Tania Katzschner, Gregg Oelofse, Keith Wiseman, and Joanne Jackson are on the Environmental Management staff of the City of Cape Town. Dean Ferreira is on the City's Nature Conservation staff.

Citation: This paper may be cited as: [Authors.] 2005. [Article title.] In Ted Trzyna, ed., The Urban Imperative. California Institute of Public Affairs, Sacramento, California.

Cape Town, South Africa, is located on the southwestern tip of the continent. The geographic area of the city is approximately 2477 sq km, with an estimated 3.15 million people living within its boundaries, and an annual population growth rate of about 3.5 percent. The city experiences high in-migration, especially from rural areas of Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces.

Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, as well as one of the most biologically and culturally diverse. The city government aims to ensure that these qualities are enhanced for present and future generations, and that residents live in a safe, healthy, and caring environment.

Cape Town’s unique landscape, biodiversity, culture, and heritage are its key economic assets. The city has good infrastructure and services. Tourism and a broad range of tertiary-sector economic activities and investments are built upon and utilize the characteristics that set Cape Town apart from other cities and make it a leading global tourist destination.

Nevertheless, Cape Town faces pressing social and environmental challenges, including unemployment, expanding informal settlements, an HIV/AIDS explosion, increasing levels of crime and tuberculosis, and other aspects of social disintegration.

Ecologically, Cape Town is located within an area of globally significant biodiversity and unique conservation value (see the Note below). This is the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest of the world’s six floral kingdoms, covering only 0.04 percent of the earth’s land surface, and the only one contained within a single country. The Cape Floral Kingdom has approximately 9600 species of indigenous plants, of which 70 percent are endemic and 1406 are listed in the Red Data Book. It is one of Conservation International’s Global Hotspots of Biodiversity, placing an international responsibility on our government to ensure its conservation. A particular conservation focus is needed on Cape Town’s low-lying areas (referred to as Lowlands), which support more than 1466 plant species, and which is also home to the majority of the population and the most disadvantaged people of Cape Town. The Lowlands are under-conserved and highly threatened.

Cape Town is a global urban biodiversity "hotspot" without parallel. It has fifteen vegetation types specific to the unique mix of soil, climate, topography, and oceanic influences found here. These vegetation types include high levels of species diversity and endemism, and unique ecological gradients found nowhere else in the world.

Cape Town is also unusual in that an entire national park, Table Mountain, is situated within its boundaries. In addition, the city is bordered by, and overlaps with, two biosphere reserves (Kogelberg and Cape West Coast). The city government administers 22 protected conservation areas. Of these, only five are currently managed to appropriate standards due to a lack of capacity and resources. However that may be, significantly more conservation and multifunctional protected areas are needed within the city to protect a minimum representative sample of Cape Town’s biodiversity.

The key regional conservation initiative, Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.), a government program funded largely by the UN’s Global Environment Facility, has recommended protecting all remaining habitat types found on the Cape Town Lowlands. Further, among the Broad Habitat Units C.A.P.E. has identified in its regional conservation planning program, four exist only within the city’s boundaries.

Recognizing the importance of conserving biodiversity and its responsibility on behalf of the global common good, the city government has committed itself to developing, implementing, and actively promoting a citywide Biodiversity Strategy.

The Biodiversity Strategy is one of six priority strategies of the city's Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy, adopted in October 2001 (City of Cape Town 2001). These strategies are designed to support each other, especially where there are significant areas of overlap.

The Biodiversity Strategy demonstrates long-term thinking and planning, and a significant commitment by the city government to ensure that current and future generations have access to healthy and vibrant biodiversity.

Conservation has a vague legal and financial mandate within Cape Town’s city government. The role of the city in relation to the Western Cape provincial and South African national governments is not clear. In the context of large-scale poverty and unemployment, and with the city hard-pressed to keep up with delivery of basic services, nature conservation is often perceived as something nice to have, rather than core business.

South Africa is governed by three spheres of government, each with defined roles and areas of service delivery. Chapter 3 of the Constitution outlines the relationships between the spheres of government, introducing the concept of co-operative governance. The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act (Act 47 of 1999) introduced a system of "wall-to-wall" local government in South Africa. The executive and legislative authority of a municipality is vested in its Municipal Council. Municipalities must structure and manage their administration and budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote the social and economic development of the community, and must participate in national and provincial development programs. The national government and provincial governments, by legislative and other measures, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers, and to perform their functions.

Part B of Schedule 4 and Part B of Schedule 5 of The Constitution assign specific functions to local government. These functions are either distinct to local government or concurrent with the provincial or national spheres of government. With regard to environmental management, certain aspects overlap between spheres of government and others fall through the gap. The conservation of biodiversity is one example where the function is not clearly described or ascribed to a particular sphere of government. Although the environment and nature conservation (excluding national parks, national botanical gardens, and marine resources) are functional areas of concurrent national and provincial legislative competence, the Constitution is silent on the scope of the functions and specific administrative competence of the various spheres of government on these issues, and particularly the conservation of biodiversity in the broader sense.

Since local government restructuring in 2000, every action to conserve biodiversity takes place within the jurisdiction of a local municipal or district council. Municipal planning, building regulations, storm water management, municipal public works, water and sanitation services, municipal parks and recreation, and collection of rates are functions of municipalities that impact on the conservation of biodiversity. However, to date, conservation and biodiversity programs have remained focused at national and provincial level, with little attention given to enhancing the role of local government in the long term sustainability, health, and vibrancy of South Africa’s biodiversity. This is particularly relevant in the Cape Floristic Kingdom where high levels of endemism and diversity occur in small geographic areas.

Another institutional problem in promoting an integrated approach to conservation of biodiversity in Cape Town is that the main city officials concerned, the Director of Planning and Environment, and the Director of Open Space and Nature Conservation, report to different executive directors.

The Biodiversity Strategy offers a unique opportunity to introduce a paradigm shift, including:

• A coordinated and integrated approach to conservation and biodiversity from a citywide perspective across line functions;
• Biodiversity goals based on citywide biodiversity targets;
• Equitable distribution of, and access to, biological wealth;
• Improved and redistributed benefits to disadvantaged communities arising directly from the conservation of biodiversity;
• Participative, open, and transparent approaches to conservation of biodiversity, rather than restrictive ones;
• Creative approaches to protection and enhancement of biodiversity;
• Partnerships with external and donor organizations.

The Strategy therefore includes:

• Identifying the need for a multi-faceted task team;
• Specific roles and functions of the task team;
• Integration of current biodiversity initiatives.

A City Biodiversity Task Team has been established to oversee and implement the Biodiversity Strategy. It is made up of representatives from different service delivery units within the city government, as well as key partners.

For each of the seven strategic objectives described below, working groups composed of representatives of different line functions are responsible for developing action plans. These action plans will be implemented through line functions, area managers, partners, partnerships, and project managers.

A Biodiversity Forum has been convened by the city as a mechanism for communication, partnerships, and coordination around biodiversity issues in Cape Town. The forum will include biodiversity stakeholders citywide. This will ensure alignment with regional plans and initiatives, and will facilitate formal partnerships and working relationships.

The Biodiversity Strategy identifies seven strategic objectives that must to be met to adequately conserve the unique biodiversity found in Cape Town. These seven objectives are the core of the Biodiversity Strategy. Unless all of them are met, biodiversity in Cape Town will remain under pressure and is likely to be lost in the long-term.

The seven strategic objectives are as follows:

a.  Primary biodiversity (conservation areas and biodiversity nodes).  This strategic objective refers to the establishment and effective management of a network of biodiversity areas and nodes that are actively managed with the primary function of conserving biodiversity. These include all local government nature reserves; possible public-private partnerships; and any other areas, including privately owned land, that are managed for the specific purpose of conserving and protecting biodiversity. The Biodiversity Network must be aligned with regional conservation efforts, and integrated with other conservation programs working in the city, such as the Western Cape Nature Conservation Board and Table Mountain National Park.

b.  Secondary biodiversity (conservation through corridors, links, and mixed-use areas).  This objective refers to areas that are not specifically managed with conservation and protection of biodiversity as a primary function, but which connect the primary biodiversity areas and nodes into a complete and functional Biodiversity Network. Secondary biodiversity includes mixed-use areas, as well as areas that act as corridors, links, and stepping-stones for wildlife and natural ecosystems. Recognizing the urban context within which the conservation of biodiversity will take place, the importance of open space is acknowledged, although it is recognized that it may serve other primary functions. Such open space includes, among other areas, rivers, ecological buffer zones along rivers, areas forming part of the storm water management system, linear parkways, parks, scenic drives, road verges, and transport routes.

c.  Conservation of biodiversity in freshwater aquatic systems.  This objective refers to managing freshwater aquatic systems in a manner that maintains or enhances biodiversity while ensuring effective functioning for other purposes. Cape Town’s rivers, wetlands, dams, and estuaries form important "green corridors" between the mountains and the coastline, and provide habitats for a rich diversity of terrestrial and aquatic life. These freshwater aquatic systems are essential components of the Biodiversity Network. Further, they moderate floods, purify water, and generate and renew soil fertility. In addition to these natural ecosystem services, they form a vital component of the city’s storm water management system, are key recreational nodes, and are used for conveyance and disposal of wastewater effluents.

d.  Invasive alien species management.  This objective refers to formulating and implementing a City Alien Invasive Species Management Programme. Invasive alien species pose one of the greatest threats to biodiversity in Cape Town. They compete with indigenous species for habitat and, in the case of vegetation, increase intensity of fires and have a negative effect on water quantity and quality.

e.  Biodiversity legislation and enforcement.  This addresses the need for relevant legislation to provide protection to, and guidelines for, the management and utilization of species, habitat, and ecologically sensitive areas accommodated within the Biodiversity Network and elsewhere. This objective further refers to ensuring that existing and new legislation, as it relates to biodiversity, is enforced and made effective. Legislation is a key tool for protecting and enhancing biodiversity across the city. In addition, the city is a signatory to the C.A.P.E. memorandum of understanding, and it is therefore essential that appropriate measures be put into place to meet the commitments made.

f.  Biodiversity information and monitoring system.  Up-to-date and detailed information is needed to implement the Biodiversity Strategy. The system called for in this strategic objective is a central database where high-quality information is stored, interpreted, and made available to policy- and decision-makers at all levels. In addition, the system will be the foundation for detailed and accurate monitoring of the state of the city’s biodiversity.

g.  Biodiversity education and awareness.  The Biodiversity Strategy relies on buy-in and ownership of biodiversity by the people of Cape Town and sharing of responsibilities between local government and environmentally educated residents. This objective refers to empowering the citizens of Cape Town through education, as well as informing city leaders and staff about the city’s biodiversity responsibilities. Education, training, and awareness are pivotal to the success of the Strategy.

A rigorous conservation planning analysis has been completed that identifies the minimum areas needed to conserve an ecologically representative set of Cape Town’s unique biodiversity. These comprise 261 sites totaling 32,262 ha and are proposed to form part of the city’s Biodiversity Network (City of Cape Town 2002). In addition, a network of corridors and links were identified using a friction analysis model.

The development of the biodiversity database has come a long way. Biodiversity information is being disseminated to internal users, and will soon be provided to external users via the Internet and related technologies for use in land-use decision-making at strategic and project levels. Partnerships are being formed with organizations involved in similar database work, such as C.A.P.E., the South African National Biodiversity Institute, and the Botanical Society of South Africa.

Currently, the Biodiversity Network is being widely publicized and workshops are being held to discuss it. The aim is to integrate the Network with all relevant city government initiatives and programs, particularly those related to spatial policies and plans.

Formulation of the draft Biodiversity Strategy was initiated in March 2001 with appointment of an interim Biodiversity Steering Committee. The first draft Strategy was produced in March 2002 and circulated to city officials for comment. A revised draft was presented at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002, where it received wide support.

Following a thorough public and stakeholder consultation and participation process, the City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Strategy was adopted in November 2003 (City of Cape Town 2003).

Cape Town faces pressing socio-economic needs: More than 20 percent of its residents are unemployed and many live in abject poverty without adequate basic services. It is within this context that biodiversity conservation needs to be sustainable. This requires conservation to be closely integrated with social and economic development, as well as general environmental improvement.

The key challenge is changing how biodiversity is perceived by different sectors of society. The housing sector, for example, sees biodiversity as competing for land. Many people in poor and disadvantaged communities see it as irrelevant. The tourism industry thinks of biodiversity mainly in terms of traditional African wildlife tourism.

Another critical challenge is the widespread feeling that the privileged classes believe animals and plants are more important than people. This is reinforced by the insensitivities of a previous political era that accompanied the creation of many parks and protected areas.

Major changes in Cape Town’s political and administrative structure over the past several years have made it difficult to introduce integrative ways of thinking and working. Fragmentation of environmental responsibilities within the city government, and among the city, provincial, and national governments, further complicates matters.

Finally, the city government is under financial pressure and such priorities as public security and health, upgrading informal settlements, and addressing service backlogs take precedence over nature conservation and environmental management. It is not often recognized that synergies exist between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, that conservation is a not a luxury but a fundamental building block for sustainable development.

The City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Strategy is a systematic plan of action for the protection and enhancement of biodiversity that has foresight and commitment and acknowledges social and economic realities.

Cape Town wishes to lead by example and learn from other cities’ experiences. We invite other cities to become our partners by sharing good practices. We are especially interested in sustainable financing mechanisms for the city’s Biodiversity Network; social and economic opportunities associated with biodiversity; examples of business plans for implementing biodiversity strategies; mixed-use conservation models such as "green developments"; case studies of, and guidelines for, functional biological corridors; and alternative service delivery mechanisms for nature conservation.

• South Africa has the second highest number of plant extinctions in the world;
• Cape Town contains remnants of the threatened renosterveld vegetation of which only 3 percent remains of its original extent, making it one of the most endangered vegetation types in South Africa, if not the world;
• 70 percent of the Cape Floral Kingdom’s 9600 plant species are found nowhere else on earth;
• The Cape Town Lowlands have the highest concentration of threatened plants per area of remaining vegetation in the world;
• The Cape Town Lowlands support more than 1466 plant species in 1874 sq km, of which 76 are endemic and 131 are Red Data Book species;
• The Cape Peninsula mountain chain supports 2285 plant species in 471 sq km, of which 90 species are endemic;
• 41 mammal species remain in Cape Town, with six recently extinct;
• 250 bird species live in Cape Town, of which 10 are endangered, and with at least three becoming extinct in recent years;
• There are approximately 111 endemic invertebrate species on the Cape Peninsula mountain chain alone;
• There are 18 amphibian species in Cape Town, of which four are listed in the Red Data Book;
• There are 48 reptile species in Cape Town, of which four are endangered, with two locally extinct;
• 24 fish species are dependent on Cape Town’s estuaries.

C.A.P.E. "Cape Action for People and the Environment." Cape Action for People and the Environment, http://www.capeaction.org.za.

City of Cape Town. 2001. Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy. Posted at http://www.capetown.gov.za/imep.

City of Cape Town. 2003. Biodiversity Strategy. Posted at http://www.capetown.gov.za/imep/pdf/biodiversity.pdf.

City of Cape Town. 2002. Identification of a Biodiversity Network for the City of Cape Town.

This paper copyright © 2004 International Union for

Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

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