Nature Connect has the unique pleasure of managing several invaluable pockets of nature within the City of Cape Town, with equally impressive funding models. The Nature Connect Board of Trustees recently visited all the conservation sites and their excellent team of Area Conservation managers.

The Board was reminded of the value of Kenilworth Racecourse, which retains its status as one of the best examples of functional Cape Flats Sand Fynbos left in the world. Here they got to enjoy the glory of examining two plant species that occur nowhere else on earth. After that, they went on to the Milnerton Racecourse conservation area, followed by the Zoarvlei section of Table Bay Nature Reserve. Here they met the Chairperson of the Paarden Eiland City Improvement District and learned more about the co-funding model, which contributes to the successful management of Zoarvlei.

The Board then had the opportunity to walk through the conservation area at Soralia Village (one of the security estates involved in a unique co-management arrangement with the City and Nature Connect). The afternoon wrapped up with a walk with Nature Connect Penguin Rangers along sections of beach which African penguins nest and call home.

Nature Connect believes in growing the conservation estate through securing more funding for more ecological management of high-value biodiversity land in the City. We hope that the next Board Tour will take them into several more areas as the models showcased on this tour are rolled out through future development processes.