Natural grasslands don’t just provide the grazing for Africa’s cattle, sheep and goats, which puts food on our tables. They mop excess carbon from the atmosphere which helps regulate the climate at a planetary scale. They also soak up rain and trickle-feed it into streams, rivers and groundwater, which ultimately flows out the taps in far-off cities.

Custodians of grasslands — municipalities, state conservation entities, communal and private farmers — are caretakers of these vital natural ‘services’. Story Ark drops anchor in the Eastern Cape Highlands and Lesotho to investigate the health of these grasslands and the carbon sinks and water catchments they represent. We investigate the market forces shaping how farmers and municipalities manage them, and wide-ranging governance issues, from the international scale — such as water diplomacy between South Africa and Lesotho — right down to the municipal managers and individual farmers.

Coming, this February.