A Night of Conservation, Collaboration and Community: Our Annual AGM

​Our annual AGM was a fantastic evening filled with interesting conversations, inspiring talks and a wonderful celebration of the work being done across the Grootvadersbosch Conservancy.
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This year, we were fortunate to have two excellent keynote speakers, Nic Wiltshire from eCRAg and Barbara Seele from Conservation Outcomes, who shared their knowledge and perspectives on some fascinating and important aspects of conservation.

Discovering the Stories Written in Stone

Our first speaker, Nic Wiltshire from eCRAg, took us into the fascinating world of rock paintings and the stories they can tell us about the people and landscapes of the past.
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Nic spoke about the importance of protecting rock paintings, how their age can be determined, how they change over time, and some of the incredible information that can be gathered from these ancient artworks. Nic dubbed one of our newest Landowner Committee members, Michael Raimondo, the “super user” for contributing to the records of new sites in the area.

Michael has been doing incredible work recording rock paintings throughout the Grootvadersbosch Valley, including many paintings that had never been formally recorded before.

One particularly interesting feature Nic highlighted was the presence of dogs in some of the paintings. This appears to be less common in rock art from other parts of the region, making these local records even more fascinating and valuable.
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It was a wonderful reminder that conservation is not only about protecting plants, animals and rivers but it is also about understanding and protecting the cultural heritage that forms part of our landscape.

 
The Benefits of Biodiversity Stewardship

​Our second speaker, Barbara Seele from Conservation Outcomes, spoke about Biodiversity Stewardship and why it can be such an important tool for private landowners.
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With so much of South Africa's biodiversity occurring on privately owned land, landowners have an important role to play in protecting our natural heritage.

Barbara shared the benefits of formally protecting properties through mechanisms such as Nature Reserves and Protected Environments, and why landowners should consider what these options could mean for the long-term conservation of their land.
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Biodiversity Stewardship can provide an opportunity to recognise the conservation value of privately owned properties while supporting landowners in managing and protecting these important natural areas.

Thank you to Conservation Outcomes for their incredible insights and work that they do and to the National Geographic Society for supporting our work. 

Celebrating Our GVB Team

​The AGM also gave our own GVB team members an opportunity to share their respective roles, projects and the work happening throughout the Conservancy. From alien clearing and restoration to environmental education, river monitoring and community engagement, there is a huge amount happening across the Grootvadersbosch landscape.

​Some of the projects currently underway which were showcased at the AGM include:

Alien Clearing
Our alien clearing activities continue with the support of LandCare, who have dedicated many years of funding towards our efforts to control invasive alien vegetation within our region. This ongoing work is vital for protecting our indigenous vegetation, water resources and biodiversity of our local communities and private land.

Restoration through WWF Nedbank Green Trust

Our restoration work also continues in the town of Barrydale, where we are working towards establishing a functioning wetland that can naturally filter and improve the quality of water flowing into the river system.

Healthy wetland plants play an important role in slowing water flow, trapping sediments and filtering pollutants before they reach our rivers. By establishing this important system, we help to protect the Tradouw redfin and its habitat and the overall health of the rivers
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This is another example of how restoring natural ecosystems can have benefits that extend far beyond a single site, helping to protect biodiversity, provide water resources for people and the species that depend on them. 

We also got creative in improving how we transport plants and built an extra shelf for our bakkie. This allows us to bring additional plants to site! 

Growing Pride: Community champions for indigenous green spaces - Table Mountain Fund Project 

This project builds on eleven years of working with alien clearing and restoration teams across the greater Grootvadersbosch landscape. It aims to strengthen the connection between restoration work and a deeper appreciation for the indigenous vegetation being protected, particularly the unique value of fynbos.

Through workshops and practical engagement, participants will learn more about indigenous plants and their ecological, cultural and everyday value. The project will then support local champions in local communities to establish small indigenous green spaces, including backyard gardens or other spaces, using indigenous and medicinal plants.

By bringing these medicinal and edible plants into people's own communities and everyday lives, the project aims to build a greater sense of pride, ownership and care for our indigenous biodiversity.

Protecting Leucadendron tradouwense - Conservation Leadership Programme
We are also implementing important conservation work on the Critically Endangered Leucadendron tradouwense through our Conservation Leadership Programme project (CLP). The project includes monitoring the remaining wild population and implementing additional conservation measures to help protect this incredibly rare species and support its recovery. ​With only two known remaining wild population, every effort counts.

The night was also celebrated with amazing food from the Grootvadersbosch Farm and excellent wine from McFarlane wines!

​Thank you to the wine maker who gave an outstanding presentation on these very special wines. 

Our AGM is always a valuable opportunity to look back at what we have achieved the past year, and also, just as importantly, to look ahead at what still needs to be done and why we continue to do the work that we do!

A huge thank you to our speakers, landowners, committee members, team, funders and supporters for being part of another successful AGM and for continuing to contribute to the conservation of the Grootvadersbosch landscape.

Cheers to another year of learning, working together and protecting the incredible biodiversity and heritage of our Conservancy!