The Richtersveld, a region forming the tip of the Namib desert, is in the very northwest of South Africa. Its desert climate and proximity to the cold Atlantic waters result in extremely variable climatic conditions. Over the last decade, these conditions have gotten more severe with extreme drought and sandstorms. Additionally, the diamond mining industry, which has been present in the region for almost 100 years, has contributed to land degradation and biodiversity loss. This, coupled with extreme drought and severe sandstorms, have created a hostile environment for biodiversity to survive; some key plant species in the area have experienced population declines as high as 85% in recent decades. Poaching presents another major threat to rare and endangered plant species. One of the Richtersveld’s rarest species, the Othonna armian, which lives for hundreds of years in the crevasses of rocks, has been nearly entirely wiped out by poachers, with90% of the population gone.
To decrease the rate at which highly vulnerable and rare plant species have been disappearing in the Richtersveld, South African National Parks (SANParks) began an offsite plant conservation greenhouse 10 years ago, which hosted hundreds of thriving plant species, four of which have since gone extinct in the wild. With support from the Wildlife Adaptation Innovation Fund, SANParks constructed a second, larger greenhouse facility in 2024 to house the increasing number of vulnerable plant species.
The new greenhouse, built by local contractors, covers an area of 3,200 square feet and features a raised tunnel design and an overhead misting system, among other features. Experts generated a list of priority plant species based on an IUCN Red List of Endangered Species assessment—a tool used to determine how close a species is to becoming extinct—that helped inform which species to conserve in the facility. To establish which species were already being conserved in other facilities, the list was sent to the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s botanical garden, the Millenium Seed Bank, and the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens.
Once established, SANParks’ trained nursery team set out into the Richtersveld to collect plant specimens for the greenhouse, sometimes hiking for days to collect certain species. The trained nursery team and SANParks Honorary Rangers transferred the specimens into the new greenhouse and will continue to care for the them in the facility according to their natural habitat requirements. They will also send live specimens of the species to other facilities for long-term safekeeping, like the institute’s Hantam and Desert Botanical Gardens. SANParks has already sent over 50 of the conserved species’ seeds to the Millennium Seed Bank for storage in their seed vaults. By sending live specimens and seeds to various facilities, we can better ensure the continued existence of these rare and endangered plants.
So far, 11,492 plants from 716 plant taxa have been safely re-homed in the new greenhouse. This includes over 400 threatened species, four of which are now presumed extinct in the wild due to climate change and poaching. Over forty of the species in the greenhouse have only recently been discovered as well, exemplifying the rarity of some of these plants. An additional 300 vulnerable plant species were transferred to the greenhouse shortly after project completion.
