It will act as a much-needed buffer zone for the Seekoeivlei Nature Reserve.

Birdlife SA reports that the conservancy follows an agreement between the Free State Department of Tourism, World Wildlife Forum SA, Birdlife SA, and eleven landowners.

The Department says the purpose of the declaration of Sneeuwberg Protected Environment is to regulate the area as a buffer zone for the protection and conservation of Seekoeivlei Nature Reserve. It enables landowners to take collective action to protect unique and threatened grasslands, wetlands, and the associated animals and to ensure that “ecosystem services” derived from the area (such as water production) are sustained. 

The latest conservancy in the Free State puts the total land under conservation to 407 865 hectares, a step closer to the target of 1.2 million hectares.

Statement supplied; rewritten by OFM News' André Grobler