The local community has a strong connection with the environment and is heavily involved either directly or indirectly with fishing, agriculture, forestry and ecotourism. The local butcher’s shop stocks meat and fresh produce from farmers in the area.

The Wittedrift village church and school date back about 150 years, and there is evidence that Mathias Theodore Thesen of the Knysna-based Thesen family lived on a farm named Wittedrift in the area in the early 1870s. The village and especially the Green Valley 

township is home to people whose family roots extend back many generations. They have a deep connection with the area and older local residents tell of a region populated by peoples who subsisted on its rich forests, good water supply and abundant flora and fauna.

Wittedrift is rich in ecological diversity, with forests, wetlands, river courses and fynbos. Large sections of established farms have been subdivided over the years and sold off to owners who have established businesses that take advantage of this diversity.