Welcome to the Very First Renosterveld Reserve - Ever!
Haarwegskloof
After six years of work and collaboration between the OLCT and the World Wildlife Foundation, the farm, Haarwegskloof, has been purchased and thus preserved into perpetuity. Just a few weeks ago the contract was signed declaring the OLCT managers of the property.
This area of the Overberg (north of De Hoop) has been identified by many different surveys as an area of high conservation priority due to its high botanical diversity, relative abundance of many of the large Threatened birds of the area, and general continuity of indigenous habitats. In conjunction with the veld on two neighboring farms, this area makes up the largest remaining tract of true renosterveld left on Earth. It is a long-term goal of the Trust to secure the veld on the other farms and eventually even to connect this new renosterveld reserve to the great Nature Reserve of De Hoop.
The farm harbors many rare and unusual plants found in few other places (if anywhere). Many of these rare species can be found on the farm's quartz patches. The quartz substrate in these small areas differs enough ecologically from the surrounding shale to host a suite of species not found anywhere else.
Quartz patch on neighboring farm, Plaatjieskraal
Gibbaeum haaglenii, Endangered, Quartz specialist
Ficinia overbergensis, Endangered, Quartz specialist
Odette Curtis, Champion of the Haarwegskloof deal, with Polhillia curtisae,
a Critically Endangered legume found nowhere else on Earth but Haarwegskloof
This purchase not only marks the first renosterveld reserve in history, but another first as well; the farmhouse on Haarwegskloof will soon become a research station dedicated to the research and understanding of the incredibly biodiverse and poorly-understood lowland renosterveld.
Haarwegskloof Farmhouse and future research station
This really does mark an important step toward the understanding and conservation of a critically endangered habitat within a changing landscape.
