Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability at Mosaic Farm

Mosaic Farm

"The term 'green' cer­tainly can be mis­used", says Kathryn Johnson of Mosaic Farm, one of the few true eco-tourism estab­lish­ments in South Africa. Surrounded by the whale watch­ing para­dise of Walker Bay Beach and the majestic Overberg Mountains, Mosaic Farm (near Stanford) per­fectly blends the glor­ies of nature with fine coun­try liv­ing and superb South African cuisine and wine.

"Many busi­nesses claim eco-friendliness", con­tin­ues Kathryn. "It’s a term often used very loosely as a mar­ket­ing man­tra, but without fol­low­ing the fun­da­ment­als of envir­on­mental integ­rity, social justice and eco­nomic devel­op­ment, claims can be empty."

The Mosaic Mantra:

• Active con­ser­va­tion
• Our guests' exper­i­ence and appre­ci­ation of the nat­ural environment
• Involvement in envir­on­mental and com­munity needs

Mosaic Farm have cleared more that 200 hec­tares of lagoon front land densely infes­ted with Rooikraans, Port Jackson and Myrtle. This has brought back indi­gen­ous plant, bird, and insect and mam­mal life, and restored the bal­ance of the eco-system. General Manager, Justin Boshoff and Assistant Lodge Manager, Craig Templar, are trained con­ser­va­tion­ists and wild­life guides. Management along with the own­ers, Breese and Kathryn Johnson, are pas­sion­ate about restor­ing their environment.

But their com­mit­ment to eco-tourism goes much fur­ther. Guests stay­ing at Mosaic Farm are treated to a range of edu­ca­tional, nature based activ­it­ies, includ­ing to men­tion just a few, guided bird­watch­ing, whale watch­ing from the Walker Bay Nature Reserve and beach, kayak­ing on the Hermanus Lagoon, and 933 hec­tares of fyn­bos to explore. A nature DVD lib­rary, includ­ing "Roberts Birds of Southern Africa" shown on big screen, con­tinue the edu­ca­tion of guests in a relaxed way.

Mosaic Farm itself was built accord­ing to Sustainable Building Practices. "All the stone on our build­ings is from Mosaic, most (70%) of the thatch on the Lagoon Lodge has been sus­tain­ably har­ves­ted from Mosaic — the rest was pur­chased loc­ally. Dead Milkwood branches were used as sup­ports at the Lagoon Lodge. The fur­niture and coun­ter­tops at the Lagoon Lodge were made from a dead tree that we bought, which washed up on the Milnerton Beach and other fur­niture was made by a local fur­niture maker in Hermanus." Kathryn told us that this was done to pre­vent pol­lu­tion from man­u­fac­tur­ing and pol­lu­tion from the trans­port­a­tion of mater­i­als and assisted with job cre­ation. She con­tin­ued, "Our out­door pic­nic tables and trash recept­acles are made from recycled lum­ber, we've used local, nat­ural, dur­able mater­i­als for floor­ing, coun­ter­tops, showers, etc. We use local sup­pli­ers as much as we can for meat, sea­food, cheese and other products and we're very proud of our organic veget­able and herb garden."

Giving back to the com­munity is also of the utmost import­ance when talk­ing about eco-tourism, which Mosaic Farm clearly advocates:

• They are a mem­ber and act­ive par­ti­cipant in the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy and the Stanford Tourism Bureau
• They sup­port Food 4 Thought Pre-Primary School & Garden and organ­ize oppor­tun­it­ies for American stu­dents or post gradu­ate indi­vidu­als to teach in the school.
• They organ­ize and facil­it­ate camps for dis­ad­vant­age youth in Stanford
  • Teen Leadership Camp – teach hos­pit­al­ity skills train­ing and envir­on­mental edu­ca­tion and sports.
  • Day Camp for all ages – games, art, sports.
• They sup­port the Stanford Housing & Development Co-Op (a plan for a sus­tain­able vil­lage to replace the squat­ter camp in Stanford).
• They estab­lished a USA based non-profit fund to assist with fin­an­cial needs of Food 4 Thought Pre-Primary School and the Stanford Housing & Development Co-Op.

The 4-star graded Mosaic Farm is truly an inspir­a­tion, show­ing us all that eco­tour­ism needn't be a com­prom­ise on lux­ury, but is rather a dif­fer­ent way of life which should be embraced and which indeed enhances the exper­i­ences we so treas­ure and con­serves them for gen­er­a­tions to come.

Contact Mosaic Farm:

Address: Provincial Road, Stanford, Western Cape, South Africa
Telephone: +27 (0)28 313‑2814
Web: Visit Mosaic Farm