Western Cape, South Africa
#00266
Implements
#00349 Secure and effectively manage remaining key habitats
Implementer
South Africa Tortoise Conservation Trust, Turtle Conservancy and Rainforest Trust
Location
Description
The partners established the Geometric Tortoise Preserve in 2015 to secure a large remaining population and its renosterveld habitat. Rainforest Trust reports that the preserve now covers 898 acres and was created to safeguard about 80% of the species population. Management includes land protection and fire-risk work.
The deployment is recorded as partial because substantial habitat has been secured, but the species remains Critically Endangered and publicly available evidence does not yet establish long-term population recovery attributable to the preserve. The coordinates identify only the Western Cape region and deliberately do not expose a sensitive wildlife site.
Metrics
2Lessons learned
- Securing the site that holds most of a species can protect a large share of the remaining population, but it also concentrates risk in one landscape.
- Land protection requires continuing fire, habitat and population management rather than a one-time acquisition.
- Threatened-species reporting should distinguish protected area from independently measured population recovery.
Sources
2