PC Ferreira - Karoo farmer who reintroduced Northern Cape hippos sets his sights on saving rhinos and 'fallen stars'

PC Ferreira, a Karoo farmer and owner of the Karoo Gariep Conservancy between Colesberg and Hanover, embodies the Afrikaans expression, ‘‘n Boer maak ‘n plan.’ In his case, the Boer or sustainable farmer who re-introduced hippos in the Northern Cape is making several plans - and his next big project is to establish rhinos on his farm and to invite tourists to spend a day with a rhino. Ferreira is also the driver of the Karoo Seekoei River Nature Reserve initiative, a conservation plan including 450,000 hectares of land belonging to 57 owners along the river in a reserve. For Ferreira it is not only about nature conservation and tourism, however. He has also established three non-profit organisations in a project melding 16 towns around Hanover into a tourism route. He is working on a safe house for troubled ‘fallen stars’, a skills training facility, a heritage hub for the San people… and a plan to use beehives to help street kids. Ferreira told BizNews that he believed that the Karoo is one of the last safe havens for rhinos and that you could give him a list of reasons why things shouldn’t work, but “there is always the possibility that it can work”. – Linda van Tilburg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices