: aardwolf, aardvarks…

But there’s a problem: Renosterveld occurs on fertile, fine-grained soils, making it excellent wheat country — and we humans mainline on the stuff. Think bread, pizzas, pies, pasta, cakes, biscuits…

As a result, more than 90% of the original Renosterveld has been lost and — in some subtypes — more than 98% is gone. What remains is often highly fragmented and degraded, making conservation and corridor creation absolutely vital.

Officially declared reserve

So the latest news from Cape Nature is a huge plus: Haarwegskloof, the largest remaining connected stretch of Renosterveld left on Earth, and located between Swellendam and Bredasdorp, has officially been declared a provincial nature reserve. 

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The declaration is the outcome of years of cooperation between Cape Nature, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Overberg Renosterveld Trust (ORT).

For Dr Odette Curtis-Scott, ORT’s tireless Renosterveld champion, the declaration marks a milestone in the journey to protect this irreplaceable landscape.

‘Most threatened’ vegetation type

“Renosterveld is one of the most threatened vegetation types in South Africa (SA), with an estimated 5% of its original extent intact,” she says. 

“Much of it has been ploughed for agriculture, and what little remains is highly fragmented. This makes the formal protection of Haarwegskloof as a nature reserve really important.”

The declaration provides the highest level of legal protection under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act. It ensures that the Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Nature Reserve will remain dedicated to conservation efforts, while allowing for scientific research, habitat restoration and low-impact eco-tourism activities. 

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Renosterveld, part of the Cape Floristic Region, is a global biodiversity hotspot and part of only six floral kingdoms in the world. Despite its ecological importance, it has received far less attention and protection than its fynbos counterpart, largely because it has been extensively converted to farmland.

The ORT has been working for more than a decade to protect the fragments that remain by engaging with landowners to voluntarily sign conservation easements. Following this, ORT works with them to restore degraded habitat and address other threats to Renosterveld. 

Win for conservation, science

Curtis-Scott confirmed that the declaration of Haarwegskloof as a nature reserve is key to these efforts, not just a win for conservation but also for science and the countless species that call this extraordinary landscape home. 

“We hope our ongoing work with incredible partners and landowners will inspire further protection of Renosterveld remnants throughout the region,” she said. 

“We have excellent environmental legislation in South Africa,” said CapeNature CEO Dr Ashley Naidoo, “but without passionate and dedicated stakeholders, it would mean very little. I am especially proud of the work CapeNature continues to do to expand the conservation estate in the province. 

“We know that healthy biodiversity is key to protect and buffer us against extreme weather and climate change. But more than that, we owe it to future generations to protect our unique and precious natural environment.”

He said Haarwegskloof stands as an example of what is possible when government and private organisations work together in conservation of our South African and Western Cape biodiversity. DM