Project Title: Unbridled Encounters: Opportunity, Conservation, and Conflict in a Shifting Ecological Landscape

Kaapschehoop is a small Mpumalanga tourist town that has in the past few decades become renowned for the wild horses that roam its surrounds. Their exact origin is a point of debate and fable, but the height of their population allegedly exceeded 150. Today, less than 40 horses remain. While the decline of the horse population has prompted many resident-led initiatives and interventions, the horses are not the only species disappearing. These responses, in light of a broader decline of biodiversity in the local area, reveal how practices of care shape conceptualisations of place and belonging amid ecological loss.  

My research aims to explore how residents navigate the tensions and opportunities that emerge from encounters and entanglements with local ecologies. By understanding how local histories and broader societal forces ultimately shape interspecies relationality, I hope to trace how my interlocutors conceptualise responsibility, loss, and place in shifting multispecies landscapes.

Keywords: multispecies, biodiversity loss, practices of care, Mpumalanga