Belinzona is part of a handful of Rooibos farms that achieved successful certification during 2022 against the UEBT / RA Herbs and Spices Programme. This is a significant achievement for Belinzona as it supports our value of sustainable farming, including the protection of the environment.
As owners of the Belinzona farm we will stive to continuously ensure that we farm our Organic Rooibos in harmony with nature.
Herbs and spices are used in a variety of foods, beverages, and flavourings and provide important income to farmers around the world. The Union of Ethical Biotrade (UEBT) and the Rainforest Alliance (RA) have developed a joint Herbs & Spices Programme.
The UEBT/Rainforest Alliance Herbs & Spices Programme brings together the current UEBT/UTZ Herbal Tea Program along with the UTZ and Rainforest Alliance certification programmes for herbs, spices, rooibos, and vanilla. The programme applies to:
- all ingredients for herbal and fruit infusions, including rooibos, and
- other herbs & spices, including vanilla, chili, and pepper.
Belinzona was successful with the Rainforest Alliance certification during 2019. Our vision as a farm was aligned to the vision of Rainforest Alliance where people and nature thrive in harmony. The Rainforest Alliance is striving towards creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.
UEBT envisions a world in which people and biodiversity thrive. To achieve its vision, UEBT works to regenerate biodiversity and secure a better future for people through ethical sourcing of ingredients from biodiversity.
The joint UEBT / RA Herbs & Spices Programme was launched during 2021 and the first audits against these standards took place during 2022. Belinzona decided to subscribe to this new programme that also had a very specific focus on the protection and enhancement of biodiversity and in our case specifically the fynbos biome that is part of the Cape Floral Kingdom.
The Cape Floristic Region is a floristic region near the southern tip of South Africa. The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral Kingdoms of the world, is an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism and is home to over 9,000 vascular plants, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fire-prone shrubland. The Cape Floristic Region has both economic and intrinsic biological value as a biodiversity hotspot.
Fynbos covers only about 6.7% of South Africa (about 85 000 km2) but has the largest number of plant species of any biome in the country (about 7500). Most Fynbos is found along the coast and in the Cape Fold Mountains between Nieuwoudtville in the north-west and Gqeberha in the east. It is unique also because of its abundance of plant species and its significant endemicity, with 68% of fynbos species belonging exclusively to the Cape Floral Kingdom. This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.
Rooibos (transl. red bush), Aspalathus linearis, is a broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa’s fynbos biome.
The vegetation on Belinzona consist of the Bokkeveld Sandstone Fynbos as well as the Nadouw Sandstone Fynbos.
A significant effort was required to comply with all the new areas as it specifically relates to the protection and enhancement of biodiversity. A detailed Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) was prepared and will be implemented.
