Impacts of urbanization in a biodiversity hotspot: Conservation challenges in Metropolitan Cape Town

Cape Town is an urban hotspot within the Cape Floristic Region global biodiversity hotspot. This city of 2,460 km2 encompasses four local centers of fynbos plant endemism, 19 national terrestrial vegetation types (six endemic to the city), wetland and coastal ecosystems, and 190 endemic plant species. Biodiversity in the lowlands is under threat of extinction as a result of habitat loss to agriculture, urban development, mining, and degradation by invasive alien plants. Cape Town’s population is 3.7 million, increasing by an estimated 55,000 people/yr, which puts pressure on biodiversity remnants for development. South Africa is a signatory to international instruments to reduce biodiversity loss and has a good legislative and policy framework to conserve biodiversity, yet implementation actions are slow, with limited national and provincial support to conserve Cape Town’s unique and irreplaceable biodiversity. The lack-of-action problem is two-fold: national government is slow to implement the policies developed to realize the international instruments it has signed, with conservation initiatives inadequately funded; and local governments are not yet recognized as important implementation partners. A further problem is created by conflicting policies such as the national housing policy that contributes to urban sprawl and loss of critical biodiversity areas. The City’s Biodiversity Management Branch, with partners, is making some headway at implementation, but stronger political commitment is needed at all levels of government. Our objective is to improve the status and management of biodiversity in existing conservation areas through the statutory proclamation process and management effectiveness monitoring, respectively, and to secure priority areas of the BioNet, Cape Town’s systematic biodiversity plan. The most important tools for the latter are incorporating the BioNet plan into City spatial plans; communication, education, and public awareness; negotiating appropriate management of public land; and conservation stewardship on private land. The timeframe to save Cape Town’s biodiversity is short, and it is unlikely that full success will be achieved without national or international funding and political will at all levels of government.

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Can Cape Town's unique biodiversity be saved? Balancing conservation imperatives and development needs.

Recovery of invertebrate diversity in a rehabilitated city landscape mosaic in the heart of a biodiversity hotspot

Whose city? Whose nature? Towards inclusive nature-based solution governance

Conserving biodiversity on mountains holds particular challenges, with topographic species beta diversity being high In turn, conserving mountain biodiversity in the heart of a biodiversity hotspot, with intense urbanization on its lower slopes, poses further challenges We investigate here an iconic mountain at the southern tip of Africa, which is under multiple human pressures, while receiving much conservation attention We sought here some general principles to guide conservation management of this and other similar mountains Our focal organisms were surface-active invertebrates, as they are abundant, diverse, and environmentally sensitive at point localities We show that vegetation structure and elevation were the most important environmental variables determining this diversity Type of fynbos vegetation, proximity of forest to a river, aspect, and abundance of the alien Argentine ant Linepithema humile, had no significant influence Suburban woodland species richness and abundance had a non-significant difference to that of natural forest Fynbos had high species beta diversity of invertebrates, suggesting that large areas of this dominant vegetation type should be conserved However, many specialist and highly local endemic species were in forest, highlighting the irreplaceability of forest habitats Such a mountain, with its complex topography, requires total protection, as there is no room for loss of any part of the mountain We emphasize that, while the upper slope and summit are well protected, the lower slopes are in need of urgent attention, a situation which mirrors that in Europe

N.A. Helme

Papers

The endemic flora of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa