Four SA Organisations Have Joined Forces to Protect Overberg!

Erica irregularis. Photo Credit: Gareth Williams

Four conservation organisations that have worked side by side for years have decided to formally team up to protect the Overberg!

Overberg, South Africa (28 July 2026) – The newly launched Overberg Conservation Alliance sees the joining of hands between the Grootbos Foundation, Fynbos Trust, Overberg Renosterveld Trust and the Nuwejaars Wetlands Special Management Area.

By teaming up and sharing knowledge, resources, funding and expertise, the alliance hopes to do even more to protect the Overberg’s incredible landscapes and wildlife, while supporting the people who live and work there.

Cape leopard. Photo Credit: Mike Fabricius

The Overberg holds some of South Africa’s rarest ecosystems, including critically endangered renosterveld and lowland fynbos that barely exist anywhere else, plus wetlands, rivers and estuaries that a lot of wildlife and local communities depend on.

The four groups have worked alongside each other for years already, and their conservation areas often border one another. The alliance makes that cooperation official, and it opens the door to larger conservation funding that would have been difficult for any one organisation to secure on its own.

One of the alliance’s first projects is helping restore the Heuningberg Nature Reserve near Bredasdorp after the devastating wildfire that swept through the area in November last year. By acting now, the team can remove invasive alien plants before they spread and give the reserve a much better chance to recover while also reducing future wildfire risk and protecting water resources.

Secretarybird. Photo Credit: Heather D’Alton

It’s also created jobs. With funding from Re:wild and backing from the Cape Agulhas Municipality, local restoration teams have been hired to do the ground work of clearing invasive plants and helping the reserve recover.

That project has also helped unlock further funding to clear invasive plants across the wider Heuningnes catchment, too.

Currently the alliance includes four regional partners and two international funders, but the plan is to bring in landowners, municipalities, scientists and other conservation groups as it grows!