conservation
Our Passion
Renu-Karoo Nursery is located Wolwekraal Nature Reserve. The nursery supports conservation through its work which propagates, promotes and conserves indigenous plants by making them available to Karoo gardeners, landscapers and restoration practitioners.
Education
Wolwekraal Conservation and Research Organisation is committed to environmental education as well as conservation and research. It achieves its education objectives through:
Intern Programme
School Excursions
Guided Walks
Guided walks in the Nature Reserve follow a meandering path that takes walkers through the major rocky and sandy habitats. We discuss geology, soils, and how the interactions between plants, animals and climatic factors maintain productivity and diversity. We demonstrate past and present human influences on the environment. The walks takes around 2 hours and 2km.
Renu-Karoo supports the education objectives of Wolwekraal Nature Reserve by hosting interns & providing training & facilities for practical work.
Research
Research on Wolwekraal Nature Reserve focuses on the following aspects:
Veld Restoration
In 2016 and 2017, in collaboration with the Nature Conservation Department of NMU and Conservation Management Services, we carried out ecological restoration trials on silty and rocky ground. Our approach was to use dams or swales to trap runoff water, and to provide seed traps and shelter using stick mulch. We also sowed locally collected seed. Preliminary results of these trials are available to download here.
Vegetation Change
Since 2010 we have monitored the vegetation in 75 plots on Wolwekraal Nature Reserve to find out how the plants respond to rainfall and climate change. We also monitored plant cover on a number of line transects in various habitats on the Nature Reserve. Our findings were that the 2015-2021 drought killed around 40% of the plants. Fast-growing succulents and long-lived non-succulent dwarf shrubs were more drought sensitive than slow-growing succulents. The drought is ongoing and this research will need to be repeated. To read more, click here.
Animal Monitoring
Animal behaviour is monitored using trap cameras. This monitoring has given us an idea of the relative abundance of various mammal, reptile and bird species on the Nature Reserve, and their activity periods during the day or night.