As global efforts to up-scale restorative activities emerge under the UN Decade for Ecological restoration (https://www.decadeonrestoration.org/), a team of South African collaborators has focused ongoing efforts on restoring Lowland Sand Fynbos ecosystems, which are amongst the most threatened habitats in South Africa.  To this end, their collective knowledge and experience has now been collated into ‘Guidelines for Restoring Lowland Sand Fynbos Ecosystems’.

This document can be found online at https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/124162 and http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/planning-and-assessment/ecological-restoration/ aims to assist managers and landowners of degraded Sand Fynbos vegetation to restore biodiversity and contribute to the conservation of these threatened ecosystems.  The document leads readers through a description of this critically threatened habitat, providing information on planning and execution of restorative actions, including a norms calculator for alien tree clearing, legal and policy imperatives, in-field protocols, and monitoring.  There is a section on troubleshooting challenges, and useful information on seed processing, plans of operation and cost-calculating.  The hope is that these practical guidelines will pave the way for Cape Lowland Fynbos to flourish and to help inspire similar efforts elsewhere.  Funding from the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, to support the development of the guidelines, is gratefully acknowledged.

Holmes, P.M., Esler, K.J., Geerts, S., Ngwenya, D.K., Rebelo, A.G., Dorse, C., van der Merwe, J., Retief, K., Hall, S.W., Grey, P., Nsikani, MM. 2022. Guidelines for Restoring Lowland Sand Fynbos Ecosystems. Self-published. ISBN: 978-0-620-98765-3