OVERBERG RENOSTERVELD CONSERVATION TRUST NEWS
Newsletter 39 | April 2026
by Dr Odette Curtis-Scott
Less than 5% of renosterveld remains today.
Much of what survives exists on privately owned farmland, making partnerships with landowners one of the most important tools we have to protect this globally significant ecosystem.
Over the past few months, we’ve been reminded again of just how important our renosterveld partnerships are. From new conservation easements and expanding ecological networks, to research revealing the hidden challenges facing renosterveld species, our work continues to show that conservation at landscape scale is essential – and urgent.
At the heart of this work are people: landowners who choose to conserve, researchers helping us better understand these landscapes and supporters and donors who make this work possible.
What’s coming up
In our latest newsletter, we share a new conservation easement that protects a large, connected landscape, explore the invisible crisis facing pollinators in renosterveld and reveal new and worrying insights from tracking young Black Harriers.
You’ll also find opportunities to visit our Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve this winter, and join us for one of our Wild & Wise retreats.
Thank you for being part of this journey – and for helping us build a more secure future for renosterveld.
From one to 23: A protected renosterveld network emerges
Protected fragments of renosterveld across the Overberg are starting to form something far more meaningful than isolated patches.
Size matters: A new large-scale renosterveld landscape protected
The newly signed conservation easement, Oudekraalskop, brings Endangered Eastern Rûens Shale Renosterveld and Rûens Silcrete Renosterveld under protection in
An invisible crisis in renosterveld
The tiny relationships holding everything together. Together with fire, these animals drove the structure of the renosterveld ecosystem and the constantly changing ratios of shrubs to grasses.