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A free app turns curiosity and exploration into scientific data. Used with care, it is one of the best tools we have for studying biodiversity - but how do we record nature while also protecting it?  For 147 years, a small geometrid moth, Veteran South African iNaturalist users acknowledge that poachers have used the platform…

State of Conservation Report, covering the 2025/26 reporting period (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). Mandated under the Western Cape Biodiversity Act, the report tracks the status of species and ecosystems across the province and will feed into the next five-yearly State of Biodiversity Report, due in 2028. Its headline message is one of…

Why the health of ecosystems is the health of people We tend to think of environmental health as a matter of what goes wrong: infected water, uncollected waste, polluted air or - perish the thought - radioactive contamination. Rather than focusing only on environmental perils: on Ecosystems, by contrast, work as infrastructure. Mangroves buffer storm…

Hunting can contribute money to conservation - but does that make hunting itself conservation? According to American actor and filmmaker Alan Alda, “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” The familiar narrative stating that ‘hunting is a form of conservation’…

People across South Africa urged to join the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest citizen-science biodiversity survey  Still Bay, Western Cape - What if anyone could help scientists build a living map of nature simply by taking photographs with their phones? That is the idea behind the The importance of this data is not merely theoretical. iNaturalist information…

Every year, billions of birds take to the air. They cross countries, continents and oceans, following ancient migration routes between breeding grounds, feeding areas and wintering sites. Some travel thousands of kilometres, navigating an intricate network of wetlands, coastlines, grasslands, forests and other habitats along the way. Their journeys are one of nature’s great spectacles,…

Conversations with women leading conservation in the Western Cape - protecting our natural heritage and refusing to give up on nature.  Women's Month is an opportunity to celebrate those whose work quietly shapes the future of South Africa. While the contributions of women are often recognised in boardrooms, hospitals and classrooms, many are also working…

Wild Rescue nature reserve launches ‘Wild Classroom’ education programme to reconnect Hessequa schoolchildren with nature STILL BAY, WESTERN CAPE - What if some of the most important lessons children could learn happen in the outdoors? That is the question behind Wild Classroom, a new environmental education programme launched by “Children can learn about an ecosystem…

A conversation with 2026 Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant finalist Dr. Gabriel Akoko Juma Water does not recognise the boundaries we have drawn on maps. Rain falling hundreds of kilometres inland eventually shapes ecosystems far downstream. Every river is an artery connecting the landscapes it crosses, to the ocean beyond. It carries with it the…

This September, Wild Rescue is inviting the public to explore the remarkable flora and fauna on our Southern Cape doorstep STILL BAY - September is Biodiversity Month, an annual opportunity to delight in the extraordinary variety of life on Earth while highlighting the urgent need to protect the ecosystems on which we all depend. At…