Questions people ask about Nature Connect

Nature Connect is a Cape Town charity that connects people to nature at three leverage points. We help schools build environmental work that lasts, with lessons, outings and overnight camps for their learners. We train young people for work in the green economy through learnerships, internships and short courses. We manage urban conservation land in the Western Cape with the communities who live beside it.

Since 2001. The work began as the Zeekoevlei Environmental Education Programme on the banks of Zeekoevlei in Cape Town, became the Cape Town Environmental Education Trust in 2006 and took the name Nature Connect Trust in 2021. 2026 is our twenty-fifth year. Our story, year by year.

Our two anchor sites are Cape Town, for camps, schools and training, and Calvinia in the Northern Cape, for youth conservation training in the Succulent Karoo. School camps run at Bokbaai on the West Coast. Schools in eight provinces take part in our whole-school sustainability work: the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, North West, Gauteng and Limpopo.

Since 2001, 62,689 children have attended our overnight camps and 98,791 have taken part in environmental excursions and school activities. Since 2007, 507 volunteers have given their time to conservation action. In the past year we filled 741 training places, and we protect and co-manage 155 hectares of urban conservation land. Our annual and integrated reports.

Dr Anthony Roberts is Chief Executive Officer. A voluntary Board of Trustees provides strategic direction, oversight and accountability, and we subscribe to the Independent Code of Governance. Meet the staff on the team page and the trustees on the About page.

Email bookings@natureconnect.earth or call our environmental education team on 021 706 8523. Our educators run curriculum-linked lessons in schools, outings to the False Bay Nature Reserve and other outdoor spaces, and overnight camps at the Bokbaai Environmental Education Centre on the West Coast. Camps and outings.

Learners sleep in two-person tents and explore sandy and rocky shores, dunes, river systems and Strandveld, with a biodiversity centre and digital microscopes for a closer look. The site runs on renewable electricity and recycles its water. Mapula Trust grants the use of the facility, and over the past four years more than 3,500 learners and young conservationists have spent time there.

Learnerships suit school leavers and unemployed young people with a Grade 12 certificate, and employed people who need a formal qualification. They run for a year, lead to a Nature Conservation qualification at NQF2 or NQF4, and pay a stipend. Internships suit graduates and students who need a work-integrated learning year. One form covers both and takes about ten minutes: training and opportunities.

Join the volunteer list and we will contact you when there is work near you. Tasks include clearing invasive alien plants, monitoring species, planting indigenous stock and maintaining paths, usually during the week. Bring closed shoes, a hat and water. No experience is needed. Last year volunteers gave 665 hours across our sites. Companies planning a team day should talk to us early, so the day fits what a site needs that season.

Head office: 021 100 5613 or admin@natureconnect.earth. Giving: donations@natureconnect.earth. School bookings: 021 706 8523 or bookings@natureconnect.earth. Our office is at Unit 3B, Tokai on Main Business Park, 2 Burchell Street, Tokai, Cape Town, 7945.