Zevenwacht Wine Estate earns WWF Conservation Champion status

STELLENBOSCH – Zevenwacht Wine Estate, a founding member of the Bottelary Hills Renosterveld Conservancy (BHRC), was recently awarded WWF Conservation Champion status.

The estate signed a five-year conservation agreement to solidify its commitment to continued stewardship efforts.

BHRC public liaison, Christel Liebenberg, said it is no small feat to be awarded WWF (World Wildlife Fund for Nature) Conservation Championship Status.

“The farm and cellar had to achieve a minimum of 70% in their IPW (Integrated Production of Wine) official audit. Strong emphasis is placed on biodiversity, water and energy preservation, and conservation.

”Efficient use of irrigation systems, water recycling, protection of water resources, the use of renewable energy, and energy-efficient technologies must be incorporated in the annual plan of operation that WWF reviews each year.”

Zevenwacht owner, Denise Johnson, said her late husband, Harold Johnson, was a visionary. When Harold bought Zevenwacht in 1992, the same year the BHRC was founded, it was “reasonably dilapidated, closed to the public – just a private farm with no facilities.”

Harold wanted to attract people to the farm and began development.

Johnson said that after Harold’s passing in April, the family, together with the staff, had taken over. They are committed to following in Harold’s footsteps. “Our goal has always been to strive to improve the land and to do what is best for the land and the people.”

Renosterveld

“We have lots of pockets all over the farm and probably have in excess of 100 hectares of conservancy. Over the years, we’ve been involved in alien clearing and doing little bits to preserve the flora and the beautiful animals. We have caracal, buck, porcupines, tortoises – that’s always been the norm for us, and that’s why we are even more excited to be a member or a conservation champion, because it’s also prompted us and pushed us to do more,” Johnson said.

More than 80 hectares of the farm consist of natural veld, mostly made up of critically endangered Swartland Granite Renosterveld.

Zevenwacht has solar panels on their cellar roof and workshop, uses mulch in their vineyards, and support the BHRC in their conservation efforts, including snare patrols and as a donor site to the Renosterveld rewilding project.

“Lynda (Muller) from Discover Renosterveld comes to collect cuttings to propagate plants for rewilding. We have snare patrols thanks to the Cape Leopard Trust – one of the challenges is illegal harvesting.

“We are making efforts to protect and manage the environment,” Johnson said.

The farm is part of the 130 km BHRC mountain bike trail network and also has a hiking trail – a section of which is dog-friendly.

Champions

Development and agricultural expansion have always been a threat to conservation, said Dwayne Brecht, extension officer for the WWF Conservation Champions Programme.

He explained the programme started in 2004 (under the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative) with the objective of working with the wine industry to introduce environmental management plans and to collaborate with landowners. In 2016, the focus shifted.

“We are working more with what we consider environmental leaders — farms that are doing more than just the average.”

The criteria that farms need to adhere to are currently under revision, as the WWF has developed a new strategy for the next five years. “But in Zevenwacht’s case, they do adhere to all of the criteria to be a champion.”

There are three principles at the core of the programme that farmers follow to aid conservation: protect, manage, and restore.

“In terms of protection, each farm signs a stewardship agreement with us, either five or ten years. That’s a landowner contract where the farm sets aside a portion of land that they will protect for that period. It’s a smaller agreement compared to CapeNature or SANParks. We need systems that suit each landowner’s needs. Some farms prefer this system,” Brecht said.

“We also develop an environmental management plan or conservation action plan. We sit with our partners, like BHRC, and have meetings with the landowners. We identify target areas that we can improve on, and we capture it in a document that is reviewed annually.”

Footprint

The programme’s current footprint is about 45 000 hectares of farmland, of which 25 000 hectares is conserved under these agreements. “Each property will have different vegetation types that we are conserving. In Zevenwacht’s case, it’s Boland Granite Fynbos and Swartland Granite Renosterveld — both of which are critically endangered or endangered,” Brecht said.

Management is about farming “nature positive” and introducing regenerative agriculture practices to save water and reduce dependency on chemicals.

Restoration includes alien clearing and rewilding.

“Through land use change, we can add greater pockets of natural veld,” Brecht said.

Brecht noted that, thanks to funders like the Table Mountain Fund, the programme can reimburse member farms for small projects.

“Another way we support our farms is through consumer engagement. We help them with marketing.” This includes a sticker with the programme’s logo (a sugarbird on a protea) that goes on the WWF Conservation Champions farms’ wine bottles.