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.