Environmentalists have welcomed the official declaration last Friday of the Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve, a “forgotten mountain” spanning 11 607 hectares of critical biodiversity in Limpopo. (Supplied)
Environmentalists have welcomed the official declaration last Friday of the Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve, a “forgotten mountain” spanning 11 607 hectares of critical biodiversity in Limpopo.
The declaration of the new reserve, which covers 14 properties between eight landowners, was published in terms of the National Environment Management Protected Areas Act in the Limpopo provincial gazette.
“It’s been a few years coming so it’s really nice to be at this point where we’ve got a declared nature reserve,” said Cathy Vise, the programme manager of the Soutpansberg protected area programme of the Endangered Wildlife Trust.
“In the past, it has in the past been called the forgotten mountain because nobody really knows about it. I’m lucky enough that I come from this region.”
The name “Soutpansberg” is derived from the large natural salt pan to the northwest of the range. The VhaVenda call it “Tha vhani ya muno” — the mountain of salt, the trust said.
The trust, which drove the formation of the reserve, said it encompasses a centre of endemism; a recognised key biodiversity area; a strategic groundwater source area; and an expansive critical biodiversity area in the Limpopo Conservation Plan. This refers to irreplaceable areas that include threatened species and threatened ecosystems that must be kept in their natural or near natural state.
Environmentalists have welcomed the official declaration last Friday of the Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve, a “forgotten mountain” spanning 11 607 hectares of critical biodiversity in Limpopo.
The Soutpansberg mountains are home to 593 species of trees, five biomes — wetlands, forest, savanna, grassland, thicket and even fynbos elements. They also house multiple sacred sites, rock art and other archaeological sites, and are important for cultural heritage, with many communities celebrating their traditions in the region.
“I think one of the biggest things is that the Soutpansberg is actually one of our highest biodiversity hotspots in the country, especially in the floral kingdom,” Vise said.
“We have a very high diversity at the family level in our floral kingdom up here. We’ve got a lot of incredibly unique plant species; a lot of endemic species that don’t occur anywhere else. Also, at the taxonomic level, it makes it even more representative of biodiversity and I think that makes it really quite special.”
There has always been scientific interest in the Soutpansberg, she noted, with research being done by the Lajuma Research Centre, the University of Venda, and other universities to record and document its unique species.
It’s not only plants that thrive in the mountainous landscape. The Soutpansberg has 11 endemic reptiles and an unknown number of spiders, Vise said. “We’ve even had some wild dogs that pass through from time to time and a lot of leopards live on the mountain — it is well known for being a good leopard habitat.”
The trust said it was because of the site’s important biodiversity, unique cultural heritage and largely intact natural landscape that it became a landowner and initiated the Soutpansberg Protected Area in 2018.
Its mission was to formally declare large parts of the western Soutpansberg as a nature reserve, through the government’s biodiversity stewardship programme.
In partnership with landowners, the Limpopo department of economic development, environment and tourism, Ndlovu de Villiers Attorneys, Conservation Outcomes and fresh produce company ZZ2, the declaration of the reserves completes a process that started in 2021.
The Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve Association is a voluntary association for landowners who manage their properties within an approved framework management plan, as part of a collective. It has been assigned as the management authority of the reserve.
Activities include controlling invasive alien plants, local community projects, environmental education and women’s health workshops in local villages.
Among the threats encroaching on the Soutpansberg, and one now cropping up on its western flank, is habitat transformation for development, including agriculture and township development, Vise said.
Another is invasive alien plants.
“Quite a few of our waterways have been clogged up with Eucalyptus that have spread, from plantations and things, and they obviously take up quite a lot of the water resource,” Vise said. “One of the actions of the reserve and what we do on the mountain, working with the landowners, is to actually fundraise for projects to go and remove those invasive species out of the reserve.”
Snaring is another threat, which she noted “is on the rise everywhere, especially for bushmeat”, as well as the unsustainable harvesting of medicinal plants.
“These kinds of things too we are trying to bring into check to ensure the ecological integrity of the mountain. We’ve been able to also create some employment for rangers, especially in going and doing some de-snaring patrols and in the removal of invasive species. Those are quite big projects so we’ve been able to bring in young people from surrounding communities to come and help us with those kinds of projects.”
The trust and Western Soutpansberg Nature Reserve Association management are undertaking initiatives that include bush encroachment work, fire management, invasive species management and the development of ecotourism initiatives, including the Old Salt Trail, which offers hikers one of the best ways to explore the newly declared nature reserve.
Work is under way in collaboration with the Limpopo department of economic development to expand the reserve by 20 000 hectares this year as part of the trust’s aim to create a protected area of 50 000 ha by 2030. The trust said the reserve’s declaration supports South Africa’s commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 30×30 target of protecting 30% of the planet’s terrestrial and 30% ocean ecosystems by 2030.