Restoring the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve
Partner since 2017
The Gouritz Biosphere Reserve is located in the southern part of South Africa, across parts of the Western, Southern and Eastern Cape.
It is an incredibly unique place in that it is the only area in the world where three global biodiversity hotspots converge: the Fynbos, Succulent Karoo and Maputoland-Tongoland-Albany hotspots. Formal recognition of the Gouritz Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO was attained in 2015.
Threats in this region come from out-dated agricultural practices, invasive alien vegetation, and too frequent and catastrophic fires. Land is being cleared on a large scale for cultivation. Besides this there is a fight against poverty and exclusion.
Large parts of the biosphere reserve are severely water stressed. This is worsened by climate change which already results in less frequent and heavier rainfall leading to more run-off and erosion.
Increasing the socio-ecological resilience and sustainability within the biosphere by developing a robust and healthy corridor of 100,000 hectares.
Including:
Meet Linda Fletcher, the newest member of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR) team in South Africa. With a corporate background, Linda brings a fresh new perspective and energy to the GCBR which immediately resulted in a spontaneous eco-tourism project.
GCBR and WRI’s Resource Watch teams have worked together on building a customized Resource Watch dashboard of the ecological trends in the GCBR over the last 20 years. The dashboard shows the trends of ecological indicators in the biosphere, with a specific focus on visualizing the effective changes over time.
Since the current Spekboom restoration efforts are costly, as it is labour intensive, the teams of GCBR and Crowther Lab (our partner and research group that focusses on generating globally-relevant ecological information) are now exploring a possible collaboration, in which Crowther Lab can help find alternative restoration methods in the Little Karoo region.
Conservation of the Ñembi Guasu indigenous reserve
Saving the Chocó rainforest in Ecuador
Restoring the Manafwa watershed
Communities regreen
the Sahel
Landscape restoration of indigenous forest in Ghana
Saving the Corredor Azul
Guardians of the Amazon forest
A sustainable future for the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem
Ecological restoration of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil
A resilient Zambezi river basin for people and nature
Restoration of the Guapiaçu watershed
Safeguarding mangroves along the West and East African coasts
Resource Watch
Rewilding the Gran Chaco
Saving the mangroves in Tristao and Kapatchek
Scientific research for better restoration
Wetlands without Borders
Saving High Andean Wetlands for People and Nature
Seed-funding for Impact: Catalyzing private investments in ecological restoration
Embedding intelligence-based conservation in Odzala-Kokoua National Park
Photocredits
– spekboom country © www.hansvanderveen.co.za
– Man carrying Spekboom sideview © www.hansvanderveen.co.za
– Man carrying Spekboom frontview © www.hansvanderveen.co.za
– Woman with noteboard © www.hansvanderveen.co.za
– Close-up green Spekboom © www.hansvanderveen.co.za