The Bushmans River Biodiversity Corridor

We Are “Restoring the Roam”

As two of the founding partners in the Bushmans River Biodiversity Corridor, our Directors, Catherine Pruett and Brett Sommermeyer, purchased their nearly 2,000-acre farm “WildRange” to help establish the core area of the Corridor, to catalyze its growth, and to restore the roam.

A Story of Recovery, Resilience, and Hope . . .

An expanding protected landscape born from the vision of a multi-partner initiative, the Corridor will ultimately reconnect fragmented lands stretching from Addo Elephant National Park to the Great Fish River Nature Reserve—a region once freely traversed by elephant, rhino, lion, cheetah, and countless other species. At full scale, the Corridor will encompass more than 800,000 hectares / 2,000,000 acres, restoring connectivity to one of the most important biodiversity landscapes in southern Africa.

. . . To Connectivity

The Corridor partners are reversing the legacy of fragmentation by:

  • Rewilding land and restoring ecological health

  • Removing barriers to wildlife movement

  • Improving security for wildlife and communities

  • Mitigating climate change through soil rehabilitation and improved carbon storage

  • Providing skills training and job placement for local residents

From Fragmentation . . .

For centuries, the Eastern Cape has been segmented and degraded by fencing, farming, and development. These practices:

  • Severely fragmented habitats

  • Restricted wildlife movement and genetic flow

  • Reduced ecosystem function

  • Replaced native flora and fauna

Recognized Nationally and Internationally

The region has been prioritized for conservation by both national and international bodies. The Corridor partners are extremely grateful to South Africa’s Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency for its guidance and oversight in the formal process of attaining Protected Environment status and its recognition of the Corridor’s core area as the ideal habitat for a range of imperiled species and location for the advancement of the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project.

A Global Conservation Priority

The Bushmans River landscape is ecologically extraordinary.  It is:

  • Home to 7 of South Africa’s 9 biomes

  • Situated within the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Biodiversity Hotspot–the second richest floristic region in southern Africa

  • Encompasses two Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs), including the Kenton–Alexandria–Paterson KBA and the Woody Cape Section: Addo KBA.