South African Baobab expert and founder of the Baobab Foundation, Dr Sarah Venter has recently been acknowledged by the BOTSWANA POST PHILATELIC BUREAU for writing the information-sheets of Botswana’s latest series of stamps in collaboration with Botswana’s Department of National Museums and Monuments. The date of issue of the series of four stamps was 8 December 2022. The Philatelic Bureau […] Continue Reading
Baobabs are a most important feature of Mapungubwe National Park. Management is under mounting pressure from ecologists and the public to find solutions to protect our Baobabs and river-forests of the bordering Limpopo River. Baobabs are part of the historical-cultural landscape at Mapungubwe. They are found on many of the archaeological sites around the park, evidence that they played an […] Continue Reading
We have 9 more trees to measure in the Baobab Guardians program around November this year and then we have accomplished more than our initial objectives for the Guardians that we started off with in 2014. Our focus onward, will be more on our exciting Baobab wilding programme. These last 9 trees are dotted around Dambale village in the Limpopo […] Continue Reading
“I always wondered what the fuss was about dried baobab leaves in West Africa,” says Dr Sarah Venter. “In Southern and East Africa baobab leaves are known to be eaten but it is not very common. In West Africa however, stories abound of smuggling and theft of truckloads of baobab leaves from one country to another, one would have thought […] Continue Reading
Dr Sarah Venter recently trained a group of ecologists on doing tree health assessments in Zimbabwe. “We were looking at various aspects of baobab health that include the impact of elephants on baobab trees, bark harvesting and diseases. This work took us all around Zimbabwe including the Hwange National Park, where the assessment team measured over 900 baobabs” she says. […] Continue Reading
For seventeen years in a row now, we set off to our research area in the Limpopo River valley to count baobab fruit. These are from forty permanent trees in different locations that we started to monitor since April 2005. The method entails circling each tree and counting the Small – golf ball sized plus, Medium – tennis ball sized […] Continue Reading
In August last year Dr Sarah Venter visited Ghana to see if there are any significant variations between the North-West African baobabs versus our Southern African Baobabs. “The journey took me from Accra, the capital on the Atlantic coast of West Africa about 800 km right up to the northern-most part of the country. Here Baobab trees are scattered throughout the […] Continue Reading
“I often get asked to assess large baobab trees, either for their size or their health,” says Dr Sarah Venter, founder of the Baobab Foundation. “This Greater Kuduland Reserve Baobab is one of the biggest ones I have ever measured”. With a circumference of 25 m, height of 12 m and crown diameter of 24 m this amazing Bao Mama […] Continue Reading
Our local newspaper, Zoutpansberger, recently partnered with the Baobab Foundation, to launch a school project to boost the region’s wild baobab population.Coined the Baobab Champion competition, more than 230 baobab starter-kits with 15 seeds each inside, were distributed to participating pupils of 4 local schools. That amounts to 3450 potential new Baobab trees for South Africa! Youth excited to create […] Continue Reading
Baobab wilding is about enrichment-planting of baobabs back into the wild. To prepare for this we are growing baobab trees from seed. Some are in Dr Sarah Venter’s nursery at EcoProducts and other trees are being grown by community members in villages around Venda, oftentimes with precious, little available water in the arid environments where Baobabs thrive. The trees in […] Continue Reading