Toor Whisky
Giving back.
TOOR Whisky supports the Nuwejaars River Nature Reserve
The NRNR is a not-for-profit company that protects the highly irreplaceable Nuwejaars wetlands and the surrounding habitat and wildlife, much of it Critically Endangered. The Nuwejaars wetlands system is believed to be the largest wetlands system in South Africa connected to the ocean. Their purpose is to protect the wetlands and the interface into one functioning ecosystem, forming an innovative system for conservation on private land. The Nuwejaars River connects to the Ramsar-declared Heuningnes catchment at the De Mond Nature Reserve and buffers the SANParks reserve, the Agulhas National Park.
Large tracts of this valuable habitat is heavily invaded by invasive alien plants. Invasive plants are not only considered one of the biggest threats to our natural vegetation (including our Critically Endangered Elim Ferricrete Fynbos and Overberg Sandstone Fynbos), but they’re also major contributors to climate change. Invasive trees burn hotter and more frequently than indigenous trees, weakening our natural fynbos ecosystems so that they’re less resilient to deal with climate change and support biodiversity. Their weak root systems are also easily uprooted during floods, thereby resulting in the loss of carbon-storing peat that has formed over millenia in our Nuwejaars wetlands.
Biological invasions are among the top drivers of biodiversity loss and species extinctions across the world. A 2016 study published in the journal Biological Letters, showed that IAS are the second most common threat associated with species that have gone completely extinct since 1500. To deal with these challenges, the Nuwejaars Wetlands SMA has joined forces with WWF and the National Lottery Commission. Funding from these organisations has allowed the NWSMA to embark on extensive wetland rehabilitation projects, which involves the removal of alien trees.
The funding from TOOR Whisky will allow the NWSMA to take the rehabilitation to the next level by re-establishing viable populations of indigenous trees, including wild olive, taaibos and milkwood along the Nuwewjaars River and around selected natural wetland.