Arbour day in South Africa is a celebration of the future. This week as the country enjoys its Arbor Celebrations, people up and down South Africa will be mucking in to do their bit for mother nature. This tree planting festival was first celebrated in 1983, (back then it was simply Arbor day), and in 1991 it was extended to become Arbor week – a seven day tree planting extravaganza.
And what a week to remind all those that enjoy South African wine about the importance of the environment and the relationship wine has with it. A reminder of how much is being done, (and how much there is also still to do) to protect the land that is so precious to our industry. After all much of the land used for wine production in the Cape sits in the middle of the Cape Floral Kingdom, a world heritage site that has more plant species located here than in the whole of the northern hemisphere.
This is why the wine industry works in partnership with the BWI (Biodiversity & Wine Initiative) to minimise further loss of this precious habitat and focus on setting land aside for protection. Indeed over 126 000 hectares of natural area have been conserved by BWI producers in less than four years. This means that the South African wine industry’s conservation footprint is well in excess of its current vineyard footprint of 102 000 hectares.
At home you can also do your bit to help out the Cape Floral Kingdom and the environment in South Africa by keeping an eye out for our new sustainability seal. From the 2010 vintage our seal guarantees integrity and sustainability. Providing good wine, but not at the expense of the environment. At the moment we have 60% of wine brands signed up, and by the end of 2011 we hope this figure will reach 85%.
For more information about what the seal means, please check out our video on the Sustainable Wine South Africa website at:
The pioneering work done by the South African wine industry is supported by the WWF, and you can see what they think about our partnership with the Conservation sector by visiting the following link:
www.wwf.org.za/what_we_do/outstanding_places/fynbos/biodiversity___wine_initiative/
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