A quiet revolution is happening in Cape Town. Over the past five years South African National Parks (SANParks) has been implementing an unprecedented conservation programme that aims to protect one of the world’s most unique, diverse and threatened floral kingdoms.
Of the six floral kingdoms that span the globe, the Cape kingdom is the smallest but richest. While the northern Holarctic kingdom covers 40% of the Earth’s surface, the Cape floral kingdom covers a mere 90 000 square kilometres
(or 0,04%). Yet it supports the highest density of plant species in the world – nearly 9 000 in total. Seventy percent of these are endemic and will not be found anywhere else in the world.
The Cape floral kingdom is unique in that it is the only kingdom entirely contained within one country. This is why it is one of the world’s most threatened biospheres. Because the habitats are so localised, the plants are highly susceptible to environmental pressures. According to IUCN-The World Conservation Union, the region has the highest concentration of threatened plant species in the world.
The greatest threat to biodiversity is urban expansion. Agriculture, industry, invasive alien vegetation, runaway fires, increasing numbers of tourists and recreational visitors, as well as impoverished communities, further threaten the fragile ecosystem.
Faced with these challenges, SANParks proclaimed the Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNP) in 1998. Since then it has embarked on an ambitious, ground-breaking programme to implement conservation techniques and promote sustainable development by involving affected communities living within the park’s boundaries.
Stretching 60km from Cape Point to Signal Hill, CPNP encompasses the entire Cape Peninsula mountain chain. It boasts a high diversity of plant species — its 21 000ha contain 2 285 species of plants, more than the entire British Isles (1 492 species) or New Zealand (1 996 species).
Unlike other conservation areas, the CPNP is surrounded by a metropole – Cape Town – and it borders highly populated and densely urbanised areas.
This puts pressure on SANParks to accommodate a wide range of activities and communities. With so many stakeholders, the CPNP has had to perform a fine balancing act between extending conservation areas and promoting sustainable development. As a result, it has begun to implement an unprecedented collaboration with as many affected communities as possible.
Establishment
Although the CPNP was only proclaimed in 1998, the idea of conserving this unique natural heritage was first mooted in 1929, when the South African Wildlife Society proposed declaring Table Mountain and its surrounds a national park.
In the following decades little was done and it was only in 1984 that several large portions of land were designated ‘nature areas” in terms of the Physical Planning Act.
Five years later, the boundaries of the area were defined and the Cape Peninsula Protected Natural Environment was formally proclaimed. During this time Table Mountain was declared a national monument, several nature reserves were established and the natural areas of the Cape Peninsula were declared protected natural environments. The problem was that these areas were under the ownership and management of 14 different public bodies and more than 200 private landowners.
‘Originally, protected areas were only established on land owned by the state that was then fenced in, often to the exclusion of the people who previously occupied it,” explains David Waddilove, an adviser who assists the park’s managers on legal issues. ‘However, changing conservation practice has recognised the need to protect land that is privately owned and to manage it in collaborative arrangements.”
After numerous attempts to consolidate this land ownership under one single conservation authority, the first portions of the CPNP were proclaimed in 1998. This gave the conservation area the legal protection of the state, and placed it under the single management authority of SANParks.
Because of the many different threats facing the park, officials have had to implement a multi-pronged conservation approach. The first step has been to incorporate as many areas into the park as possible, bearing in mind that a large percentage of it falls within the city and its developed environs.
Partnerships
At the moment, about 21 000ha of land is managed by the park. But nearly 6 000ha remains in the hands of some 155 private landowners.
To consolidate the park, officials have offered a variety of incentives to persuade private landowners to allow their land to be incorporated into the CPNP and to be managed by the park. These include reduced rates, funded clearing programmes and comprehensive management of natural resources for which the landowner would otherwise have to pay.
For instance, private properties currently contracted into the park are exempt from property rates. While a new rates dispensation is being introduced through the Property Rates Bill – in terms of which all properties will be required to be valued at a fixed rate for different categories – landowners who contract in will form part of a powerful lobby group pushing for rates exemption.
Another incentive relates to the thorny issue of clearing invasive alien species. At present, all property owners are legally responsible for clearing their land of invasive aliens. To fund this privately would cost on average about R6 000 a hectare. Areas managed by the park will be cleared at no cost to the landowners who contract in.
Similarly, landowners are legally required to create fire breaks and have access to fire-fighting equipment. Owners who contract in will enjoy automatic membership of the Cape Peninsula Fire Protection Association, which will provide these services at reduced costs.
The CPNP will also maintain, at its own cost, designated public footpaths and provide assistance with erosion control on contracted-in private land.
CPNP has adopted a systematic approach to securing land, and any agreement between the park and landowners is formalised in terms of a comprehensive legal contract. The contract is flexible, adapted to the individual owner’s needs and the land always remains in private ownership.
In terms of a contract, the owner will make the land available to SANParks for a specified period – usually 99 years – during which the landowner still has certain rights over the land. Provision for new buildings and infrastructure can also be negotiated, but the park requests first right of refusal on purchasing the land.
Management
In 2001, Cape Town’s Environmental Management Department, in partnership with the CPNP and Cape Metropolitan Tourism, conducted a survey of residents and a variety of organisations on broad environmental and tourism issues. The survey involved representatives of about 1 200 governmental and non-governmental organisations and formed the basis of the provincial government’s Integrated Environmental Management System (IEMS).
The foundation of the IEMS is a use-zone map that aims to limit the impact of any given activity in any area. Certain zones are more sensitive than others and require care and management.
The system aims to develop strategic conservation initiatives without compromising the natural ecosystem, and still maintain the open access system. Most of the CPNP is unfenced (except the Cape of Good Hope area) and this creates several unique problems. For instance, a large number of penguins from the Boulders colony were knocked down recently while trying to cross the road to reach their nesting sites.
The colony of African penguins lives cheek by jowl with Simon’s Town residents in a natural protected area at Boulders Beach. According to Justin Buchmann, CPNP section ranger for the Southern Area, 19 penguins were killed by speeding motorists in a period of four months. To reduce the fatalities, CPNP managers installed what is probably the world’s first ‘penguin crossing”.
‘This is one of the more unusual aspects of managing South Africa’s only national park located in the middle of a city. We are fortunate to enjoy a good working relationship with the City of Cape Town,” says Buchmann.
High on the park’s agenda is the need to control visitors while still providing a high-quality recreational and tourist experience. Park officials have proposed a mechanism for channelling the increasing number of visitors to the park through the development of a limited number of interconnected gateways. These will direct visitors to areas where the impact on the environment can effectively be reduced.
Aliens
Perhaps the greatest threat to the fragile ecosystem and biodiversity are invasive alien plants. Without adequate measures to control invasive plants, approximately 40% of the remaining natural vegetation is likely to be invaded within the next 20 years and many species will face extinction as a result.
SANParks adopted the international Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) during last year’s World Summit on Sustainable Development. The GISP was initially developed in 1996 and was established in 1997 to address the global threats caused by invasive alien species and to provide support for the implementation of Article 8 (h): Convention on Biological Diversity.
Alien vegetation, most of it imported from Australia earlier this century to stabilise the sandy Cape Flats, has adapted so well to the local environment that it has, in many instances, displaced much of the indigenous vegetation.
Alien plants pose several threats to indigenous vegetation: they draw more water than indigenous species; they burn more easily – creating more of a fire hazard than local species; and they overwhelm and displace naturally existing vegetation at great cost and inconvenience.
The fire hazard is serious – as demonstrated by the terrible fires that raged across the mountain reserves in 2000 and earlier this year. Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, appointed a task team to investigate the underlying reasons of the severity of the fires that occurred in January 2000. Findings pointed to the fire hazard posed by non- indigenous plants.
This prompted the government to launch the Ukuvuka-Operation Firestop initiative. A partnership between several organisations and departments, the project aims to eradicate invasive aliens from the park by the end of this year.
Alien vegetation is controlled by physical removal; through chemical herbicides; and by introducing biological enemies. Research is done to ensure that the introduced enemy will not attack the indigenous vegetation.
About 6 000ha – nearly a third of the area managed by the park – has been cleared so far, and another 22 000ha are in the process of being cleared through funding provided by the Global Environment Fund. Plans are in place to clear all seed-bearing aliens from the park by the end of 2003.
This clearing programme has created employment for some 300 people drawn from historically disadvantaged communities living adjacent to the park.
‘This initiative is having a major positive impact in reducing the risk of runaway wild fires in the park and into the urban edge, as well as alleviating poverty through creating work for previously unemployed people and promoting social cohesion,” says Brian Watkyns, executive councillor heading the city’s Planning and Environment Committee.
But while CPNP is concerned to remove alien species, it also recognises that certain areas of non-indigenous forests are widely used for recreational purposes.
Two such forests are the 700ha Tokai and Cecilia plantations on the slopes of Table Mountain. Cecilia and Tokai forests still fall under the jurisdiction of the state’s forestry company, Safcol. In terms of an agreement between the government and Mountain to Ocean Forestry – a division of Safcol – the forestry company will continue commercial logging in the area for several years to come, while the CPNP will focus on rehabilitation and ground management.
CPNP will also rehabilitate Newlands Forest by planting more than 3 000 indigenous saplings in areas cleared of alien vegetation. This is part of its long-term plan to rehabilitate the indigenous forests of the Cape Peninsula. Currently there are only about 500ha of indigenous mountain (Afromontane) forest left in the Peninsula. These are spread over 164 forest patches, with the largest patches at Newlands (192ha), Kirstenbosch (97ha) and Orange Kloof near Hout Bay (100ha).
The seedling project, which started in November 2001, has already produced more than 6 000 saplings successfully propagated from seeds collected in Newlands Forest.
Funding
All these initiatives require funding, expertise and infrastructure – perhaps more than any organisation, including the state, can provide. As a result, CPNP has entered into partnerships with a variety of organisations that can provide these resources.
The World Wide Fund for Nature-South Africa (WWF-SA) has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with SANParks. Since 1968, WWF-SA (and its forerunner, the Southern African Nature Foundation) has helped establish new parks and reserves and expanded existing ones. In the past 34 years it has assisted with the establishment and expansion of 12 national parks, including the CPNP.
A major focus of the World Summit on Sustainable Development was the crucial role of ‘Type II partnerships” (initiatives undertaken jointly by national governments, other state or parastatal authorities, private enterprise and NGOs) in alleviating poverty, promoting sustainable development and protecting the natural environment.
Recognising that the eradication of poverty is a key principle of sustainable development and acknowledging that poverty and social depression are rife within certain local communities on the peninsula, several other funding organisations have allocated money to help eradicate poverty and to involve disadvantaged communities in the CPNP’s conservation programmes. These include the Agence Française de Development, USAid, the Global Environment Facility and the World Bank.
Further initiatives involve the development of protected marine areas. South African shores are particularly rich in biodiversity – about 10 000 species of marine plants and animals have been recorded in the waters around Southern Africa. This represents almost 15% of all coastal marine species known worldwide.
Assessment studies are being conducted into the establishment of protected marine areas.