For more than three decades, the Overberg Crane Group (OCG) has played a central role in protecting South Africa’s national bird, the Blue Crane, across the Overberg landscape. Founded in 1991 in response to a series of catastrophic poisoning events, the group grew into one of the region’s longest-running community-driven conservation initiatives.

At the time of its formation, the future of Blue Cranes in the Overberg looked uncertain.

Blue Cranes faced many threats, and the high mortality rate highlighted the vulnerability of the species in an agricultural landscape. But this in turn sparked a collective determination among farmers, conservationists and authorities to work together to protect cranes.

From the outset, the OCG was built on partnerships and trust. Farmers and landowners, who manage most of the Overberg’s landscapes where cranes live and breed, became central to the conservation effort. Working alongside conservation organisations and authorities such as CapeNature, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and the South African Crane Working Group, the OCG helped create a model of collaborative conservation rooted in the realities of a working agricultural landscape.

Over the next 35 years, this collaboration delivered important successes

Through farmer engagement, awareness programmes and monitoring, the Overberg became recognised as one of the most important regions for Blue Cranes in South Africa. The OCG’s role included extension support to farmers, a ringing project to track the movements of Blue Cranes, working with schools to raise awareness, and even playing a key role in the launch of the Coordinated Avifaunal Road (CAR) counts in South Africa.

While working with partners across the landscape, Blue Crane numbers in the region increased over time. These gains were recognised nationally in 2015, when the Blue Crane was downlisted from Vulnerable to Near Threatened in South Africa, reflecting improved population trends.

Yet conservation is never static

Despite earlier successes, Blue Cranes continued to face a range of threats, many of which remain particularly relevant in the Overberg. These include poisoning, collisions with powerlines, agricultural challenges such as fence and baling twine entanglement, and disturbance during breeding, along with broader landscape changes affecting the species. As pressures on agricultural and natural landscapes continue to evolve, so too must the conservation response.

In 2025, the Blue Crane was again uplisted to Vulnerable in South Africa, serving as a clear signal that continued and coordinated conservation action is essential.

Against this backdrop, the Overberg Crane Group has entered a new chapter.

For many years, the OCG functioned as a volunteer-driven initiative supported by farmers, conservation organisations, and government partners. While this model proved remarkably effective, the increasing scale and urgency of conservation challenges now require greater institutional support, resources, and coordination.

A new chapter for the Overberg Crane Group

As a result, the work historically carried out through the OCG will now fall under the joint stewardship of the International Crane Foundation and the Endangered Wildlife Trust–two organisations with extensive experience in crane conservation both nationally and globally.

This transition marks the closing of one chapter in the OCG story, while strengthening the long-term future of crane conservation in the Overberg. But the core principle that defined the OCG remains unchanged: conservation depends on partnerships.

As such, the future of Blue Cranes in the Overberg will continue to rely on the commitment of landowners, farmers, and local communities who share their landscapes with these iconic birds. It will also depend on the ongoing collaboration between conservation organisations, government authorities, and research partners.

As the next chapter of the OCG begins, that legacy continues to secure a future for Blue Cranes in the Overberg.