Degradation and rehabilitation programme
The purpose of this programme is to assess the habitat degradation status and implement mitigation measures needed to facilitate the improvement of ecological processes and enhancement of ecosystem functioning in affected areas.
The national policy on the conservation and sustainable use of South Africa’s biodiversity, produced by DEA calls for the identification of key sites for rehabilitation based upon biological and socioeconomic criteria, and the development and implementation of rehabilitation plans for identified sites. Similarly, the Convention on Biological Diversity lists rehabilitation as an important tool for promoting the conservation of biodiversity.
Soil erosion is dominant in old cultivated lands, along drainage lines and in some wetland systems where erosion head-cuts result in transformation or desiccation of the wetlands. Often degradation is accompanied by loss of ecosystem functioning and the extent of transformation or change in some areas results in these areas being unable to undergo passive rehabilitation without mitigation measures to facilitate recovery. Vegetation degradation includes changes in vegetation community in terms of richness, abundance, diversity and structure. Degradation resulting from various factors, including climate perturbations and extreme events, inappropriate fire or herbivory regimes, alien species invasion, as well as human activities, generally reduces flows of ecosystem goods and services. Although some of these are natural processes, intervention may be required to aid recovery in protected areas where natural recovery processes are retarded or prohibited as a result of fragmented habitat surrounded by alternative land use. Degradation affects the capacity of the habitat to support life, thereby contributing to an unsustainable ecological system.
The programme is aimed to firstly understand the scale of soil erosion degradation within the Protected Environment, then to prioritise the sites for intervention and to rehabilitate these sites. The aim is to focus on capacitiating landowners and their farm staff to rehibilitate their own properties through training oppertunities and the access to rehabilitation equipment and materials. SANParks is committed to providing assistance though the Biodiveristy Social Project.
Get Involved
Check out some of our projects on the go and who we are partnered with below:
Soil Eorsion Survey
The MZCPE conducted a survey of the area to idenitfy areas of soil erosion, classify the types and their extent. This survey was done by Bruce Taplin under Conservation Management Services and has become a valuable resource in guiding the member’s interventions in the landscape.
Photo supplied by Bruce Taplin
Soil Eorsion Survey
The MZCPE conducted a survey of the area to idenitfy areas of soil erosion, classify the types and their extent. This survey was done by Bruce Taplin under Conservation Management Services and has become a valuable resource in guiding the member’s interventions in the landscape.
Photo supplied by Bruce Taplin
Partnering with the Private Landscape for Conservation
The National Protected Areas Expansion Strategy (NPAES) highlights the need to expand South Africa’s protected area network despite limited resources. To achieve this, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) introduced the 2012 Buffer Zone Strategy, which promotes protection of landscapes surrounding national parks through partnerships and compatible land uses.
Between Camdeboo and Mountain Zebra National Parks, overlapping buffer zones cover about 840,000 hectares, largely private farmland. Because SANParks had no authority over private land, a new collaborative approach was required. The area’s existing natural rangeland-based farming system—characterised by stock and game farming compatible with ecological processes—provided the ideal foundation for partnership rather than prescriptive management.
This led to the establishment of the Mountain Zebra Camdeboo Corridor Project in 2012, facilitated by the Wilderness Foundation and funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). The project aimed to create a 45,000-hectare conservation corridor, offering landowners three participation options. All chose the Protected Environment model, which supports multiple land uses while providing legal conservation recognition.
The Mountain Zebra Camdeboo Protected Environment (MZCPE) was formally declared in April 2016, comprising 64 landowners across 268,388 hectares. These landowners formed the MZCPE Landowners Association, the designated management authority, and committed to developing and implementing a collective Management Plan, approved by the Minister in August 2017 under the GEF-5 Protected Area Project.
The management plan promotes collaborative land management, biodiversity conservation, and socio-economic development. Key initiatives included baseline studies on land degradation, cultural heritage, and environmental sensitivity, guiding sustainable land use. The appointment of an Environmental Ecologist and a Buffer Zone Coordinator strengthened the partnership between SANParks and landowners, translating plans into on-the-ground action.
The MZCPE also introduced a Management Plan Tool—initially Excel-based, now being digitised—to help landowners track progress, set annual priorities, and compile collective reports. SANParks provides coordination, technical advice, and facilitates partnerships with institutions like Rhodes University’s Centre for Biological Control and industry bodies such as the wool and mohair sectors, enhancing recognition for sustainable farming practices.
The MZCPE model demonstrates that conservation and agriculture can coexist through voluntary stewardship, shared responsibility, and mutual benefit. The partnership between SANParks and private landowners has strengthened community relationships, promoted ecological resilience, and gained national and international recognition as an innovative approach to landscape-scale conservation.
The Management of the Great Karoo Wilderness
The Mountain Zebra Camdeboo Protected Environment (MZCPE) is managed by the MZCPE Landowners’ Association, officially designated as the management authority by the Minister in April 2016. The Association operates under South African legislation, national policies, and its constitution, which governs collective decision-making and outlines procedures for managing shared concerns. While it coordinates collective conservation efforts, it does not interfere with individual landowners’ business operations.
An Executive Committee—comprising a chairperson, vice-chair, secretary, and treasurer—is elected every two years to oversee operations. The Protected Environment is divided into sixteen clusters, each represented by an elected member. Together, the cluster representatives and Executive Committee form the Steering Committee, which manages day-to-day decisions and ensures alignment with the Management Plan and its programmes. Decisions are shared digitally with all members for input and, where necessary, put to a vote.
Management activities are guided by regulations and a zonation plan, both approved during the area’s declaration in 2016. The zonation plan provides a spatial framework that balances conservation, agriculture, and tourism, reducing potential land-use conflicts in line with the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (NEM:PAA).
The MZCPE maintains a formal Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with SANParks, which supports the Association with technical advice, management plan reviews, and implementation of the national Buffer Zone Policy. Many MZCPE properties fall within SANParks’ buffer zones, making this partnership both strategic and mutually beneficial.
The management plan embraces a partnership-based approach, enabling collaboration with various organisations to access funding, expertise, and resources for conservation and land management projects. These evolving partnerships—listed on the MZCPE website and in the Project Register—have proven essential in achieving shared environmental and socio-economic goals beyond the local landscape.
Rehabilitation
The purpose of this programme is to ensure the persistence and viability of key species by contributing to national initiatives and implementing species-specific management interventions. The Protected Environment will strive to prevent extinction of species on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) global critically endangered or endangered lists, and will work with other conservation initiatives to secure and strengthen the future of such species over their historic distribution ranges.
Due to the wide array of endemic and red data species within the Protected Environment, contribution to existing conservation initiatives aimed at the persistence of these species will be an important objective. A number of species also have emotional and spiritual value to the landowners within the Protected Environment although there may not be conservation programmes in place to ensure the conservation of these species.
Where species do not have existing conservation programmes, conservation programmes could be created and implemented within the Protected Environment.
Our Projects
Check out some of our projects on the go and who we are partnered with below:
Species Programmes
The purpose of this programme is to assess the habitat degradation status and implement mitigation measures needed to facilitate the improvement of ecological processes and enhancement of ecosystem functioning in affected areas.
The national policy on the conservation and sustainable use of South Africa’s biodiversity, produced by DEA calls for the identification of key sites for rehabilitation based upon biological and socioeconomic criteria, and the development and implementation of rehabilitation plans for identified sites. Similarly, the Convention on Biological Diversity lists rehabilitation as an important tool for promoting the conservation of biodiversity.
Soil erosion is dominant in old cultivated lands, along drainage lines and in some wetland systems where erosion head-cuts result in transformation or desiccation of the wetlands. Often degradation is accompanied by loss of ecosystem functioning and the extent of transformation or change in some areas results in these areas being unable to undergo passive rehabilitation without mitigation measures to facilitate recovery. Vegetation degradation includes changes in vegetation community in terms of richness, abundance, diversity and structure. Degradation resulting from various factors, including climate perturbations and extreme events, inappropriate fire or herbivory regimes, alien species invasion, as well as human activities, generally reduces flows of ecosystem goods and services. Although some of these are natural processes, intervention may be required to aid recovery in protected areas where natural recovery processes are retarded or prohibited as a result of fragmented habitat surrounded by alternative land use. Degradation affects the capacity of the habitat to support life, thereby contributing to an unsustainable ecological system.
The programme is aimed to firstly understand the scale of soil erosion degradation within the Protected Environment, then to prioritise the sites for intervention and to rehabilitate these sites. The aim is to focus on capacitiating landowners and their farm staff to rehibilitate their own properties through training oppertunities and the access to rehabilitation equipment and materials. SANParks is committed to providing assistance though the Biodiveristy Social Project.
The Black-Footed Cat is found in three countries in southern Africa: Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. It is restricted to the more arid areas in this region and is typically associated with open, sandy, grassy habitats with sparse shrub and tree cover, such as the Kalahari and Karoo regions.Insufficient information is available to assess the population numbers of the black-footed cat. It is thought to be rare and has a very limited distribution. MZCPE members are encouraged to report sightings and road casualties of this elusive cat to the Black Footed Cat Working Group.
Photo courtesy of A. Silwa
This is a highly rare and elusive snake species endemic to the area. The members of the MZCPE are encouraged to report sightings to our partner in this project, Bionerds. According to Bionerds, the information on this adder is severely lacking in terms of their venom, prey and habitat preferences and their breeding and living habits. Members of the MZCPE are also on the lookout for poachers who are often disguised as researchers and photographers as there is a horrid uprise in reptile poaching and this species is highly sought after.
Photo courtesy of Bionerds
Many amazing bird species are often the victim of power line collisions or electrocutions. Working with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, powerline collisions or electrocutions are reported to the EWT and together with Ronelle Visagie, incident reports are compiled and submitted to the relevant authority (Eskom and municipalities) in order to mitigate the threats by placing the right avoidance infrastructure on the culprit lines and pylons.
The secretary bird is a large bird of prey endemic to Africa. This stunning snake wrangler is currently listed as vulnerable and is therefore in need of our help. In South Africa there is considerable concern about its conservation status and data shows a concerning reduction in the areas where this species could be found. Members of the MZCPE that have breeding pairs on their farms are encouraged to report these sites and if possible, the success of each years offspring to our partner Birdlife South Africa.
The Cape Mountain Zebra is one of South Africa’s amazing conservation stories where they faced extinction at the beginning of the 20th centuary, but thanks to conservation efforts, their populations have been growing to such a point that recently they were downgraded on the CITES list as populations went from Threatened with Extinction to that of Least Concern. The MZCPE and SANParks are currently investigating the possibility of creating further sub populations on the private land of some MZCPE members.
This much loved antelope species found in the MZCPE is currently listed as Endangered with its population trend decreasing according to IUCN data. This species is much admired by members of the MZCPE and therefore, the MZCPE have created a monitoring program to keep record of known populations. The feeling is that the Mountain Reedbuck is an indicator of veld condition and could be under threat due to drought and possible high levels of predation of their young. By keeping track of the populations we are hoping to identify trends that could guide veld and predator management in the future.
This is one of our awareness projects and is guided by Operation Oxpecker lead by the Endangered Wildlife Trust. The awareness is around the use of oxpecker friendly ectoparasiticides. Operation oxpecker also has programs to relocate birds to area within their historic range. In the MZCPE there have been sightings of these birds outside of their known ranges and these areas have been assessed as possible release sites, but due to the low level of desired ticks in these areas, have been found to be currently unsuitable. Members of the MZCPE are however encouraged to report sightings of these birds in an attempt to understand these new movements of this special species.
This is another awareness project aimed at changing the perceptions of these hyenas. The brown hyena is predominantly a scavenger with very little of their time spent on hunting and when hunting, they seem to prefer prey such as hares and rodents. Scavengers play a vital role in the environment being the cleaning service that rids an area of dead animals and often the diseases these animals carried. The brown hyena has been blamed for stock losses, but research shows that these hyenas are not likely to be the culprit and that they are more a blessing than a curse. Members of the MZCPE are encouraged to report sightings of these species so we can gauge their distribution in the area.
The Karoo is hosts one of the largest populations of Blue Cranes in their natural habitat. Together with the Endangered Wildlife Trust, members of the MZCPE are encouraged to report nesting information on Blue Cranes on their properties. Understanding how well a population is breeding is key to identifying any trends that may need intervention. In the past, EWT has been able to place satellite tracking devices on some fledglings in the area to further understand their movements.
We need your data and involvement
