Habitat Expansion

"It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth." -  Sir David Attenborough

The Kariega Foundation in partnership with Kariega Game Reserve are aligned with the global focus of bringing back earth’s natural biodiversity. The United Nations is urging governments around the world to bring biodiversity back by protecting and re-wilding a billion hectares of degraded land in the next ten years.

This mass re-wilding is more complex than simply planting trees and it involves everyone from governments to businesses and ordinary people. Re-wilding is the restoration of ecosystem function and includes things like changing the way we farm to restore soil health, restoring nature to urban areas, protecting marine environments and reclaiming, restoring and protecting habitats for wild animals.

Kariega Game Reserve is proud of our pioneering conservation history, which has orchestrated the joining and rewinding of twenty-one different farms to create our  11, 500 hectare, Big 5, protected wilderness.

Our current focus in on habitat expansion in the Bushmans River Valley where we are incorporating an additional 1, 500 hectares of habitat into Kariega Game Reserve with significant conservation benefits that ensure the protection of approximately 18 kilometres of tidal river estuary, range expansion and additional carrying capacity for elephant, white and black rhino, as well the opportunity for the reintroduction of additional apex predators such as critically endangered cheetah.

Securing this critical piece of land for conservation also creates the opportunity for the creation of connected wildlife corridors within the Eastern Cape over time.

Habitat Expansion Project Phase 1:

Incorporating new habitat into a protected area is complicated and costly and requires careful planning and implementation. Phase 1 of the Bushmans River Habitat Expansion project is due to be completed by 1 October 2022 and includes the following:

• Erecting a new fence line
• Upgrading an existing fence line
• Removing an internal fence line
• Creation of entrance gates and road networks
• Translocation, dehorning and implanting tracking devices in a crash of white rhino
• Introduction and collaring of a  pair of cheetah 
• Installing a surveillance camera network
• Expanding APU capacity 

Habitat Expansion Project Phase 2:

We aim to complete Phase 2 of the Bushmans River Habitat Expansion project by October 2023. This phase includes the following goals:

• Upgrade of additional perimeter fence lines
• Introduction of a second pride of lion
• Removal of a large section of internal fencing
• Qualification for Black Rhino breeding programme
• Further expansion of APU capacity
• Expansion of community projects to the Alexandria community

How can you Support this Project?

• Donate funds to Save The Rhino
• Contact the Kariega Foundation to share collaborative ideas or contributions to habitat expansion in the Eastern Cape.