permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

> http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20040217/sc_nm/environment_safrica_flora_dc&e=3 

Science - Reuters
South Africa's Badlands Get Touch of Green
        
Mon Feb 16, 8:43 PM ET

By Gordon Bell

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's Cape Flats area is awash with drugs and violent gangs, but amid the despair is a window into the dusty 
landscape's former ecological glory.


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"Our story will blow you away," Zwai Peter says proudly, looking out at the "fynbos" -- rare flowers unique to the region -- and the 
chattering birds in the heart of Cape Town's ganglands.

The Edith Stephens Wetland Park is a haven for some of the rarest plant and animal life in the world and has become a source of pride for 
the people of neighboring Manenberg.

The Cape Flats is a string of settlements inhabited mostly by black and mixed-race people on the east side of the tourist city, famous for 
the towering Table Mountain, sandy beaches and world class restaurants.

The area, consisting largely of tiny shacks and winding dirt roads, is also at the heart of the Cape Floral Kingdom and an international 
"hotspot" of biodiversity with more than 1,400 indigenous plant species.

Of these, 131 species are rare or endangered and 76 are "narrow endemics," 
occuring only in the immediate surrounds.

Protecting biological gems like this is high on the agenda of a conference in Kuala Lumpur, which ends next week, where government officials 
from around the world will discuss how to slow the loss of endangered species such as those found here.

The 91 acre park is one of four pilot sites -- along with the larger Macassar Dunes on the False Bay coast, Wolfgat and the nine hectare 
Harmony Flats Nature Reserve near Somerset West -- that form part of Cape Town's biodiversity network.

Tanya Goldman, a project manager with Cape Flats Nature, says the community has embraced the program, with the park providing a safe 
recreation and a valuable education resource. But the primary aim is conservation.

"You would never guess, but there is something special happening here on the Cape Flats that is not happening on Table Mountain," she told 
Reuters.

Birds are flocking to the site and more than 80 species have now been spotted since alien plants were removed. Recently a western leopard 
toad -- said to be one of the rarest in the world and thought to have been lost to the region -- was found at the park.

On the plant side, the isoetes capensis fern is only found on this former 
dumping site.

TINY IN SIZE, BUT MANY SPECIES

The Cape region as a whole is a natural treasure trove.

Spanning 34,750 square miles -- about the size of Portugal -- it is the richest of the planet's six floral kingdoms and, at 1/1000th the 
size of the northern hemisphere's Boreal Kingdom, is the smallest.

It is also the only floral kingdom found entirely in one country, and is home to 9,600 plant species, of which 70 percent are found nowhere 
else in the world.

The best known plant species is the fynbos, mostly small dense scrubs that include the magnificent proteas, window-box geraniums and 
sweet-scented freesias.

The biodiversity of the region has declined at an unprecedented rate as human encroachment, alien species and fire take its toll of the 
landscape.

The worrying trend spurned the formation of C.A.P.E -- Cape Action for People 
and the Environment.

"The kingdom is not just valuable from a biodiversity standpoint but is crucial to the economy of the whole region," says Trevor Sandwith, 
who heads the project.

He estimates biodiversity, through tourism and direct or indirect uses, to be 
worth $1.4 billion a year to the local economy.

Sandwith said about 11 percent of the floral kingdom is formally conserved, 
but large tracks of farmland make the project's task tricky.

Alien species are seen as one of the most significant threats to biodiversity 
worldwide and has been a massive problem for the Cape.

In a boost for the city, the Global Invasive Species Program (GISP) set up its international secretariat at Cape Town's Kirstenbosch Gardens 
last month.

Water hyacinth blocks many of the city's rivers and canals every year, while the Mediterranean mussel has replaced the indigenous species as 
the most common along the rocky shore.

These are just two examples of targets of an extensive campaign to rid the region of plants and animals brought in from abroad that threaten 
the existing vegetation.

As that battle continues the people of the Cape Flats are quickly learning 
the value of greener pastures.

"In my Xhosa language we don't have a word for biodiversity... but this (the Edith Stephens Wetland Park) is like a bridge between the 
social baggage of the country and what Cape Town has to offer," Peter s