CAPE enables local level engagement and co-ordination through landscape initiatives. The CAPE partnership applies a landscape-level approach to biodiversity conservation, through “landscape initiatives” that take various forms, including corridor initiatives, mega-reserves and biosphere reserves. This approach provides for an appropriate scale at which to engage local role-players in the promotion of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Role-players, including government, conservation agencies, communities, non-governmental organisations and the private sector, co-ordinate strategically and undertake joint projects – working within and beyond protected areas to create a mosaic of land uses in which biodiversity compatibility is maximised.
Many parts of the fynbos biome are dominated by agricultural production or urban development, and it is no longer possible to set aside large, pristine areas to conserve biodiversity and sustain ecological processes. It is also not affordable for conservation agencies to purchase all the land identified as high priority in terms of habitat or threatened ecosystems to add it to our system of state-owned protected areas. A landscape-scale approach looks at sustainable management of various land uses, where people live and work in harmony with nature and within the natural resource limits of the landscape.
Central to this approach is the creation of corridors of continuous natural habitat across the landscape, which include formally protected areas as well as valuable biodiversity on privately owned land protected through biodiversity stewardship agreements, which can maintain or restore connectivity across the landscape, preserving biodiversity pattern and habitats. Corridors also play a vital role in the survival of species in the context of climate change, since species are enabled to move from a warmer to a cooler region, or vice versa, along an established corridor.
Priority Actions for 2011 – 2020:
- Consolidate the achievements and successes of the landscape initiatives, and enable the sustained operation of their co-ordination mechanisms.
- Continue to layer investments in the landscape initiatives in order to build co-ordinated implementation and sustained impact.
The Landscape Initiative Knowledge Exchange (LIKE) is a platform where all the landscape initiatives in the CFR come together bi-annually to support and encourage the sharing of lessons, information and experiences.
These landscape initiatives are all signatory partners to the CAPE MOU.
- Agulhas Biodiversity Initiative
- Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve
- Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve
- Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve
- Garden Route Biosphere Initiative
- Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve
- Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor
- Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve
- Upper Breede Collaborative Extension Group