Guardians of the Karoo Rangelands

“This is where livestock, farms and people intersect with wild places and creatures.”

Think Prairies. Think Steppes. Think Australian Outback. Think Great Plains, Pampas, Grasslands and Savannah. Think Karoo and Kalahari. In other words, consider all the places that South Africans might conceivably call veld.

These are the rangelands of the world, covering more than half the Earth's dry surface. This is where livestock, farms and people intersect with wild places and creatures.

These are areas that are critically important in terms of food security, biodiversity, carbon capture and water storage.

According to the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), rangelands cover around 70% of South Africa's surface and are essential for producing affordable food. The ARC's Rangeland Ecologist, Dr Igshaan Samuels, reports that South Africa's veld is forage for 13 million cattle, 20 million sheep, 2 million goats and at least 40 species of game animals.

Holistic management or regenerative agriculture helps revitalise soils, capture carbon, increase food security and store water.

KAROO BUCKS THE TREND

As with the rest of the world, South Africa's rangelands have been degrading, eroding and quietly unravelling as topsoils wash away and grasses thin out. The experts call it desertification. For decades, it was thought to be a process that could not easily be reversed.

But there are a few areas in the world bucking the trend, and one of them is in the Karoo. Regenerative land management seems to have sunk its first and strongest roots in southern Africa, more specifically, in a few dozen farms around Graaff-Reinet.

Here, bare earth that was once crusted and impenetrable to seed and water is steadily being covered with vegetation, the soil soft, carbon-rich and moist. Climax grasses that haven't been seen in decades are popping up, along with vleis and springs of good clear water.

All this in the midst of the worst drought in living memory.

Graaff-Reinet is also where the world’s first Herding Academy was founded