New section for Table Mountain National Park?

[Sprocky]

2014-02-07 09:02

Cape Town - WWF South Africa, the Table Mountain Fund and SANParks are joining forces to save a precious piece of Western Cape mountain land for posterity.

They are calling on members of the public to help them raise R9.2m by June 2014 in order to buy the remaining section of Roodeberg, a picturesque mountain landscape just south of the Noordhoek wetlands just outside Cape Town.

They have earmarked the area to be of global importance.

The southern portion of the Roodeberg is already part of the Table Mountain National Park, where recreational users of the mountain come to immerse themselves in some of the Cape’s most exquisite fynbos and scenery.

But the northern section consists of privately owned properties, a portion of which was run as a tourism venture of the now defunct Solole Game Reserve.

The vision is to open up this previously restricted area to hikers, runners, dog walkers and horse riders, while ensuring that the land and its diverse and unique species are restored and conserved for generations to come.

SANParks’ TMNP Planning Manager, Michael Slayen, explains: “For the past decade, we have been working to consolidate five private properties in this area into the park. To date three of the five properties have been incorporated by purchase and contract, which leaves two of the most vulnerable still outside of the Park’s protection.

“These remaining properties are threatened with inappropriate development, and have been overwhelmed with fire-prone alien invasive vegetation, making the need to acquire them an even greater priority.”

WWF South Africa’s Fynbos and Succulent Karoo Programme Manager, Onno Huyser, adds: “After extensive negotiations with the private owner we have secured an excellent deal to purchase the two remaining properties. We now have until June 2014 to raise the money.”

“In order to safeguard this area of global biodiversity we are now calling on individuals, organisations, schools and businesses to help us to raise this much-needed funding which will help us to restore the Roodeberg and incorporate it into the National Park,” says Huyser.

Once the properties are secured, SANParks will initiate a programme of alien clearing and land rehabilitation, which will also see numerous job opportunities being created for surrounding communities.