ABI was born in 2003 as a partnership between 25 organisations on the Agulhas Plain – farmers associations, NGOs, municipalities, the Department of Agriculture, SANParks, CapeNature and others – all involved in safeguarding biodiversity to provide services, work, and in fact life itself for the local community. Says Tertius Carinus, ABI Co-ordinator, “ABI partners are working together to “restore relations” between nature and humans”, adding “if you see what we have done together over the past 6 years, we certainly have got some things right.”