The “Be Resilient” project within the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve in the Western Cape South Africa focuses on the Eerste River and its tributaries. It is a pilot project aimed at the development of an ecosystem-based response to climate change utilising a bottom-up, participatory approach. It partners with five communities living along the river namely Jonkershoek, Idas Valley, Cloetesville, Khayamandi and Faure.

The project is modelled around three lines of action namely 1. Climate Risk Informed Decision Analysis (CRIDA); 2. Monitoring and Early Warning; and 3. Capacity building and Technology Transfer.

The project aims to provide capacity building of national and local stakeholders and technology transfer on innovative tools for climate change adaptation and monitoring. This is done by upskilling Citizen Scientists to use the mini-South African Scoring System for river and stream monitoring. It is a simple tool which can be used by anyone to monitor the health of a river by recording and scoring the macroinvertebrates (small animals) found in a sample of the river water.