Maud Sebelebele

Maud Sebelebele is a Social Ecologist from Limpopo (Mokopane). Academically, she has a background in Agricultural Science with a Diploma in Animal Production, and a BTech degree in Agricultural Management. She is also a PLAAS alumni with a Postgraduate Diploma in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies. Currently, She is the concluding stages of her Masters degree which is an interdisciplinary ethnographic study registered with the Institute for Social Development, University of the Western Cape. The study encompasses the fields of anthropology, rangeland ecology, and indigenous ecological knowledge systems. The research objectives of the study were to explore how herders and communal members from three villages in the Leliefontein Communal Area, Namaqualand, South Africa ascertain value to fodder plants.

Her line of work has exposed her to multiple in-situ and ex-situ (plant) conservation, biodiversity management and land restoration projects. She worked in the Eastern Cape (Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve) with the Spekboom (Portulacaria afra) restoration projects, and in the Western Cape (Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden) with the critically endangered Cycads (encephalartos sp.). Currently she is venturing into a passion project with the aims of expanding my biodiversity knowledge and conservation work in and around the Waterberg Mountain region. Specifically, the project focuses on replanting crop wild relatives, indigenous and endemic plants in local schools in and around Mokopane town. The intentions are to create biodiversity corridors, while encouraging community conservation with those interested in plant conservation practices either as a hobby or as a career venture.