Berg River 18: Hopefield (Sout River)-Kersefontein Floodplain (18193254) | |
|---|---|
Western Cape | |
| CWAC status | REGISTERED-COUNTED REGULARLY |
| Authority | |
| Management status | Registered Conservancy; Private Land |
| Conservation status | Unprotected |
| IBA information | |
| Ramsar information | |
| Heritage information | |
| View Cards | |
Information |
|---|
| Date_registered |
| 2026-02-12 |
| Brief_description |
| The Berg River estuary is an IBA, KBA, and Ramsar site, and one of South Africa’s most important estuaries for conservation, particularly for its fish and birdlife. It supports a diverse mosaic of habitats: intertidal mudflats, sand and mud banks, salt, sedge and reed marshes, open water, commercial saltworks, and ephemeral salt pans that provide key feeding, breeding, and roosting areas. Its extensive floodplains in the middle and upper reaches, especially on farms such as Kliphoek, Krusipad, Doornfontein, Langrietvlei, and Kersefontein, are unique in the Western Cape and sustain a high diversity of waterbirds. The estuary is especially important for migratory and resident waders, as well as herons, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, terns, and waterfowl, including viable populations of several threatened species. Despite its importance, the estuary lacks formal protection and is increasingly threatened by reduced freshwater inflows (e.g., dams), declining water quality (e.g., eutrophication and pollution), overfishing (e.g., gill net fishing), habitat loss from mining and housing developments, intense recreational disturbance (e.g., accelerated bank erosion from boat wake action), and climate-change impacts such as prolonged droughts. |
| Hydrological_features |
| Seasonal brackish/ saline marshes (inc. pans and pools) – part of estuarine functional zone, or estuarine floodplain, so have classified it as brackish, but can also be mostly fresh with collected rainwater, i.e., seasonal freshwater marsh > 8ha (80%) Seasonally flooded agricultural land (20%) |
| Ecological_features |
| Emergent vegetation (70% - Common reed, Sedges, Grasses - very few shrubs/ trees) Surrounding vegetation (30% - Grasses, Strandveld, Fynbos - shrubs/ a few trees) Dominant substrate type: mud Salinity: Brak Acidity: unsure Approximate size: >100ha Approximate maximum depth: 0.5-1m Site/ wetland context: Part of a mosaic of wetlands App. Length/ width of river: Length 0.9km, Width (40m) - the stretch of river included within the site, which is largely a floodplain site. |
| Spp | Common name | Taxonomic name | Min | Avg | Max | IBA | Subregional IBA | RAMSAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | Bittern, Little | Ixobrychus minutus | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 212 | Coot, Red-knobbed | Fulica cristata | 94 | 106.00 | 118 | |||
| 50 | Cormorant, Reed | Microcarbo africanus | 5 | 20.67 | 36 | |||
| 52 | Darter, African | Anhinga rufa | 2 | 4.00 | 7 | |||
| 10034 | Duck, Hyrbid Mallard/Yellow-billed | Anas platyrhynchos x undulata | 10 | 10.00 | 10 | |||
| 104 | Duck, White-backed | Thalassornis leuconotus | 18 | 18.00 | 18 | |||
| 96 | Duck, Yellow-billed | Anas undulata | 2 | 5.33 | 11 | |||
| 59 | Egret, Little | Egretta garzetta | 3 | 3.50 | 4 | |||
| 61 | Egret, Western Cattle | Bubulcus ibis | 22 | 22.00 | 22 | |||
| 149 | Fish Eagle, African | Haliaeetus vocifer | 1 | 1.50 | 2 | |||
| 89 | Goose, Egyptian | Alopochen aegyptiaca | 4 | 32.00 | 85 | |||
| 88 | Goose, Spur-winged | Plectropterus gambensis | 1 | 8.25 | 22 | |||
| 263 | Greenshank, Common | Tringa nebularia | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 56 | Heron, Goliath | Ardea goliath | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 54 | Heron, Grey | Ardea cinerea | 1 | 1.25 | 2 | |||
| 81 | Ibis, African Sacred | Threskiornis aethiopicus | 90 | 90.00 | 90 | |||
| 83 | Ibis, Glossy | Plegadis falcinellus | 1 | 2.50 | 4 | |||
| 84 | Ibis, Hadada | Bostrychia hagedash | 4 | 4.00 | 4 | |||
| 397 | Kingfisher, Malachite | Corythornis cristatus | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 394 | Kingfisher, Pied | Ceryle rudis | 1 | 1.67 | 2 | |||
| 245 | Lapwing, Blacksmith | Vanellus armatus | 2 | 13.67 | 25 | |||
| 210 | Moorhen, Common | Gallinula chloropus | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 237 | Plover, Kittlitz's | Charadrius pecuarius | 1 | 2.50 | 4 | |||
| 238 | Plover, Three-banded | Charadrius tricollaris | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 94 | Shoveler, Cape | Anas smithii | 2 | 13.67 | 28 | |||
| 85 | Spoonbill, African | Platalea alba | 1 | 2.00 | 4 | |||
| 270 | Stilt, Black-winged | Himantopus himantopus | 1 | 1.00 | 1 | |||
| 208 | Swamphen, African | Porphyrio madagascariensis | 3 | 3.00 | 3 | |||
| 97 | Teal, Red-billed | Anas erythrorhyncha | 5 | 8.50 | 12 | |||
| 686 | Wagtail, Cape | Motacilla capensis | 8 | 11.67 | 17 |
Friday 27 February 2026 02:12
FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology
Department
of Biological Sciences - University of Cape Town
This work is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License