On the 16th April 2012, we were officially registered as a Trust, making us three-years-old this month. The journey has not been an easy one – but is has been full of rewards and we are very proud of how far we have come in a relatively short space of time…
We have raised funding to keep ourselves afloat; we received a Ford Ranger from the Ford Wildlife Foundation; and we discovered new species and sold the naming rights of one of them. We have forged new relationships with farmers in the landscape, while strengthening our existing relationships with those we already knew. We are close to completing a booklet for landowners which will contain management guidelines and an ID Guide to key plants and animals in the Overberg Renosterveld. We initiated a pilot Conservation Easement (watch this space for an update!); we have acquired our ‘own’ Reserve (owned by WWF-SA) and we built the first-ever Renosterveld Research and Visitor Centre, giving Renosterveld the home it so desperately needed.
None of this would have been possible without the support of our donors. We have received incredible philanthropic support and it is because of this, along with that received from the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, that we have made it this far. But our work has only just started. Our precious Renosterveld continues on the downward spiral and we need to do a lot more to stop this otherwise inevitable extinction. We need to secure longer-term funding so that we can have more people on the ground, creating awareness amongst landowners and ultimately assisting them with improved management and long-term commitments to conservation.