Leverage point three
Scale People-Centred Urban Conservation
Urban biodiversity improves when people have a stake in it. Our sites sit inside the city, surrounded by communities, businesses and landowners, so we grow conservation around those relationships. Scaling this work means growing the number of people, partners and funding streams that keep these landscapes alive.
The problem we address
The Greater Cape Floristic Region is the world’s smallest floral kingdom and a global biodiversity hotspot.
Climate change threatens ecosystems the world over, through disrupted rainfall, rising temperatures, the spread of pests and diseases and altered fire regimes. In low rainfall, fire driven systems such as fynbos, those impacts are predicted to be severe.
Urban areas like Cape Town, where biodiversity and endemism are high and development pressure is even higher, feel it most. Ongoing urban expansion squeezes remaining natural habitat, making it harder for municipalities to maintain ecological corridors, replenish groundwater and manage heat.
Restore nature, invest in people, build partnerships
We back practical conservation on urban and peri-urban land, and we give community organisations, sites and partners the governance, technical and financial support that keeps rivers, wetlands, threatened habitats and vulnerable species cared for.
Established in 2007, our conservation fund channels private sector money into conservation on both public and private land. Working with communities, landowners, developers, government, universities and NGOs, it unlocks conservation finance, restores ecological systems and widens access to nature. We work across four focus areas.
Expand stewardship partnerships
Sites are co-managed with the landowners, authorities and residents who live and work beside them, and who share the cost of keeping them.
Strengthen community conservation organisations
Catalytic grants paired with administration training, so a group finishes its grant year able to raise money on its own strength.
Increase access to conservation areas
People value and support conservation when they can experience it directly. Guided walks and volunteer days open the gate.
Grow conservation finance solutions
Offset agreements, homeowners association contributions and CID levies, so a site has a budget that does not end with a grant cycle.
This year in numbers
Financial year ended 28 February 2026.
From the project lead
Lynette Munro
I have watched this year bring more funding, more land under management and more people into conservation, by balancing biodiversity restoration, grassroots support, youth skills development and financial innovation.
More significantly, the programme is demonstrating a model for urban conservation in which local government, communities, developers, NGOs and donors fund the work jointly over the long term. Whilst still a drop in the proverbial ocean, this remains a great step forward towards effective urban biodiversity conservation.
Looking forward, we want more examples of co-management in the urban environment. That means securing funding for conservation as mitigation within environmental impact assessment processes, and persuading City Improvement Districts to see the value of co-managed conservation.
We will retain our connections to grassroots conservation through the Small Grants Facility, and the part we play in giving young graduates genuine work experience.
Priorities for the year ahead
Start further co-management partnerships for urban conservation land.
Secure conservation funding as mitigation within impact assessment processes.
Bring City Improvement Districts into co-managed conservation funding.
Keep grassroots support and graduate work experience at the centre.
Have land, or live beside it?
Landowners, developers, City Improvement Districts and residents associations fund and co-manage conservation on their doorstep. Eighteen years of this model says it works.
