South Africa - pilot project

Location
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

Partners
A Rocha South Africa
DUCT Dduzi-uMngeni Conservation Trust
Msunduzi Municipality

Offsets
9,000 tonnes CO₂

The Ferncliffe-Tshalanimithi Nature Reserve is a 250 hectare plot owned by the Municipality of Msunduzi near Pietermaritzburg. Over 100 years of timber harvesting have resulted in denuded areas of soil and areas overgrown with exotic species of trees which the Municipality have cleared out. The project will replant 50 hectares with 20,000 trees of 35 Afromontane species native to this environment. The project will source saplings from locally harvested seed, as far as possible, to ensure genetic adaptation to local conditions.

Implementation of our plans for reforestation and grassland restoration will demonstrate that caring for creation at the neighbourhood and local level really does have a global impact.

Without Climate Stewards input it would not be possible to plant at the density that is necessary to achieve ecological succession in the 50 hectares of degraded forest. Natural indigenous succession would be out-competed by virulent re-infestation of exotic vegetation.

This project will enable A Rocha to assist the municipality to foster natural succession, a suppression of invasive vegetation, and a higher net increase in carbon mitigation, than could have been achieved if the municipality undertook the project without A Rocha’s partnership.

Offsetting Your Carbon in Ferncliffe, South Africa:

Donations in South African Rands, equivalent to the amount in Pounds Sterling on the Climate Stewards Carbon Calculator can be deposited in South Africa. For more details go to the A Rocha South Africa website.

April 2008 update 

During a Green Marathon last year the South African team raised enough money to plant 40 trees. They used this opportunity to  trial some planting techniques, which taught them that they need to use taller saplings to outcompete the grasses in the area. The Director of AR South Africa, Allen Goddard, reports that it was a problem to find the trees they had planted because of their concerns about snakes in the undergrowth!