Fitz News in Africa - Birds & Birding: Bird-friendly farming in highland grasslands

South Africa’s grasslands host five Ramsar wetland sites, more than 3 300 plant species, 15 of the country’s 34 endemic mammals, and 12 of its 40 endemic birds (five of which are Globally Threatened). Sixty per cent of these grasslands have been irreversibly transformed. Moist highland grasslands in South Africa (of which only 1.5 per cent are conserved) were historically maintained naturally by winter and spring fires, probably at intervals of four years or more, and through summer grazing by migratory, medium-sized antelope. Today, these grasslands are managed by livestock farmers, who in most areas burn annually at the beginning of the rainy season in early summer, which coincides with the onset of breeding in birds. More...

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