What is rewilding?

Rewilding is a large scale process of resorting and connecting core wilderness areas to create stable, self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems with little to no human intervention or management. This is done by connecting areas with wildlife bridges over roads and highways so natural migration paths are preserved as well as protecting drivers. Another aspect of rewilding is introducing apex predators.

Local game reserve, Samara, has a vision to rewild the entire Great Karoo. At the end of 2018, they reintroduced two lions into the game reserve - a male and female. Lions last roamed the Great Karoo 180 years ago before being hunted to extinction. In a recent blog post, they announced that the rewilding with the lions was a success as three healthy cubs had been born.

In January this year, two captive born cheetahs from Kent, UK, were rewilded in the Great Karoo. It was the first time hand reared cheetah from the UK were rewilded in Africa, South Africa in this case.

Good Hope Volunteers has a number of conservation projects that work directly with wild or rehabilitated animals. Our Game Reserve Conservation project is situated in the middle of four game reserves along the Garden Route, South Africa. The core aim of this project is to return the land to its natural state and ensure a self-sustaining, functional ecosystem through rehabilitating agricultural land and developing a long term self-sustaining natural environment while creating community awareness and expanding the existing reserve to continue their successful free roaming cheetah research.

Yours,
The Good Hope Volunteer Team

To be part of our amazing volunteer community, please contact us.