OVERBERG RENOSTERVELD CONSERVATION TRUST NEWS
Newsletter 35 | December 2024
by Dr Odette Curtis-Scott
Without renosterveld’s riches, our lives are poorer
A journalist for a well-known environmental programme once asked me,
“Why does it matter if renosterveld goes extinct?”
That was quite a moment for me. If he’d seen my face (it was a telephonic interview), he might have seen the shock. But I’m sure he felt it over the phone. It occurred to me: If I need to convince an environmental journalist that this habitat must be protected, how much more then those who don’t understand the role that nature plays?
So when well-known winemaker Bruce Jack asked me to contribute to his Jack Journal – just in time for World Wildlife Conservation Day celebrated today – it was a chance to really address this question. And to try and answer it in a way that would hopefully encourage even our cynical journalist that we need to do more for renosterveld.
A book for all ages, to bring out the child in you
A new, richly illustrated children’s book is hoping to inspire a lifelong love of nature by telling the story of one of South Africa’s most threatened birds – the Black Harrier, BirdLife South Africa’s Bird of the Year for 2026.
Renewable energy the need for clearer direction
One of the greatest supposed solutions to climate change on a global scale is proving to be one of the greatest conservation challenges facing the Overberg today.







