Port Elizabeth (SA): The Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve (BMR) is attracting increasing attention from all directions. Landscape restoration interests are no exception. EarthCollective, as initiators and ‘process enablers’ for the PRESENCE network, organised a successful workshop gathering for researchers, implementing organisations and Government programmes currently active with restoration activities in the BMR. The overall objectives …The overall objectives of the day-long workshop was to identify: the active and proposed projects in the area; the research and implementation gaps; the opportunities for collaboration between the different projects in order to optimise potential synergies; and to agree on roles and responsibilities for implementing a coordinated strategy for restoration-related activities in the BMR. An underlying vision was to determine the potential and capacity of PRESENCE to bring these diverse elements together and evolve into a so-called ‘learning organisation’. Participating organisations included…

…representatives from: Eastern Cape Parks, CSIR, C.A.P.E, DWAF (Working for Water), Gamtoos Irrigation Board, The Restoration Research Group (R3G), Rhodes University, Alterra (Wageningen University), The Dutch Ministry for Food and Agriculture (LNV) and EarthCollective. Attendees to the workshop gave positive feedback with respect to the day being a valuable opportunity for networking, sharing ideas and approaches, keeping communication open in terms of understanding what everyone else is doing (avoiding reinventing the wheel) as well as being a smooth and professionally run workshop. “EarthCollective is grateful for being able to enable and facilitate this process,” said co-organiser for the day, Dieter Van den Broeck. “It was great to have all these enthusiastic people together with different research objectives but each supporting the need to work together for a common goal.”