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Our Impacts

Iconic Ecosystems Management

Integrated River Health and Vegetation Monitoring.

Maintaining a resilient and productive landscape at Sango relies on a long-term understanding of how vegetation and freshwater ecosystems are changing. To this end, Sango has implemented an integrated ecological monitoring programme that covers both land and water systems, helping guide key decisions about ecological capacities, land use, and conservation priorities.

Vegetation assessments are carried out at two levels. The herbaceous (grassy) layer is monitored twice a year—in the wet (March/April) and dry (September/October) seasons—using step point and disc pasture methods to measure indicators like plant biomass, species composition, ground cover, and grass height. These assessments, ongoing since 2000, also use an ecological index to rate ecosystem health. The woody vegetation (bushes and trees) is surveyed every five years to estimate available food for browsing animals.

By combining data from both layers into a single „veld condition report,“ Sango can track trends in vegetation and calculate how many animals the land can support. This information, along with aerial wildlife counts, supports adaptive wildlife management and helps prevent overgrazing or underutilisation of the land.

Alongside its terrestrial efforts, Sango operates a long-term river health monitoring programme to assess the condition of key freshwater systems—including perennial rivers, seasonal wetlands, and ephemeral pans. Despite pressures from upstream land use, these ecosystems are currently in good ecological condition. The programme uses the South African Scoring System (SASS), a widely endorsed tool that focuses on organisms highly sensitive to water quality changes and reliable indicators of river health. Since 2002, SWC’s river health score has significantly improved, reflecting among other things, the benefits of its protection from polluting substances discharge. This holistic monitoring framework allows SWC to balance conservation and land use, preserve biodiversity, and maintain the ecological integrity of key habitats.

Key figures:

Significant increase

in river health scores between 2002 and 2024 using the SASS bio-assessment method.

Sango is hosting seven types of ecosystems

Five woodland ecosystems:
- apiculatum
- acuminata
- mopane
- tortilis Open woodland
- zambesiaca close woodland
and
- Mespiliformes Riverine ecosystem
- And colona Wetland ecosystem