SOUTH AFRICA INSPIRING CASE STUDIES FROM THE CAPE WINELANDS FARMING WITH BIODIVERSITY

This report by WWF South Africa provides a guide and case studies on integrating biodiversity into agricultural landscapes in the Cape Winelands. It advocates for regenerative farming practices, such as reducing tillage and chemical inputs, and offers practical strategies for restoring degraded land through passive and active restoration. The document includes specific plant palettes for riverine areas, intercropping, and habitat hedges to enhance ecosystem resilience and support pollinators.

• Regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring soil health and biodiversity through practices such as decreasing tillage, reducing inorganic inputs like fertilisers and pesticides, planting cover crops, and integrating livestock for natural fertilisation.
• Biodiversity enhances agricultural resilience by maintaining ecosystem services such as pollination, pest control, and soil formation, making systems more resistant to drought, flooding, and pests compared to monocultures.
• The Fynbos Biome in the Western and Eastern Cape is a biodiversity hotspot where over 80% of the region has been altered or fragmented by urban development, agriculture, invasive alien plants, and wildfires.
• Passive restoration involves removing the source of damage and allowing natural succession to occur, which is more economical and ensures plants are adapted to local conditions, whereas active restoration requires introducing seeds and plants from a reference habitat.
• Fynbos and renosterveld are fire-driven ecosystems that require periodic ecological burns (every 8–25 years) to maintain species diversity, reduce fuel loads, and facilitate nutrient cycling.
• Case studies at Hartenberg Estate demonstrate that 'rewilding' vineyards by stopping the sowing of cover crops and allowing perennial weeds and grasses to develop can increase species diversity and provide organic matter.
• The use of perennial cover crops in vineyards, as trialled at De Wetshof Estate, can reduce the need for herbicides and labour by suppressing weeds and cooling the soil.
• Research at St Kilda in Robertson suggests that flowering cover crops, such as white clover, can increase plum yields by attracting honeybees to the orchard, especially during poor climatic conditions.
• The Bottelary Hills Renosterveld Conservancy (BHRC) protects endangered vegetation types, including Swartland Shale Renosterveld, Swartland Granite Renosterveld, and Boland Granite Fynbos, through a network of private landowners.
• Riverine vegetation is critical for flood mitigation; a case study at Bergsig Estate showed that a berm planted with local riverine species survived the June 2023 floods and held the structure.

APA

WWF South Africa (2024). SOUTH AFRICA INSPIRING CASE STUDIES FROM THE CAPE WINELANDS FARMING WITH BIODIVERSITY. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/biodiversity-on-farms_final_2-page-view.pdf

Chicago

WWF South Africa. SOUTH AFRICA INSPIRING CASE STUDIES FROM THE CAPE WINELANDS FARMING WITH BIODIVERSITY. 2024. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/biodiversity-on-farms_final_2-page-view.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF South Africa |title=SOUTH AFRICA INSPIRING CASE STUDIES FROM THE CAPE WINELANDS FARMING WITH BIODIVERSITY |date=2024 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/biodiversity-on-farms_final_2-page-view.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfsouthafrica2024south, author = {{WWF South Africa}}, title = {{SOUTH AFRICA INSPIRING CASE STUDIES FROM THE CAPE WINELANDS FARMING WITH BIODIVERSITY}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2024}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/biodiversity-on-farms_final_2-page-view.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }