Vhembe Tree Guardians
The Herd Reserve protects a fragment of achingly beautiful Lowveld Riverine Forest found on the banks of the Limpopo River (Vhembe in Tshivenda), which forms the northern boundary of the reserve.
Even within the bounds of the nature sanctuary, however, much of this fringing forest has been lost or damaged – but not irreversibly.
Our Limpopo Riverine Restoration programme is successfully reversing the damage caused by years of neglect, exploitation and predation.
We need your help.
Lowveld Riverine Forest Conservation Status:
Critically endangered
Conservation Target – 100%
Limpopo’s Fringing Forest
As the rugged landscape of the Limpopo Ridge Bushveld gives way to the flat alluvial terraces that form along the banks of the rivers that drain it, the vegetation changes dramatically.
Along the dry river courses that wend through shallow depressions, the baobab and mopane shrubveld is supplanted by soaring Cathedral Mopane Bushveld. Riverine Bush Thickets and other Sub-Tropical Alluvial Vegetation grow in the deep fine soils beside the Nzhelele River, and along the Limpopo River, years of sediment deposits have created a rich habitat complex where a true gallery forest of protected musuma (jackal berry) and sycamore fig trees grows tall and dense.
From a distance, it appears as a finger of Eden being traced through the vast and arid savanna.
Wanna sound clever?
Read our crib notes on the South African National Ecosystem Classification System”
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Excerpt from the South African National Ecosystem Classification System handbook
Under South Africa’s National Ecosystem Classification System, Lowveld Riverine Forest is a vegetation type classified as Azonal Forest (FOa 1) that occurs in the alluvia of the larger rivers in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo Provinces embedded within the savanna biome.
Vegetation and Landscape Features: Tall forests fringing larger rivers (gallery forests) and water pans.
Distribution: Broad river alluvia of Zululand (Hluhluwe, middle reaches of Phongolo) and Maputaland (Mkuze, lower reaches of Phongolo, Usutu) in KZN and many rivers draining the northern provinces of South Africa (Limpopo, Luvuvhu, Shingwedzi, Letaba, Olifants, Timbavati, Sabie, Crocodile) at low altitudes of between 20 to 320m.
Geology, Soils, Hydrology: Recent alluvial sediment deposits with deep fine textured soils. Subject to frequent flooding and occasionally to heavy flood spells.
Conservation Status: Critically endangered. Target 100%
Half statutorily conserved within the protected areas network, an unknown portion has been lost – irreversibly transformed by clearing for cultivation.
Threats: Serious alien invasion in places, agricultural malpractices upstream, building of dams, excessive water abstraction for agriculture and mining, as well as local exploitation for timber and other forest products are serious threats to this vegetation.
Historical damage and ongoing threats
An unknown proportion of Lowveld Riverine Forest has been lost and it remains under severe threat.
The riverine forest along the Herd Reserve’s northern boundary has succumbed in places to the multiple depredations described above, aggravated by grossly insensitive clearance for the border fence in past decades, heavy grazing and trampling by cattle (usually driven across the Limpopo River in the dry months by Zimbabwean cattle herds seeking pasture) and increasingly frequent and more severe flood events.
The Herd’s Riverine Restoration Programme
Arresting and reversing the degradation seems daunting, but the success of our pilot project is encouraging. Nature is surprisingly resilient!
How to grow a forest
Initial phase
The initial phase of our Limpopo Riverine Restoration Programme involves just two simple interventions – fencing the designated Disturbed Area site and planting saplings of selected native species grown in our nurseries under strict conditions.
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Yes, both actions are highly controversial, we know! In our preliminary risk assessment, the benefits were deemed to outweigh the costs – and the positive results of our initial trial suggest that this method of jump-starting recovery works:
The soil substrate and overall conditions are proving sufficiently favourable to support the rapid regeneration of tree cover in these isolated sites denuded relatively recently by unnatural disturbances.
The experiment shows that the fragmentation of the Limpopo Riverine Forest can be undone. And the project is highly scalable…
Roll-out – Conservation-focussed, Community-driven
It takes patience and toil
Restoration of forest eco-systems is slow and laborious. It is low-tech, labour-intensive and takes a native knowledge and understanding of living systems. In other words, a perfect fit for both us and the community which lives in the surrounding area…
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As much as Lowveld Riverine Forest is embedded in the wider savanna biome, a nature reserve is part of a wider community. The Herd Reserve is located adjacent to the land belonging to the Mapakoni Community Property Association (who won rights to their land in one of the earliest cases of land restitution in South Africa).
The Tshivenda and Tsistonga-speaking people of northern Limpopo remain deeply connected to la Mupo, a Tshivenda word meaning all of nature and creation. Indigenous Knowledge Systems and practices utilising renewable natural resources form a part of daily life in the Vhembe region. The Mapakoni community depends on the surrounding bushveld and forest for firewood, wild-harvested plants and edible insects, such the nutritious and delicious mopane worm, for food and traditional herbal muthi or maine medicine, and for grazing. However, the community remains poor and in the absence of proper land management, they are contributing to over-exploitation of these natural resources and degradation of the land. Deforestation and ecosystem breakdown ultimately threatens the livelihoods, wellbeing, food, water and energy security of vulnerable rural communities like the Mapakoni.
They can be part of the solution.
The Vhembe Tree Guardians Programme
The Herd Reserve’s Vhembe Tree Guardians Programme in partnership with the Mapakoni community
The Vhembe Tree Guardians programme enables women living in the neighbouring Mapakoni community to participate in the restoration of the riverine, earning an income from nurturing saplings grown from seed in our nurseries until they are ready for planting. The programme relies on funding and support.
Please consider making a donation. Every cent goes towards a project that represents a beautiful symbiosis of people and planet – enhancing biodiversity conservation, soil fertility, climate change resilience, sustainable growth and upliftment of rural communities.
Plus you can point to a tree on the banks of the great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River and say, “That’s mine!”. Someday your grandchildren can swing on its branches.
Calling all tree-huggers – Sponsor a Vhembe Tree Guardian.
The Herd Reserve is a registered non-profit company #2022/298747/08 and a non-profit organisation #288-133-NPO certified by the Department of Social Development. All funds raised support the conservation mandate of the declared protected area.