Our Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve has allowed us NOT ONLY to protect Renosterveld. It has also become home to the only Renosterveld Research Centre in the world.

Already more than 12 post-graduate students have used and benefited from this centre, converted following a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2014.

Now the Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust is extending this learning space on the reserve – to also reach school children.

The aim? To teach young children NOT ONLY about Renosterveld, but about threatened ecosystems and wildlife around the world. It’s a space to be reminded that WE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT NATURE!

We’ll be developing Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve in 3 phases:

Phase 1: Turn the old shed on the reserve into a learning space. It will become a ‘common room’ for scholars and under-graduate students. It’ll be a place to teach and learn. We’ll include a kitchen area to cater for visiting groups.

Phase 2: Turn a small room on the reserve into a living space for a caretaker. This person will live on the reserve, and host visiting groups.

Phase 3: Create an accommodation unit for 12 beds for visiting children and students. The reserve is a bit off the beaten track. So we must have appropriate accommodation here so visiting groups can experience this incredible and unique nature.

The ORCT is now running a fundraising campaign on BackABuddy to support this. And we need your help.

Already schools in the Overberg, including Rûens College, have shown great interest in supporting this endeavour, encouraging their children to learn about Renosterveld.

According to the Trust’s Director, Odette Curtis-Scott, “It’s been a dream of the Trust to instil environmental awareness among the youth. We know this is the only way to ensure Renosterveld and the rest of our threatened natural world can be protected by – and for – our future generations.”

The deadline for the BackABuddy crowdfunding campaign is END of February 2020.