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.
Healthy soils depend on the little things
When you think of farming, you might immediately think of crops, livestock, rainfall and pests. But some of the hardest-working members of a healthy farming system are almost invisible.







