Project WildRange

Restoring the Roam

Our founders, Catherine Pruett and Brett Sommermeyer, launched Project WildRange in 2023, purchasing and committing a nearly 2,000-acre farm “WildRange” to help establish and catalyze the multi-partner Bushmans River Biodiversity Corridor in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

Building on this foundation, Law of the Wild has expanded Project WildRange, working with Corridor partners—including local communities and conservation allies—to effectively reconnect fragmented habitats, restore ecosystem function, and rejuvenate a landscape allowing wildlife to roam freely. We call it “Restoring 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 millions of hectares, restoring connectivity to one of the most important biodiversity landscapes in southern Africa.

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

To Connectivity

Together, we are reversing the legacy of fragmentation by:

  • Rewilding land and restoring ecological health

  • Removing barriers to wildlife movement

  • Mitigating climate change through soil rehabilitation and improved carbon storage

  • Uplifting and securing healthy futures for local communities

In Tandem With Communities

We developed Project WildRange with local community priorities in mind. As part of the Bushmans River Biodiversity Corridor initiative, we support career training and are creating jobs to help reduce poverty—ensuring conservation benefits reach the people living alongside these landscapes, while preserving cultural heritage and minimizing human-wildlife conflict.

Our commitment helps alleviate the recent and severe global cutbacks in social program funding, by empowering local people with the skills, income, and opportunities needed to access health care, education, and other essential services.

Recognized Nationally and Internationally

The region has been prioritized for conservation by both national and international bodies. We are very 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.

We're in the midst of the sixth great extinction... the more we can do to restore nature and protect existing forests, the better.

Dr. Jane Goodall.

A Global Conservation Priority

The Bushmans River Biodiversity Corridor 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.