By Dr Sarah Venter

Keeping an eye on Greens Baobab

Greens baobab is a historic tree found in the Magadikgadi area of Botswana.  The intrepid Green brothers were one of the many early traders, hunters and explorers to carve their names here, leaving “Green’s Expedition 1858–1859” scrawled into the tree’s bark and giving the tree its name. Greens tree is found on the Gweta-Orapa track, 27 km south of Gweta.  [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Three more baobab seedlings to ready to grow into adult trees

Baobab trees in Dambale village were measured as scheduled in April 2024.  Three more trees have reached their target height of 3 meters.  This brings the total number to five of the nine trees in the village that no longer need to be protected from goats.  The trees in Dambale village were planted as small seedlings in December 2020.  The [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Plantation-style baobabs

Young baobabs are being planted in “plantation-style” in seven homesteads in Mabvete village in northern Venda.  This method is being used to boost the young baobabs growth so that they reach a “safe” height before wild planting.  See post here. Newly planted baobabs in plantation-style This week we visited the trees to see how they were doing.  We tagged each [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

I live under a baobab, don’t know much about it, but now I do!

Nearly every child in Africa knows what a baobab tree is.  Nearly child in Africa eats baobab powder.  But beyond knowing what the tree looks like and that it has a nutritious fruit, very little is generally known about their ecology.   The Little Big Baobab Book (free pdf download available here) addresses FAQ’s of baobabs.  Translated into TshiVenda and easy [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

A fresh coat of paint for Mutele B Preschool

Once a year we reach out to some Preschools in areas where baobabs grow and ask them what they need.  This year we supported the Mutale B Preschool with sourcing the exact colour paint required for their classroom renovations.
By Dr Sarah Venter

Wild planting baobabs at Nthakeni

Nthakeni is a lovely spot on the Mutale River in communal land situated near the northern Pafuri gate of the Kruger National Park.  The area is leased from the Nkotswi community and has been fenced allowing the natural vegetation to grow and seedlings to recruit without disturbance of domestic animals.  Nthakeni is thus one of the few places where baobabs [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Building materials for new classrooms

Baobab Foundation supported Mukovhawabale Preschool and the Mbodi tsha Fhasi Preschool with much needed cement for the building of their new classrooms. Cement for Mukovawabale Preschool
By Dr Sarah Venter

Mukomawabane Pre-School Reopened

The children in Mukomawabane village have not been going to preschool for the past few years and thus the kids have losing out on the opportunity of formal early childhood education.  This is because the parents in the village, many of them unemployed and without more than primary school education themselves, did not see the value for children to go [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

The challenge of wild planting baobabs

Young baobabs are delicious especially to goats, impala and baboons.  So a multipronged approach is needed.  One is to identify areas that don’t have these animals and use their absence to successfully establish baobabs (watch this space) or where these animals are plentiful to find creative solutions. The first approach was to simply protect the young trees with wire cages, [...] Continue Reading
By Dr Sarah Venter

Another 22 baobabs and counting

Baobabs on confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers continue to be vulnerable to the over utilization by elephants.  The only way to effectively protect baobabs from elephants is to wrap them in wire mesh.  In November 2023 the Baobab Foundation wrapped another 22 baobabs in wire mesh.  Over the course of three days another 15 baobabs were protected in [...] Continue Reading