Bot-Kleinmond Estuarine - SA's latest Ramsar wetland

The Bot-Kleinmond Estuarine System became South Africa's 23rd Wetland of International Importance on 30 March 2017. It is located in the Western Cape province near the town of Hermanus. 

The surrounding communities of Kleinmond, Fisherhaven and Hawston have a close relationship with the Bot River estuary. Many residents and holidaymakers use the estuary for fishing, swimming and boating.

SA Ramsar visited the site on Monday 8 May 2017. A complete report and more photos were published on this website, as well as a link to a video on our video page.

The most recent addition to this website is a book review added on 17 Nov 2017. Click on the Books link on the right hand side to view all related books.

World Wetlands Day

Every year, the 2nd February is celebrated internationally as World Wetlands Day because the Ramsar convention was signed on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar.

Here is a video with a message from the Ramsar Secretary General for 2015:

If you enjoy nice pictures of wetlands with its fauna and flora, view this short video that also celebrates World Wetlands Day:

SA Ramsar channel on Youtube

We make a short video of each wetland that we visit. These videos are uploaded onto a Youtube channel specially created for the project. When you subscribe to the 'SA Ramsar' channel on Youtube, you will receive notifications everytime a new video is uploaded. Click on the Youtube logo to go to the SA Ramsar channel.

and then click on the subscribe button on the right hand side. It looks like this: 

Filming at Western Cape Ramsar wetlands

The project got underway when we visited 3 of the Ramsar wetlands in the Western Cape:

Wilderness Lakes - 3 November 2014
De Hoop Vlei - 4 November 2014
De Mond - Heuningnes Estuary - 5 November 2014

A summary of each of these wetlands will be posted on separate pages.

A filming team of FC Hamman Films accompanied us to take aerial footage of the wetlands with drone technology. The weather was not always kind to us, but we managed to collect interesting material at all 3 sites.

You can watch the following video on how the filming was done:

Visit the facebook page, www.facebook.com/saramsar for more pictures taken during our visits to the wetlands and surroundings.