We need to make a plan!

As celebrations for World Rewilding Day took place on March 20th for its 4th edition (2021 launch), an increasing number of people and organizations have become part of this community and take pride in its many initiatives. Rewilding benefits - at any scale - favor biodiversity, climate balance and a sustainable economy. 

So what did Löwen River Rewilding do? Nothing special. Far from our digital daily life, we continue to experiment and test. Using the natural slope of the terrains, we added a waterhole as well as an overflow basin at the end of our piping. 

We operate the taps of the wobbler sprinklers every 2-3 days and ensure that the cement waterhole keeps running/wet. After several weeks, we see concrete (😉) results: vegetation that follows the waterway got greener, more dense; and lots of tracks from animals that visit the site.

At other waterholes, our camera traps caught activity on the first night: oryxes and kudus. Not to forget mongooses, with numerous birds basking about around the troughs. 

So, life is good and the scorching heat of the summer starts waning. Do not fully trust the inflated temperature reading of the camera trap pictures. It feels much cooler… at times. 

What’s next? We ponder about the saying: “When is the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago AND today”. 

Whilst we witness and enjoy a renewed vitality at Löwen River, we have that lovely expression in Namibia “we need to make a plan” which calls for hope and action. In a number of situations, people will genuinely help - applying goodwill and common sense. Matters get resolved and everyone happily returns to their daily activities. Ingenuity takes the form of creating gabions with barbed wires, finding a fix to leaky pipes or fittings, helping out when someone locked itself out at night and the key broke in the lock. 

In typical African fashion, ‘we need to make a plan’ mostly extends to the next few hours. As the World Rewilding Day’s hashtag (#HopeIntoAction) makes clear, there is Hope coming from many people’s ambitions and desires to help. 

As well as a need for action: there is no better time to start doing good and restoring nature’s beautiful canvas. In Namibia just as anywhere else. 

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

― Mahatma Gandhi