The community of Heuningvlei takes pride in an annual conservation event, which has seen about 2 000 endangered Clanwilliam cedar trees being planted over the past 15 years.

The 4×4 route to the rural village of Heuningvlei is opened once a year, when CapeNature banners indicate the turn-off into the wilds from the top of the Pakhuis Pass. The 12 km route on a stony track through rugged scenery takes the better part of an hour. On a donkey cart, the traditional mode of transport in the Cederberg Wilderness Area, the trail takes two and a half hours.

En route, mountain fynbos proliferate. This is a World Heritage Site, just over three hours from Cape Town, and home to the laurel protea, the red disa, rooibos and the rare snow protea – as well as the Red Data listed Clanwilliam cedar tree. A vital part of the Cederberg region’s biodiversity, the species, which grows nowhere else on earth, is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

Heuningvlei is more accessible from the winding mountain pass that leads to Wupperthal. Even so, the hamlet remains isolated, with only twenty five families currently living there, one of fourteen outposts of the local Moravian Mission Church.The community takes great pride in the annual cedar tree planting event, when young and oldjoin about 300 conservationists from all over the Western Cape.

The objective each year is to plant 200 cedar tree saplings just before the onset of winter, in the hope that they will survive bush fires and lack of water. The first batch of 20 trees provided by CapeNature in 2003 were eaten by eland. The wilderness in the koppies above Heuningvlei has since been identified as a suitably rocky setting at a height of between 800m and 1650m above sea level. The mountainous area is a natural fire exclusion zone.

So far about 1 800 two-year-old trees have been planted in the wilderness and a further 200 trees in the groves at Heuningvlei. Annually about 1 000 seeds are also planted by children, mainly from Elizabethfontein primary school, and propagated into seedlings. These will be nurtured in the nursery at Bushmans KloofWilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat, for future transplantation back into the wilderness.

Seeds are produced only after 20-30 years, once the tree reaches full reproductive maturity. With fires in the Cederberg fynbos area occurring at intervals of about 11 to 15 years, successful seedling growth after fires is vital, although it is doubtful whether there are enough young replacement trees. One can only hope and pray for the Heuningvlei saplings’ survival. Although it is a cypress and not a true cedar, the Clanwilliam cedar is a durable fragrant wood that was excessively harvested for furniture, fences and telephone poles when the farmers settled along the Olifants River during the mid-18thcentury. The San and the Khoi used fire to stimulate grazing and to flush out game, thus destroying many seedlings. Fossilised pollen show a steady population decline over the past 14 600 years, possibly due to climatic changes.