The 2nd MBZ Fund Chairman’s Award in 2025, supported by Dolphin Energy, focuses on the Rough Moss Frog (Arthroleptella rugosa) from South Africa. Endemic to the Klein Swartberg Mountain, this species faces severe threats to its survival, a mere decade after its discovery. With challenges like below-average rainfall, wildfires, and invasive vegetation, researchers were worried about this tiny creature’s future. By 2016, it was listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, and by 2019, only three populations remained in its entire habitat.

Hope ignited in March 2022 when a groundbreaking prescribed ecological burn was conducted, the first of its kind to protect a critically endangered species. Four months later, researchers were excited to hear frogs calling at all three known populations.

Thanks to this support, Lampie Fick and his team at the KLEIN SWARTBERG CONSERVANCY were able to enhance conservation efforts. They repaired 8 kilometres of access routes damaged by flooding and cleared invasive vegetation from 308 hectares of Moss Frog habitats. This project not only protects the Moss Frog but also created 1,044 person-days of employment.