Brunsvigia bosmaniae in flower on the dolerite koppie
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News
Adopt a sheep for Avontuur
All sheep are adopted!
Avontuur Nature Reserve needs some sheep to ensure we manage the biodiversity well, maintaining a sustainable and special place on the Bokkeveld Plateau in South Africa.
We also need local guardians to monitor biodiversity and maintain the fragile balance of the ecosystem in a changing climate. And of course we need social justice to make it work.
You can be part of this!
Avontuur Spring Splendour
Now open to the public
Thursday – Sunday 11-17.00
Permits R100 per person for a day pass
Available at the Nieuwoudtville Publicity Association
The Rains have come!!
The rains have finally come to the Bokkeveld, and we look forward to steady follow up rains that will get the Grasberg River running again.
Growth
Healthy organic garlic, mulch holing moisture and providing protection from direct heat of the sun and compost in the background
Mornings are cooler, most air chills the face, mist and thick clouds loom on the horizon. The days are becoming shorter and pleasurably cooler, although still warm on sunny afternoons. Occasional storms, rain, and thick mist have returned. Autumn, the season of new growth and new beginnings in the Bokkeveld has arrived. Continue reading
Avontuur Nature Reserve: Part of the Great Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor
GCBC seeks to conserve and restore the biodiversity of the Cape Floral Kingdom, covering a vast stretching from the Karoo to the adjacent marine environment of the West Coast, while delivering significant benefits to the people of the region. The Greater Cederberg landscape represents a significant part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, covering a wide range of altitudes and extending across climatic and habitat gradients http://www.cederbergcorridor.org.za/about
Avontuur is situated in the far north of the GCBC planning domain, near the northern tip of the Bokkeveld plateau. Conservation of this unique property contributes significantly to the tapestry of conserved environments in the GCBC, with three vegetation types: Fynbos, Dolerite Renosterveld and Tillite Renosterveld.
Soil and Water Conservation Manual now available!
Noel Oettlé and Siyabonga Myeza recently wrote a handbook for managing soil and water in a sustainable way: “A Practical Manual for the Conservation of Soil and Water” is now available on line, you can download it for free here. S&W Conservation Manual We have written this book to provide a simple and accessible guide to caring for the soil and the myriad plants and organisms that live in and depend on it.
Much of the practical experience that this book is based on is drawn from our work in the Suid Bokkeveld and on the Avontuur Nature Reserve in the North Bokkeveld, in the Nieuwoudtville area in the Northern Cape South Africa. It has also been enriched by previous experiences in Lesotho and KwaZulu Natal, and fertilised by the other practitioners who have contributed their experiences to the WOCAT (Wold Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) and to Ken Coetzee, whose advice and guidance in relation to the rehabilitation of degraded lands on Avontuur has provided invaluable.
In this book you will find easy to understand diagrams and links to other related resources.
Healing the Land – Short film
A knowledge sharing short film on soil rehabilitation in the Bokkeveld, Northern Cape, South Africa. Through practical experimentation over the past six years on the Avontuur conservation property innovative methods of soil and water conservation have been developed with the support of UNDP’s GEF Small Grants Programme. The Hesselmans, a small-scale farming family were inspired by this work and decided to apply what they had learned on their land to improve their livelihoods. Film available on this link Healing the Land
Living Land – A new book
EMG’s work with small-scale rooibos farmers in the Northern Cape has been highlighted in a chapter of a new book “Living Land” co-published by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and Tudor Rose for the United Nations Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (2010-2020).
Vulnerability to land degradation on a global scale is driven by a combination of a changing climate and patterns of land use. Addressing climate change requires co-operation at a global scale. Ensuring appropriate land use requires local action.
According to the UNCCD, the new book is a powerful outreach tool for sensitizing the public about land degradation problems and the mobilizing efforts that are taking place around the world.
You can access the digital version of “Living Land” via this link to the publisher’s website
Water Beetles
On the 5th and 6th of October Dr David T Bilton from Plymouth University in the United Kingdom visited Avontuur. David is an Associate Professor and Reader in Aquatic Biology at the Marine Biology & Ecology Research Centre in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University. He was accompanied by his colleagues Dr Stacy DeAmicis and Dr Andy Foggo.
Dr David Bilton collecting beetle samples from a standing water body along the Grasberg River
David has a longstanding interest in water beetles. He has travelled widely in Africa, the UK, the Middle East and in continental Europe, studying and sampling these fascinating water organisms. In South Africa he has been doing fieldwork since 2008, working mostly in the Western Cape, where lots of the beetle he finds are new to science. His visit to the Matsikammaberg last year produced 4 new species, for example, three of which are only known from this mountain. He is hoping the Bokkeveld may render some interesting water organisms too. Other sites he has sampled at are the Injisuthi area in the KZN Drakensberg, the Cape Peninsula and parts of the Cederberg in the Western Cape and, more recently, the Bokkeveld and Hantam plateaus in the Northern Cape.
These are the tools used to search for and catch beetles in water bodies. The beetles vary in size so the catching nets also vary.
There are approximately 13 000 species of true water beetles known throughout the world, but the real number out there is probably closer to 20 000. Water beetle is a generalized name for any beetle living in water at any point in its life cycle, and beetles have colonised water around 20 times from different terrestrial ancestors during the course of their evolution. Most water beetles can only live in fresh water, with a few marine species that live in the littoral zone, although they also represent an important part of the fauna of salt lakes and pans as well as inland salt rivers. From David’s long involvement in studying these fascinating organisms he has observed many interesting lineages I here in South Africa, including some whose closest relatives are in far away places like Europe and Australia, rather than other parts of Africa. This goes to show why it is so important for these fresh water invertebrates to be studied.
We are looking forward to seeing the list of species that were sampled in Avontuur and to know if there are any new ones and perhaps learn more about their relatives from around the world.
The team also found time for some sight-seeing. A walk to Kromvlei and the escarpment was a delight.