World Habitat Day – Preserving ‘Home’
World Habitat Day – the 5th day of October 2020 – is recognised each year on the first Monday of October. It is designated to reflect on the state of towns and cities and the rights for all to have adequate shelter.
Habitat: The space we occupy
We often forget that we share our spaces with those who were here before us. In our quest to improve technologies and develop the places that we call home, we have blindly expanded at the expense of the natural world. Growth and development is part of the human essence, but without nature, in its purest form, we will have nothing to share our habitat with.
Having historically over-exploited the environment and its open spaces for ourselves, the need to conserve all remaining natural habitats is now more important than ever.
Our habitat, the place we call ‘home’, Makweti Safari Lodge falls within the Welgevonden Game Reserve in the Waterberg Region of the Limpopo Province, South Africa. This Game Reserve forms part of the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve, which predominantly consists of vegetation known as Savannah Bushveld.
A Unique African Safari
This unique Biosphere Reserve is dominated by different bushveld types characteristic of mountainous savannah. The Welgevonden Game Reserve landscape is predominantly occupied by Sourveld Bushveld and Mixed Bushveld, and falls within the core region of this vast 654 000ha Biosphere Reserve. Providing the backdrop for truly unique African Safari, the Biosphere Reserve is home to an astounding 5500 species of plants, of which 43% are endemic to Southern Africa. It represents a considerable area of the Savannah Biome in Southern Africa and is the only UNESCO-recognised Savannah Biosphere Reserve in the World.
On the reserve, we share our habitat with many other species. This shelter is as special for us as it is for our wildlife, and so we hold it dearly in our hands, preserving it and its inhabitants for future generations. It is a right for all those who call it ‘home’.
We look forward to sharing our habitat with you.
Content and Images by:
Neil Davison (General Manager, Makweti Safari Lodge)