Neethlingshof becomes biodiversity & wine initiative champion
Neethlingshof is the 23rd winery to become a Biodiversity & Wine Initiative (BWI) Champion, having implemented an extensive biodiversity and conservation programme for several years. Developed by master viticulturist Prof Eben Archer, who was commissioned to re-plan and replant all the vineyards on the farm, the programme is now overseen and executed by winemaker De Wet Viljoen.
View from Neethlingshof vineyards over Jamestown and surrounding mountains.
To achieve a better balance between planted areas and natural veld, 116 ha or 42% of the farm has been set aside for conservation. In reconfiguring the layout of the farm, Prof Archer allowed for islands of indigenous vegetation between the new vineyard blocks connected by corridors.
What no one foresaw was that these interconnected 'islands' would create an explosion in the number of mice foraging on the root systems of the vines. To resolve the situation, efforts were introduced to attract owls by erecting vantage posts in all the vineyards for the owls to perch on while hunting at night. Given the abundance of food, owls soon established themselves in numbers in densely wooded areas on the farm.
Because of the environmentally friendly farming practices, the number of beneficial insects also started to multiply and so did the amount of guinea fowl, for which they are a natural food source, thereby controlling the quantity of insects. The presence of the guinea fowl in turn attracted caracal from the hills of the adjoining conservancy. First spotted in 2008, they have moved into undisturbed wooded areas on the farm where they found safe breeding areas.
A plan to clear invasive alien trees was introduced in 2003 already as part of the programme introduced by the Bottelary Hills Renosterveld Conservancy (BHRC). To date 15 hectares have been returned to natural veld.
