The Healthy Catchment Alliance: an EWT, WESSA and CSA partnership in freshwater ecosystem conservation and the generation of water-linked livelihoods

The Healthy Catchment Alliance (HCA) is a formal partnership between the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) and Conservation South Africa (CSA). This NGO collaboration maximises our conservation impact by bringing our different skill sets, expertise and experience together in targeted projects and initiatives.

The HCA recognises that conservation is changing and we can no longer work on just biodiversity or water issues in isolation but that we need to integrate ‘more broader issues such as human population pressure, health and welfare of the communities in which we work, education, human rights and gender empowerment, and business and the economics of micro-enterprise.

The Alliance protects and supports the management of strategic river catchments while stimulating change in conservation perceptions and driving local green economies. It also forms a collective voice against unsustainable or illegal development that threatens biodiversity and human livelihoods.

The Alliance has already achieved some of our key outcomes: we have secured and are managing high priority biodiversity stewardship sites in the Drakensberg, developed conservation plans for two Endangered and Critically Endangered freshwater species, improved management of over 500ha of land, established two active community forums, signed up 16 EcoSchools and we have assisted local people to register five new Eco-Businesses in the Amathole region.

Eco-Logical Sponsors

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