South Africa's first Richtersveld Desert Botanical Garden opened in August. It aims to become a living bank of endangered plant species in the region. (All photos by Ashraf Hendricks)
The new botanical garden in Senderingsdrif is a living repository of the rich succulent plants endemic to South Africa's Richtersveld.
Many succulents are at risk of extinction due to poaching, mining, climate change, and overgrazing. This garden is a ray of hope as these plants are rapidly declining.
The Richtersfeld Desert Botanical Garden, which opened in August of this year, is the country's first desert biome botanical garden.
Located in the A.I. Richtersveld Transfrontier Park on the border between South Africa and Namibia, the garden is a partnership between South African National Parks (SANParks) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) .
The gardens have been under construction for several years. In 2014, the small border town of Senderingsdrif nearly became a ghost town after several nearby mines closed. SANParks staff aimed to renovate the town, said Peter van Wyk, nursery and botanical curator at the botanical garden.
Van Wyk, a self-taught botanist, was researching the region's plant populations when he noticed that many species were becoming extinct.
“We quickly realized that we had a serious problem in Richtersveld, but that was before the poaching. Once the poaching started, it escalated,” Van Wyk said. He said there were more than 400 species that could become extinct in 2021 without intervention.
Mr Van Wyk said the purpose of the garden was to create a living bank of these plant species that are currently under threat. “Thanks to this facility, we already have so many species alive that otherwise would have become extinct,” he said.
The Botanical Garden is home to the Conophytum House, which displays hundreds of small succulents, many of which are red-listed due to black market demand.
“Poaching has become so extreme that even if these species become extinct in the wild, at least we have a back-up plan to reintroduce them,” Van Wyk said.
Despite its desert location, the garden is rich in unique flora, including thousands of endemic species found in this biome. Some plants are single habitat species. Some may have become extinct in the wild in recent years due to human activities.
The garden is open to the public and includes facilities for storing plants rescued from poaching, plants rescued from mining sites, and a nursery that sells native plants. There is also Nama Kraal, an educational center for the local community.
Mr Van Wyk said that when the poaching crisis broke out in 2019, the country was quickly flooded with poached goods.
From 2019 to date, SANBI has received over 1 million plants confiscated by law enforcement agencies. However, this figure represents only about a quarter of the plants collected from the wild and intercepted by law enforcement, said SANBI spokesperson Nontsikelelo Mpulo.
The plants will be kept in police custody until legal formalities are completed, “and then transferred to state ownership through agencies such as Cape Nature and the Northern Cape Department of Agriculture, Environment, Rural Development and Land Reform (DAERL).” said Mpro. .
The poaching crisis has since improved, which SANBI attributes to cooperative efforts between provinces and “tougher sentences,” particularly in the Northern Cape. About 200,000 plants were seized last year, but only about 30,000 plants have been seized so far this year.
Mpulo added that SANBI's focus is on “developing conservation collections so that botanical gardens across South Africa and around the world can house and preserve these unique specimens for future generations.” .
Eventually, it is hoped that some of these plants will be reintroduced into Richtersfeld's natural habitat. “Some species are ecologically important,” Van Wyk said.
However, there are some places where this is not actually possible due to habitat destruction, such as mines. “We need to protect this…this is part of our natural heritage,” he said.
This article was first published by GroundUp.
