Dr Bruce McKenzie, Su Birch, Johan du Preez and Dr Johan van Rooyen |
| |
 |
| Wine Tasting Room |
 |
| Breede River |
|
|
| Conservation: Rooiberg shows the way |
| 02 December 2005 by Robertson Wine Valley |
|
| Rooiberg Winery has become the first wine producer in the Robertson Wine Valley (and the first co-operative winery in South Africa) to contribute to sustainable wine production by embracing the principles and qualifying as a member of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative (BWI). |
|
The wine industry, CapeNature and the Botanical Society of SA recently launched the ambitious BWI project to safeguard the natural areas on or near vineyards.
Last week Rooiberg Winery made history by achieving membership status.
The award to Rooiberg was made at a gala function in Stellenbosch by Dr. Bruce McKenzie of the SA Botanical Society.?This partnership between the wine industry and conservation bodies is very exciting. And it is just the beginning! We hope that increasing numbers of wine producers will come forward to help us save our natural areas?, he said.
The CEO of Rooiberg Winery, Mr. Johan du Preez, noted that healthy ecosystems contributed significantly to sustainable wine production.?We want to work in harmony with nature as far as possible and we are quietly proud of what has already been achieved?.
Eight farms were selected for the Rooiberg project, representing approx. 65% of the total area of all farms belonging to the Winery. Some 6343 hectares or 57.3% of the total area were then identified as areas with natural vegetation. These are areas that have not been ploughed, wetlands, rivers and mountain regions.
The Breede River valley between Worcester and Ashton provides a remarkable meeting place for the floras of the Karoo, renosterveld and fynbos. The number of plant species found here is exceptionally high and cannot be matched anywhere in the world for a comparable dry area of the same size.
No less than 43 plants grow in this valley only and of those 83% have Red Data (highly threatened) status).
Preliminary analyses of flora, fauna and avian species were made and due regard was given to both the occurrence and the protection of highly threatened species. One such species is a 15cm long fish, Burchell?s Redfin, found in the deeper pools of the upper Noree River in the Vinkrivier area.
The state of natural vegetation and possible threats to ecosystems were also investigated in the Rooiberg project. Considerable emphasis was placed in meetings with farmers on the promotion of formal conservation status for such areas and the subsequent development of Conservation Management Plans.
The removal of alien plants was accorded a high priority and attention was also given to general land management on farms, in particular the prevention and rehabilitation of soil erosion.
It was hugely encouraging that seven of the farmers have already started negotiations to gain formal conservation status for the natural areas on their farms.
The initiative at Rooiberg Winery was conducted by Dr. Johan van Zijl, a conservationist from McGregor. |
| |
|
| This article has been read 1821 times. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The article above is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License
You may copy, re-use or re-print any of this information as long as wine.co.za is quoted as source.
Any statements made or opinions expressed are the legal responsibility of the AUTHOR,
and do not necessarily reflect the views of WineNet (PTY) Ltd. or its sponsors.
7732
|
|
|
send to a friend
print to pdf
subscribe 
rss feeds
looking for something else?
wine.co.za site statistics