Three conservation trusts have together purchased an area of a severely threatened vegetation type found in the Overberg region of South Africa’s Western Cape province. Known as the renosterveld, this unique habitat characterized by shrubs and grasses is also a breeding ground for endangered black harriers, the three groups announced in a joint press release. The Overberg Renosterveld Trust (ORT) partnered with the U.K.-based World Land Trust (WLT) and the Mapula Trust to buy the 270-hectare (667-acre) property called Goereesoe. The site is part of the Eastern Rûens Shale Renosterveld, an ecosystem considered to be critically endangered. The renosterveld used to cover a large part of the Overberg region, but now only 5% remains, due to land conversion for agriculture, ORT said. “This is a significant win for renosterveld and the Black Harrier,” Odette Curtis-Scott, CEO of the Overberg Renosterveld Trust, said in the release. “By securing this land, we are protecting critical habitat and species whose futures are teetering on a knife edge.” The black harrier (Circus maurus), found mostly in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, has fewer than 500 breeding pairs left in the wild. Goereesoe, along with the neighboring Haarwegskloof Renosterveld Reserve and another property called Plaatjieskraal — all managed by the ORT and known collectively as the Haarwegskloof Cluster — together support around 30 pairs of breeding black harriers, or 6% of the global population, ORT said. ORT added that securing Goereesoe will help researchers track movements of black harriers, which have been impacted by wind…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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