Overberg Renosterveld Trust: Saving the World's Rarest Lowland Fynbos

The Overberg Renosterveld Trust works with private landowners in South Africa's Western Cape to protect renosterveld, a Critically Endangered fynbos vegetation type of which less than 5% remains, mostly in small farmland fragments. Solitary bees and bee-flies are considered the region's most important pollinators, and the Trust funds research into how habitat fragmentation affects their ability to pollinate the area's exceptionally bulb-rich flora. Through voluntary conservation easements and stewardship agreements, the Trust has now secured more than 5,000 hectares of renosterveld plus a further 2,000 hectares of adjoining limestone fynbos, growing its protected network from a single reserve to 23 sites.