The Mountain Sylph butterfly is confined to high-altitude grasslands and loves wetland environments—it’s almost as if Verloren Valei was designed for it. By Justin Bode Metisella aegipan aegipan, Mountain sylph or Berg-walsertjie has a scattered distribution in the high-altitude montane … Read more
By Hailemariam Desalegn, Mike du Toit and Greg Mills Reprinted from Daily Maverick by kind permission of the authors. Read the original article or visit the website of The Brenthurst Foundation. Africa has been at the receiving end of the … Read more
This is a relatively old article but it is of interest to Friends of Verloren Valei, not least because it shows how important it is to protect the wetlands on the reserve, and also more broadly across the country. Once … Read more
Gaathier Mahed, Nelson Mandela University The world’s freshwater supplies are at risk. This is a threat to all life on the planet. It’s therefore no surprise that water purification has turned into a multibillion dollar global business. The World Bank … Read more
World Environment Day is the biggest, most celebrated day for positive environmental action and it is held each year on June 5 to focus the world’s attention on a pressing environmental issue. This year’s focus on biodiversity highlights the important … Read more
The Gaudy Commodore has two seasonal forms so distinct they look like members of separate species. The Gaudy Commodore (Precis octavia) is widespread in the Afrotropical region; the local subspecies, the Eastern Gaudy Commodore (Precis octavia sesamus) is found in … Read more
Colin Beale, University of York Catastrophic fires in the Amazon rainforest made global headlines, but since then NASA has noted that right now there are actually many more fires in parts of Africa than in Brazil. This has led some … Read more
Hannes Marais, the Wetland Scientist in Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency’s Aquatic Unit reports back on last year’s Indaba held in Limpopo. The National Wetlands Indaba (NWI) is an annual event that has been held since 1996. It started when … Read more
Mpumalanga is the only province in the country, and one of the few in the world, to celebrate its grasslands. Mpumalanga is to a large extent a grassland and wetland province and our grasslands and wetlands are two of our … Read more
We shouldn’t assume everybody knows what “biodiversity” and “wetlands” actually are, writes Glen Ramke, Endangered Wildlife Trust–Africa Crane Conservation Programme. Recently two minor surprises which were wake-up calls. Both comments came from people I had expected to know these things. … Read more
