Green Noise: A podcast series that is breaking the silence on sustainability. We’re making (air) waves for a greener future by addressing important conservation issues and inspiring a new generation of nature warriors. Tune in to listen, learn, and take action.
S5 - Episode 2: Unpacking The Slow Travel Revolution
This second episode of Green Noise Season 5, recorded live at WTM Africa 2026 at the CTICC in Cape Town, brings together two compelling guests - CapeNature’s PR and Promotions team member Danielle Taute, and Bronwen Auret, Chief Quality Assurance Officer at South African Tourism - for a rich conversation about how the Western Cape is positioning itself as a ”slow travel sanctuary.”
Host Dan Corder steers the discussion through themes of post-COVID shifts in traveler behaviour, with Bronwen offering particularly sharp insights into how consumer expectations have fundamentally changed since 2020.
She describes a move away from checklist-style tourism toward niche, immersive experiences, and teases the imminent release of updated grading criteria that embed responsible tourism and community inclusion as non-negotiables rather than afterthoughts. Danielle brings the CapeNature perspective to life through concrete examples like Grootvadersbosch’s eco-cabins, eco-loos, and natural ventilation through indigenous tree canopy - painting a vivid picture of what ”more-less” nature immersion actually looks like in practice.
The second half of the episode broadens into some genuinely thought-provoking territory. The conversation around the ”10-kilometre radius” concept and slow travel economics is particularly compelling - Dan makes an astute point that tourists spending longer in one place, like Swellendam, are essentially laying the groundwork for new local businesses to take root.
The discussion on digital nomadism feels timely and grounded, with Bronwen noting that this trend extends well beyond young remote workers to include empty-nesters and older professionals. Perhaps the most powerful segment, though, is the extended discussion on universal access tourism - Bronwen’s revelation that South Africa has fewer than 150 accredited universal-access properties underscores both the gap and the enormous economic opportunity, with her example of Shambala Lodge in Limpopo offering a genuinely moving glimpse of what fully considered accessible tourism can look like.
15 Apr 2026
S5 - Episode 1: Sprint To 2030 - Are We Ready For A New Travel Era?
Recorded live at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during World Travel Market Africa, this first instalment of a two-part Green Noise video and podcast series by CapeNature brings together SATSA Chairman Oupa Pilane and CapeNature’s Loren Pavitt to imagine the 2030 Nature Seeker. The conference setting gives the episode an energetic, spontaneous feel, and the chemistry between the three participants makes it feel genuinely exploratory. Pilane’s dual role as a macro-level industry voice and hands-on entrepreneur - his Graskop Gorge Lift Company offers everything from a 52-metre gorge descent to ziplines and cliff walks - gives him credibility on both ends of the tourism spectrum, while Pavitt brings sharp institutional thinking about where CapeNature is heading strategically.
Some of the most grounded moments come from Pilane’s honesty about the realities facing small operators. His point that roughly 80% of the tourism sector is made up of small, often family-run businesses - many led by older owners who find technology adoption genuinely hard - is an important counterbalance to the industry optimism that can dominate these conversations. His personal story about going cashless at one of his own businesses after multiple robberies, and his work to get card machines into the hands of informal roadside vendors in Mpumalanga, root the abstract policy discussions in lived experience.
Pavitt’s contributions are consistently forward-looking. Her post-revenge-travel analysis is compelling - the idea that the over-tourism wave has given way to a slower, more intentional traveler who wants to understand the ecological and social story behind a destination. Her description of CapeNature’s stewardship and 30x30 work, building biodiversity corridors across the Western Cape and drawing private landowners into a broader conservation network, paints a picture of an organization thinking at a landscape scale, not just a site-by-site one. Her take on AI is also notably specific: rather than speaking in generalities, she frames the challenge as making sure CapeNature is the answer an AI assistant recommends when someone asks where to travel - and argues that the way to achieve that is through building human, trustworthy digital representations of the brand.
Threaded throughout the episode are a few ideas that don’t get fully resolved but feel important: wellness and mental health as emerging travel motivators, the case for making nature experiences genuinely accessible to people with disabilities, and a pointed argument from Pilane that authentic transformation means equity ownership and local supply chains - not just job creation. Together these themes make the episode feel less like an industry panel and more like a real conversation about what tourism in South Africa could and should become.
2 Apr 2026
S3 - Episode 5: SPECIAL FIRE EDITION: The Burning Truth About Climate Change
In this episode of Green Noise, host Dan Corder takes the conversation to the front lines of the climate crisis, recording from the haunting, ”apocalyptic” remains of the Cederberg’s Algeria Nature Reserve. Joined by James Reeler, a Senior Technical Specialist from WWF South Africa, the two sit amidst a landscape of stark contrasts: lush green river groves set against a backdrop of catastrophic fire devastation. This setting serves as a visceral starting point for a deep dive into how rapid, human-induced climate change is no longer a distant threat but a lived reality for the Western Cape.
Reeler delivers a correction to the popular term ”new normal,” arguing that as long as the drivers of climate change remain unaddressed, we haven’t actually reached a stable ”normal” at all. Instead, we are standing on a shifting baseline where once-in-a-century floods and fires are now occurring with alarming frequency. He explains the science behind this volatility - how warmer air sucks moisture from the soil and vegetation, creating a powder keg for wildfires, while simultaneously holding more water to trigger more intense, erosive flash floods when the rain finally breaks.
The conversation shifts into the fascinating and often overlooked world of ”seed banks” - the dormant life waiting in the soil for decades.
Reeler explains how repeated, high-intensity fires and constant soil disturbance can bankrupt these natural reserves, leading to a permanent loss of biodiversity and ecosystem function. This degradation doesn’t just hurt the plants; it compromises the entire watershed, leading to lower streamflows and higher risks for the communities downstream that rely on that water.
However, the episode isn’t just a catalog of disasters; it’s a blueprint for a ”Just Transition.” Reeler and Corder explore how South Africa can turn these environmental challenges into economic opportunities. From ”agrivoltaics” - the ingenious practice of growing crops under solar panels to save water - to the creation of ”jobs for nature” that involve clearing invasive species and restoring river catchments, the episode makes a compelling case that conservation is the key to solving South Africa’s triple challenge of poverty, inequality, and unemployment.
Who has been a guest on Green Noise
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Wilfred Chivell
Julia Louw
Itumeleng Pooe
Fatima Schloss
Marilyn Hallett
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