The Biodiversity & Wine Initiative (BWI), a pioneering partnership between the South African wine industry and the conservation sector, recently released its own label.
The label (left), which features a sugar bird on a protea flower, will enable consumers to identify wines produced in accordance with the initiative’s conservation requirements.
Supporting the BWI members displaying the label will enable consumers to join the winegrowers in “making a significant contribution to the long-term conservation of critical natural habitats and species in the Western Cape winelands,” says Inge Kotze, BWI project coordinator.
BWI has helped more than 100 winegrowers in the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot incorporate biodiversity into their business practices.
Participating champions and members also have set aside more than 70,000 hectares of rich land on their farms for conservation to date.
With 80 percent of the land in the region under private ownership, landowner participation in conservation is crucial. South Africa also is the world’s eighth largest producer of wine.
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) support helped the South Africa Wine & Brandy Company create BWI in the Cape Floristic Region Hotspot. Together with the Botanical Society of South Africa and other partners, CEPF funding also enabled an expansion of the initiative to the neighboring Succulent Karoo Hotspot.
The overall effort is guided by a Botanical Society and Conservation International study that identified critical natural habitat that could be threatened by the expanded production of wine and other agricultural commodities in the region.