The Braamhoek Project

The "Braamhoek" Project is a unique partnership between development and conservation.

The partners in this project are ESKOM, BirdLife South Africa and Middelpunt Wetland Trust. The Braamhoek Partnership has it's origins in the Pump Storage scheme named after a local farm. This has led to the purchase of a number of farms which will make up a nature reserve in the area surrouding the two storage dams. The "Braamhoek reserve" consists of 8 500 ha of former agricultural land, scarps, rocky outcrops and wetlands. The Pump storage scheme involves the building of two dams - seperated by some 450m of altitude, and the top dam will be built near to several excellent high altitude wetlands. Before the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) required for the building of the dams, Dr Barry Taylor found White-winged Flufftail to occur in small numbers in the marshes which lie on the farms Bedford and Chatsworth - both now incorporated into the above-mentioned reserve.

This discovery led some to call for the scrapping of the plans to build the dam in this area. However closer investigation showed that the habitat occupied by the flufftails, and by a number of other important species (such as Wattled Crane) would not be affected by the building or presence of the dam.

The need for Eskom to take great care in the manner in which the dam was to be built and to instituted mitigation measures to compensate for any environmental damage has created an opportunity to better protect the Bedford and Chatsworth marshes, and also to monitor and protect other important marshes in the eastern Free State region.

The truth is that prior to initiation of the Braamhoek project, much of the land in the area of the Braamhoek marsh was degraded and in poor condition. Erosion threatens the structure of the marsh, and DWAF has spent R1.3 Million conducting wetland protection measures in the area. There is still a significant amount of work to be done on erosion control and wetland restoration in the Braamhoek reserve area. However it is true to say that without the focussed attention brought about through the Braamhoek project, this would never had received the attention it requires.
Map of upper dam area
A map of part of the "Braamhoek Reserve" which illustrates the situation of the upper dam. The large wetlands to the west of the dam will remain unaffected and this is where the White-winged Flufftail occurs.

The area marked with X is where large scale restoration work has been conducted by the department of water affairs, without which the entire wetland upstream would have been threatened with serious erosion.
Aerial view of the wetland A birds-eye impression of what the upper dam will look like.

The wetland in the bottom left of the picture is the area where White-winged Flufftail are believed to occur. Note that this arm of the wetland is over 1.5 km from the nearest part of the dam and in fact is behind a hill.
Annotated map of Reserve area
A map of the Braamhoek Reserve area which covers over 10 000HA (100 square km). The area shaded in blue is where the most important marshes are situated. The red line shows the border of the "Braamhoek Reserve"
Annotated satelline image (false colour mosaic) of the Reserve area
An annotated false colour satellite image of the Braamhoek Reserve area, showing the escarpment. The lower dam is not illustrated and is just below "A" on the image.