Media Release: Civil society participation a boost for conservation in the Southern Cape

For immediate release
24 June 2024

“The Garden Route is blessed with a wealth of biodiversity and some of South Africa’s most scenic natural treasures in beaches, forests, mountains, rivers and lakes,” says Cobus Meiring of the Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF).

The Western Cape natural environment is generally speaking, well protected by Provincial Government from an environmental management perspective. Thus, with capable mandated conservation bodies such as CapeNature and SANParks, as well as several privately owned entities acting as custodians for many nature reserves and conservation areas scattered all over the Province, all bodes well for the future.

A fast-changing climate resulting in natural disasters including storm surges, drought, fire and floods continue to expose the fragility of the region, and even more pressure is being exerted by a steady increase in population and growing demands on natural resources such as water and land for development and agriculture.

GREF is acting as a public platform for conservation and environmental management entities for both mandated and private environmental management entities and is delighted to be able to report that civil society increasingly plays a vital role in protecting natural assets and biodiversity in the Garden Route.

There is a deepening of public understanding that conservation and the protection of biodiversity can happen in small scale e.g. the protection of a wetland or by not clearing all land of fynbos, but that the collective of all the small efforts by landowners and privately led conservancies including the establishment of conservation corridors are making a big difference.

The theme for the GREF 2024 Climate Change and Environmental Management Indaba on 27 June at the Nelson Mandel University: George Campus is “Resilience in action: Building Sustainable Communities amid a Changing Climate”, and civil society will be presenting on a range of issues aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change going forward.

Issued by: The GREF

GREF is a climate change think tank and public platform for conservation and environmental management entities in the Garden Route.

For further enquiries, contact:
Louise Mare
E-mail: louisamare@gmail.com

Feature Image: Picture captured in Kannaland during the recent floods. – Supplied

ENDS