'Farming' livestock, rooibos — and tortoises

Nelmarie and Herman Nel, who live in the arid Karoo, blend conservation with farming to protect the speckled dwarf tortoise

- Sheree Bega

In a win for biodiversity, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has registered its first conservation servitude to safeguard the endangered speckled dwarf tortoise, the world’s smallest of the species.

The Lokenburg conservation servitude, concluded with landowners Nelmarie and Herman Nel, who farm sheep, cattle and rooibos tea on their 4 500 hectares in the Nieuwoudtville district of the Northern Cape, ensures permanent protection of tortoise habitat.

A conservation servitude is a legally binding agreement that protects land for conservation, permanently. This model blends farming and conservation, “proving that biodiversity and livelihoods can thrive together”, the EWT said of the farm that has been occupied by the same family for six generations.

The speckled dwarf tortoise, measuring just 6cm to 10cm, occurs only in scattered remnant patches of habitat from the West Coast inland to Namaqualand. Their survival is precarious: they mature slowly, females lay only one to two eggs after many years, and hatchlings are vulnerable to predators such as pied crows.

“We are working in quite large areas with various tortoise species and we want to conserve the environment in which they are found,” said Zanné Brink, the drylands conservation programme manager at the EWT. “It is important to get landowners involved in the process and to be the stewards for the species, and all the associated biodiversity on the properties.”