News
Building capacity and awareness of prosecutors in response to succulent plant poaching
South Africa’s Succulent Karoo Biome is one of only two desert biodiversity hotspots. It is exceptional among the world’s desert regions because of its extraordinary rich diversity of pant species and the richest succulent flora in the world. The region boasts 6356...
A DEDICATED TAX INCENTIVE FOR RHINO AND OECMS IN SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa has done it again! We have activated another tax incentive dedicated to the environment. The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE), together with the Sustainable Finance Coalition (the Coalition) and through implementation by...
Assessing technology to secure succulent plant populations in the Succulent Karoo region of South Africa
The illegal trading of plants for ornamental purposes has become a world-wide problem. Since March 2019, South Africa has been experiencing a significant increase in incidences of illegal harvesting of succulents to support this trade. As of December 2022, over...
Great or Small, Love Them All | World Animal Day 2023
Every year on the 4th October, we celebrate World Animal Day. This year we honor and appreciate all things great and small, wild and domesticated. It is on this day where we can also reflect on the many ecosystems around the world and the incredibly vast...
New partnership to accelerate nature protection
Wilderness Foundation Africa is pleased to announce it has partnered with EarthToday tech company and the Union of Nature Foundation, as they share common goals of protecting and sustaining landscapes to safeguard biodiversity and secure our planet for future...
New partnership promises transformation in guiding industry in Eastern Cape
[Gqeberha, Friday 18 August 2023] – Wilderness Foundation Africa, renowned for its conservation efforts and commitment to sustaining the natural world, and Ulovane Environmental Training, a leading name in accredited field guide training, are excited to announce...
Veld rehabilitation on Tanglewood Conservation Area
Within the proposed Albany Biodiversity Corridor, on the Wilderness Foundation Africa owned Tanglewood Conservation Area property, veld rehabilitation methods are being piloted. This joint initiative between the Foundation and Conservation Landscape Institute, is...
Monitoring the African Penguin population in Algoa Bay
In September 2022, seven Wilderness Foundation Africa Seabird Monitors embarked on a 12-month long project, funded through IUCN Save Our Species and co-funded by the European Union, to assist Addo Elephant National Park with the monitoring of the African Penguin...
Celebrating 38 Siyazenzela graduates in Mpumalanga
“The Siyazenzela Programme has brought back my hunger to achieve, the enthusiasm, the willingness, the lost hope, and the belief in myself that says, ‘I can’. I was dead and lost and had given up but the Wilderness Foundation found me and freely provided the...
Tanglewood Conservation Area: Research, Restore and Conserve 22 months on
Within the “Bushmansriver Corridor” of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, lies an 800ha property previously farmed through grazing and planting, and then followed by overstocking of game for hunting. In August 2021 Wilderness Foundation Africa (WFA), through a...
Of rain and reflections
Cities are home to more than half the people on Earth. Cities are noisy, crowded, complex, often smelly and can be so stressful. They’re all the things a calm home in which to lay your weary head should not be. True peace lives elsewhere – in the natural world, our...
No bugs on your windscreen is bad news for swallows
If you want to gauge the state of the planet, you don’t have to be a scientist, you just have to look for what’s missing around you. We are essentially creatures of two dimensions and only slightly of the third: up. Above us is the kingdom of air, clouds, flying...
Antarctica’s water wonder
Water is so common it hardly bears notice until rain takes a holiday and the taps run dry. Nearly three-quarters of the planet is covered with the stuff. But in fact, it’s an absolutely magical substance – and when it becomes ice it can blow your mind. Water breaks...
South Africa: On Geological Timescale and Travelling Backwards
Gazing across the wild, rolling nothingness of the Kalahari or the ramparts of the Drakensberg, have you ever wondered how that bit of scenery got there? To a geologist the answer is all in the name, but ask them to elaborate at your peril. The film Jurassic Park,...
Brilliant bees that waggle with intent
It’s now common knowledge that bees communicate by dancing. But the extent of their intelligence deserves a hard look at just how smart insects are. Bees pose a problem. Not because they sting – all creatures have the right to defend themselves – but because they...
WFA 50: Katherine and Andrew — of wild things, magical music and being creative
Katherine Jenkins performing at Sanbona. (Photo: Don Pinnock) Katherine Jenkins, a singing superstar, and her husband Andrew Levitas, a top US movie producer and director, jetted quietly into South Africa with their children over Christmas for some game park time...
The mysterious travels of sea turtles: ocean gyres reveal an astounding story
For reasons hard to explain, the word ‘gyre’ holds a mysterious allure for me. It comes from the Latin word gyrus and means a ring, spiral or vortex. It’s a small word, which, in oceanography, describes vast pulses of water that flow to the heartbeat of sun, moon...
The panda’s ‘thumb’ — biological wonders that navigate the odds to ensure survival
The biologist Francois Jacob once wrote that nature isn’t a divine artificer but an excellent tinkerer. Its dictum is: never invent when you can adapt. Take the Epipactis, a marsh orchid. It uses two petals as a trap. One of these is a nectar-filled cup desirable...
Nature’s Defenders: Wangari Maathai, the tree woman of Kenya
‘If I have learned one thing, it is that humans are only part of this ecosystem. When we destroy the ecosystem, we destroy ourselves, for on its survival depends our own.’ One day, back in the 1940s, on the patch of land cultivated by her family near Mount Kenya,...
