REWILDING THE CAPE
TO THE ANCIENT RHYTHM OF AFRICA
Gora Wilderness Foundation is DEDICATED to connect, conserve, restore and rewild one of southern Africa’s most remarkable landscapes.
We bring together strategic land custodians, ecological restoration, rewilding, regenerative land management and science-based conservation, working alongside private landowners, communities, government and strategic conservation partners to build an increasingly connected landscape. Through this collaborative approach, we are dedicated to create a resilient, connected and thriving landscape where wildlife can once again move across historic ranges, biodiversity can recover, and conservation can generate enduring ecological, social and economic value for both nature and people.
Gora Wilderness Foundation is DEDICATED to connect, conserve, restore and rewild one of southern Africa’s most remarkable landscapes.
We bring together strategic land custodians, ecological restoration, rewilding, regenerative land management and science-based conservation, working alongside private landowners, communities, government and strategic conservation partners to build an increasingly connected landscape. Through this collaborative approach, we are dedicated to create a resilient, connected and thriving landscape where wildlife can once again move across historic ranges, biodiversity can recover, and conservation can generate enduring ecological, social and economic value for both nature and people.
Our Ambitious Vision
Gora Wilderness Foundation serves as a not-for-profit conservation organization that coordinates protected area expansion across the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area according to a conservation model that connects protected areas with surrounding private and community land to integrate biodiversity preservation with community development, economic development and food security.Â
Gora Wilderness Foundation provides the conservation vision, governance framework, scientific management and long-term institutional continuity, while partnering landowners retain ownership of the land while committing to conservation-aligned land-use practices, biodiversity objectives and ecological restoration targets.
The Forgotten Wilderness
Along the southernmost extremities of the African continent lies a land where the ancient rhythm of Africa has been disturbed, changed, distorted and almost forgotten!Â
Endless herds of springbok, black wildebeest and half-striped quagga have been replaced with far-ranging mutton farms. Lagoons and estuaries where the hippopotamus openly bathed in the morning sun became eerily silent. Rolling coastal hills where herds of bontebok and blue antelope once ranged have been reduced to Renosterveld grasslands patches between wheat and canola.Â
After more than 350 years after European settlement began much about the former wilderness has been forgotten. But the impact on nature at the hands of humanity started even earlier when the ancestors of San/Bushmen hunter-gatherers entered the Cape in time now immemorial. After them and in their footsteps followed the Khoekhoe pastoralists arriving around 390 BC with their large herds of fat-tailed sheep, speckled goats and long-horned sanga cattle. By 1488 European forays commenced as Portuguese seafarers set foot on Cape soil! Dutch settlement in the year 1652 was merely the last driver in an ever-changing Cape!Â
The Forgotten Wilderness
Along the southernmost extremities of the African continent lies a land where the ancient rhythm of Africa has been disturbed, changed, distorted and almost forgotten!Â
Endless herds of springbok, black wildebeest and half-striped quagga have been replaced with far-ranging mutton farms. Lagoons and estuaries where the hippopotamus openly bathed in the morning sun became eerily silent. Rolling coastal hills where herds of bontebok and blue antelope once ranged have been reduced to Renosterveld grasslands patches between wheat and canola.Â
After more than 350 years after European settlement began much about the former wilderness has been forgotten. But the impact on nature at the hands of humanity started even earlier when the ancestors of San/Bushmen hunter-gatherers entered the Cape in time now immemorial. After them and in their footsteps followed the Khoekhoe pastoralists arriving around 390 BC with their large herds of fat-tailed sheep, speckled goats and long-horned sanga cattle. By 1488 European forays commenced as Portuguese seafarers set foot on Cape soil! Dutch settlement in the year 1652 was merely the last driver in an ever-changing Cape!Â
The Forgotten Wilderness
Along the southernmost extremities of the African continent lies a land where the ancient rhythm of Africa has been disturbed, changed, distorted and almost forgotten!Â
Endless herds of springbok, black wildebeest and half-striped quagga have been replaced with far-ranging mutton farms. Lagoons and estuaries where the hippopotamus openly bathed in the morning sun became eerily silent. Rolling coastal hills where herds of bontebok and blue antelope once ranged have been reduced to Renosterveld grasslands patches between wheat and canola.Â
After more than 350 years after European settlement began much about the former wilderness has been forgotten. But the impact on nature at the hands of humanity started even earlier when the ancestors of San/Bushmen hunter-gatherers entered the Cape in time now immemorial. After them and in their footsteps followed the Khoekhoe pastoralists arriving around 390 BC with their large herds of fat-tailed sheep, speckled goats and long-horned sanga cattle. By 1488 European forays commenced as Portuguese seafarers set foot on Cape soil! Dutch settlement in the year 1652 was merely the last driver in an ever-changing Cape!Â
Reconnecting The Wilderness
Protected Area expansion in the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area planning domain from 1964 – 2026.
In 1964 a call to conserve the last stretches of Cape wilderness commenced. Slowly protected areas started to be proclaimed, starting with the Mountain Catchment areas along the Swartberg and Langeberg mountain ranges. By 2026 these dotted islands of conservation are prominent features across the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area planning domain, while the majority of these proclaimed conservation areas are still devoid of the wildlife that once called this forgotten wilderness home. Only one protected area contains a reintroduced population of African elephant, the keystone species driving our ambitious vision for landscape connectivity.Â
Gora Wilderness Foundation exists to help write the next chapter in this wilderness. Through landscape-scale conservation and connectivity, ecological restoration and collaboration with the people who live and work upon this land, we are working to reconnect these isolated islands of conservation — creating space for wildlife, people and nature to thrive together.
The Strong Foundation To Revive The Wilderness
Landscape-Scale Connectivity
Connect islands of conservation through strategic land acquisitions incorporation and voluntary partnerships with neighbouring landowners and conservation organizations, to create a single connected and resilient functioning conservation landscape.
Rewilding & Restoring
Restore fragmented and degraded habitats, recover lost ecological processes, and rewild indigenous fauna and flora to revive the full suite of biodiversity within this connected and resilient living conservation landscape that is the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area.
Nature-Based Economy
Collaborate and participate with us to write the next chapter by co-developing a thriving wildlife and nature-based economy that creates sustainable opportunities for local landowners and communities through responsible tourism and long-term conservation investment.
Landscape-Scale Connectivity
Connect islands of conservation through strategic land acquisitions incorporation and voluntary partnerships with neighbouring landowners and conservation organizations, to create a single connected and resilient functioning conservation landscape.
Rewilding & Restoring
Restore fragmented and degraded habitats, recover lost ecological processes, and rewild indigenous fauna and flora to revive the full suite of biodiversity within this connected and resilient living conservation landscape that is the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area.
Nature-Based Economy
Collaborate and participate with us to write the next chapter by co-developing a thriving wildlife and nature-based economy that creates sustainable opportunities for local landowners and communities through responsible tourism and long-term conservation investment.
Our Strategy For
Growing
Gora
Already own land within the Gora Wilderness Conservation Area planning domain? Join the Gora Wilderness Association as a participating landowner.
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OUR PARTNERS
