Is a new project I’m working on to help raise funds for an incredible initiative to safeguard and rewild ~1m Hectares in the Eastern Cape of South Africa – one of the most biodiverse regions on our planet.
The team there are truly inspirational human beings, and have already achieved amazing successes, including: safeguarding and rewilding over 75,000 hectares of previously intensively farmed, denatured land; and protecting thousands of endangered animals, like Thandi the Rhino.
The only way this rewilding project is succeeding is by partnerships and cooperation of the highest order.
The landscape is home to many endangered species of fauna and flora and to some 300 different landowners. The complexities of joining up all these different properties just from a commercial and legal perspective are mind boggling, not to mention the fact that many farm ownership goes back 6 generations to original settlers, so these are not just businesses, but family ways of life. Overlay the environmental challenges (eg. drought), the conservation issues (just one of which: how to turn cow fields into wild, productive soil) and the fact that “simply” moving a bull rhino because he’s outgrown his current habitat is an operation that is usually planned a year in advance and you start to get an idea of what an incredibly special team this is.
