TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain below, the sun rising behind. In the distance, wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) hunt in the veld, verdant after early rains. And nearby, white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) graze among thorny thickets. These species, and dozens more, persist here thanks to a decades-long effort to rewild a sliver of Southern Africa’s great desert and dry savanna. The Tswalu Kalahari Reserve has become a sanctuary for rare and threatened animals, drawing in a steady stream of well-heeled tourists from around the globe. More recently, the reserve’s managers have embarked on a quest to increase the carbon stored in its soils — a quest that relies heavily on the reserve’s animals. At first glance, places like Tswalu might not seem suited for stockpiling carbon. The Tswana people call this part of the world Kgalagadi — “the waterless place.” Fickle precipitation in the Kalahari averages a scant 10-50 centimeters (4-20 inches) annually, and much less in some years. That means the comparative lushness here in late 2025 could evaporate if the rains don’t carry on throughout the austral summer of the Southern Hemisphere. To date, most nature-based carbon storage efforts have focused on fast-growing tropical forests, expanding native or plantation tree cover that draws carbon out of the atmosphere. Soil carbon, by contrast, is slower to accumulate, and it’s more laborious and expensive to monitor.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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https://www.thecommonsense.co.za/polls

Again beating New Zealand

• A rapid analysis of heavy floods that occurred between December 2025 and January 2026 in Southern Africa finds that climate change has exacerbated extreme rainfall events.
• Scientists found that rainfall events in the region seem to be becoming more intense, and the likelihood of extreme precipitation occurring is higher in a warmer world. Despite limitations of climate models in the African context, scientists say they’re confident that weather patterns are shifting due to climate change.
• The study also revealed that the impacts were heightened due to structural and social vulnerabilities in the affected countries, with Mozambique being the hardest hit.

-Since 2004, the South African government has been working to restore spekboom thickets in a semiarid region of the country.

• This biome, anchored by the hardy, carbon-sequestering spekboom plant, has been massively degraded by two centuries of expanding farming and livestock herding.
• That long arc of conversion of thicket landscapes to farm and rangeland is now dying, as overgrazing, climate change and shifting markets for agricultural products take their toll.
• Dozens of private operators have joined the government in trying to restore this biome’s original thicket cover, attracted by the potential for income from carbon credits.

A mysterious oil spill is raising concern among South African conservationists and coastal communities. On Jan. 22, reports started emerging of congealed oil washing up on South Africa’s southeast coast, stretching from George to Durban, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) away. Several beaches closed due to the pollution. Citizen networks are monitoring more than 20 affected beaches and reporting that both tar balls and barrels filled with oil are washing ashore. The source and extent of the pollution remain unclear. “There is a lot of concern as it continues to wash up,” Mike Denison from the nongovernment environmental organization Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa told Mongabay via phone. Denison said there are a couple likely explanations for the oil. One possibility is that barrels of oil were dumped offshore, “and some of those barrels might be breaking open and releasing oil,” he said. Another option is that a ship traveling the coast could be leaking. Whether the washed-up oil and the barrels represent a single incident or two coinciding events remains unknown. Monitoring networks have called on local people to document and report any oil on their beaches or drums that turn up. The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, asked the public to report any oiled seabirds. The area is home to a key colony of critically endangered African penguins (Spheniscus demersus). In early February, marine biologists from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, a conservation organization in the country’s KwaZulu-Natal province, requested…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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