Supporting and driving conservation initiatives in Cape Town.
The City of Cape Town embarked on a conservation strategy, identifying critical areas of conservation importance across the City resulting in the creation of the Cape Town Biodiversity Network (Bionet), considering state and privately owned land for the creation of Core Biodiversity Areas (CBAs) and corridors connecting them. Given the Municipal Finance Management Act, it is not possible for the City of Cape Town to ensure implementation of the Bionet across the city as they are unable to use public funds on private land. To address this the Nature Care Fund was born in 2007 so as to act as a funding conduit for conservation projects around the city.
Each of the conservation areas has a dedicated conservation manager who is supported through the Nature Care Fund. These individuals monitor manage the sites and their teams, and carry out every-day conservation duties. Since the establishment of the first conservation area in 2007, the Nature Care Fund has continued to expand its conservation efforts entering discussions with developers and stakeholders to try and ensure the protection of important conservation areas, exploring various funding models to ensure the long-term management of these sites. All current sites have long-term funding agreements in place.
Site management projects
Kenilworth Racecourse Conservation Area
Kenilworth Racecourse hosts 52ha of critically endangered Cape Sand Plain Fynbos. This site is home to rare and endemic species, including the reintroduced Erica verticillata, once extinct in the wild.
Milnerton Racecourse Conservation Area
Milnerton racecourse hosts a 19ha patch of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos with 333 plant species, including 34 Red Data species. Despite its small size, a population of grysbok remains, visible during seasonal walks.
Muizenberg East Biodiversity Cluster
The Muizenberg East Biodiversity Cluster consists of small conservation areas (2-9ha) within an urban matrix. These areas host endangered Cape Flats Dune Strandveld and critically endangered flora and fauna.
Despite appearing isolated, there’s enough connectivity for game movement, with camera traps revealing cape grysbok, porcupine, small spotted genet, water mongoose, and cape spurfowl.
Zoarvlei Section, Table Bay Nature Reserve
This section of the Table Bay Nature Reserve is situated between Paarden Eiland Industrial Centre and the suburbs of Rugby and Brooklyn. This wetland reserve is 40 ha in size, with 87 species of plants occurring on site.
Alien invasives and illegal dumping are among the biggest challenges to this urban site. These issues not only threaten the native biodiversity but also disrupt the ecological balance.
Rondebosch common
Located at the heart of Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs, Rondebosch Common is one of the city’s more popular urban green spaces for recreation. The Rondebosch Common Conservation Area (RCCA) is 40 ha in size and is a vital wildlife habitat at the heart of the city. It is one of the last remaining intact fragments of Critically Endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, a highly biodiverse lowland vegetation type that is only found within the greater Cape Town area. It is therefore of national and international conservation importance. It has more than 300 plant species, a significant number of which are on the IUCN Red List as species of conservation concern.
More than 80 bird species have been recorded visiting or breeding on the RCCA, and a plethora of other wildlife ranging from insects to frogs and snakes, as well as small mammals, occur here.
