There are many recipes that are believed to be the best for Green efforts and Nature Conservation. Many books abound, with ideas ranging from absolutely fantastic to some which are totally obscure. Central to almost all these beliefs and recipes is an attempt to make money or cover up the terrible persecution by mankind of the environment. The loss of biodiversity and biomass is a secondary effect to the main cause, loss of environment.
A group of people purchased a piece of land 34 years ago to establish a Nature Reserve. There was not a lot of money, so the quality of the land was extremely poor. Early settlers had wiped out the flora and flora in a continuous effort to exploit the land for their own gain to such an extent that the land was only fit for goat farming. Due to the poor vegetation cover, not only soil erosion abounded but the temperatures were extreme.
Summer temperatures exceeded 40 degrees and winter temperatures dropped well below zero degrees. This was quite an achievement for only 200 years of effort.
Nature does what it does best, recover and survive! The secret to the success of any preserve is a good protection strategy and time to mature. By taking into consideration that the recovery process by nature will happen as long as we stop playing god and we continue to realize that this preserve is for Nature, we do have a place in it all, however in far fewer numbers than we are now.
34 Years later there is now a Nature Reserve called MHLOPENI with isolated areas of soil erosion and it is blanketed with vegetation that has moderated the temperatures by some four degrees off the top summer and bottom winter temperatures. Plant progression cycles are well on their way and the game has returned in balanced numbers.
The recipe of this preserve is simple, Nature uses a different currency to humanity, and flora and fauna exist where conditions are right for them and they don’t know their names. We only look after the land for a short while, so while we are around we should only take what we really need from nature so there is more growth than off take. Nature will then be MOTHER NATURE again and do the rest.