networking people
and nature
in the city
inspiration, issues and cchallenges
hallenges
A Cape Flats Nature partnership publication
networking people and
nature in the city
inspiration, issues and cchallenges
hallenges
2006
Published by Cape Flats Nature, c/o SA
National Biodiversity Institute, Urban
Conservation Unit, Kirstenbosch, Private
Bag X7, Claremont 7735, South Africa
ISBN Number
0-620-35878-5
Written by: Sandra Hill
Based on a Community Development
Resource Association evaluation: Sue Soal
and Rubert van Blerk (2005) ‘Report to
Cape Flats Nature on the Outcome of an
Evaluation’
message from
the Executive
Mayor
Editorial team: Tanya Goldman, Paula
Hathorn, Zwai Peter, George Davis, Trevor
Sandwith
Funded by: Critical Ecosystem Partnership
Fund and Impumelelo Innovations Award
Trust
Mountain Fund (WWF-SA) and the Botanical Society of South Africa
– to realise our common vision. Through Cape Flats Nature, citizens
in some of Cape Town’s poorest areas are beginning to experience
It gives me great pleasure to present you with this booklet on
‘Networking People and Nature in the City’.
Our City vision commits us to sustainable development, and this
and participate in caring for our City’s natural life support system.
This booklet helps us learn from, and share, the excitement and
challenges of our partnership. Through sharing this experience, we
hope to improve our own practice, and to inspire others in local
world – to explore ways of managing urban
nature areas so that they make the greatest
possible contribution to social development.
includes nurturing Cape Town’s rich natural heritage together with
all our people, particularly those in low-income communities where
living conditions are poor. The City of Cape Town is a signatory to
Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.)
Cape Flats Nature is a key partnership project of the City, where
the City of Cape Town works together with other C.A.P.E. signatories
contents
the tangible benefits of beautiful natural areas in their community,
government and in communities – across South Africa and the
Designed by: Fiona Adams of Page Arts
Pictures by: Cape Flats Nature team, City
of Cape Town, Trace Images, Peter Coles,
Tania Jordaan
– the South African National Biodiversity Institute, the Table
Alderman Helen Zille
Executive Mayor: City of Cape Town
intr
oduction
introduction
Cape Flats Nature –
introducing
project
intr
oducing the pr
oject
urban community
partner
tnership
tner
ship
par
institutional
partner
tnership
par
tner
ship
conservvation
conser
partner
tnership
par
tner
ship
backy
kyards
turning bac
ky
ards
into
front
int
o fr
ont gardens:
a conclusion
5
8
11
19
26
31
“Hey you! Hello!” yelled a woman leaning over
her back door, her hair in curlers, her overall
stretched across an ample bosom. “My husband and me
were thinking we could make our yard a little bigger. Would
it be okay if we moved our fence just so?” She indicated
eight or ten meters into the reserve. “Well, no, Auntie,”I
replied. “You see, it is a nature reserve and we have
to protect nature if it’s going to protect us.”
introduction
More and more communities on the Cape Flats are recognising that
nature areas near their homes help ordinary people by contributing
to essential services. For example, wetlands help to moderate floods
which threaten their homes every winter, and vegetated dunes
shelter communities from the high temperatures and gale force
winds they have to deal with every summer. Healthy ecosystems
4
5
did yyou
ou kno
w?
know?
did yyou
ou kno
w?
know?
• 76 plants on the Cape Flats are
provide resources of food and medicines and soils that support
the Cape Flats, this area was some distance from the City, its
gardens and crops. These services, which would cost residents a
infrastructure, services and job opportunities. Informal settlements
world. Not even on Table
fortune if the local authority had to provide them without nature’s
grew too, as rural people arrived in the City in search of work. Like
Mountain!
help, are seemingly cash free. But they demand a different kind of
the residents, the precious biodiversity of the area was neglected.
payment if they are to survive. Ecosystems need protection and
Only small pockets of the unique Cape Flats plant life and the
people can provide this protection themselves. This in-kind payment
animal life it supports survived the rapid development of human
can be done in a way that provides people with even more benefits,
habitation.
narrow endemics. This means they
are found nowhere else in the
• 131 of the over 1400 indigenous
plant species on the Cape Flats
are rare or endangered.
• Ten of the 55 types of birds that
are found only in South Africa have
such as improved education, recreation and jobs. However,
populations on the Cape Flats,
protecting ecosystems in an urban context is complex. Natural
represents an invitation to join in experimenting, testing, learning
including four range-restricted
habitats are fragmented and ecosystem processes such as fire have
and developing an alternative, social nature conservation practice
been disrupted. There is competing land use pressure, levels of
in impoverished urban areas.
species.
• Ten threatened bird species occur
on the Cape Flats and are mostly
associated with wetland or coastal
sites.
• Two of the most threatened
amphibians in South Africa breed
on the Cape Flats.
• At least three insect species are
As a pioneering partnership project, Cape Flats Nature
poverty are high and communities have had few opportunities to
This book is intended as a discussion starter. An opportunity to
become involved in nature conservation efforts.
stir up and then distil ideas among conservators, planners, health
The Apartheid government was notorious for its programme of
workers, housing officials, social activists, community leaders -
forced removals. In Cape Town, people classified ‘non-white’ were
anyone with passion for people, development, and/or the
moved from their homes in and around the city and its suburbs
environment. What can nature in your city or town do for you? And
beneath Table Mountain to the Cape Lowlands. Popularly known as
what can you do for nature in your city or town?
only found on the Cape Flats.
6
7
• Cape Town has more than three
million residents living in
2500km2 with at least 270 000
families in need of formal
housing.
• More than half of Cape Town’s
residents are younger than 26
years old.
• Unemployment in the city is 20%,
but in some areas of the Cape
Flats, it exceeds 50%.
• Some areas of the Cape Flats
have an HIV/AIDS infection rate of
higher than 35% while the City
average is 10%.
cape flats nature –
introducing the project
bio-regional programme, Cape Action for People and the
Environment (C.A.P.E.), which aims to conserve the globally
significant biodiversity of the Cape Floristic Region while ensuring
that people are involved and that they benefit.
Cape Flats Nature is based on the idea that, as the different
elements in an ecosystem are inter-dependent, so are effective
nature conservation and the well-being of communities. The task of
Cape Flats Nature is to promote this new way of conserving nature
The aim of Cape Flats Nature is to build good practice in
and develop it in practice, drawing from urban nature conservation
sustainable management of City nature areas in a way that benefits
management and social development experience, so that both
the surrounding communities, particularly townships where
people and nature benefit. Cape Flats Nature began by working
incomes are low and living conditions poor.
with four pilot sites chosen from the City’s Biodiversity Network. The
project is based at one of its sites, the Edith Stephens Wetland Park,
Cape Flats Nature was founded in 2002 as a partnership project
Biodiv
er
sity
Biodiver
ersity
sity, short for
biological diversity, is the
variety of life on earth, all
the things that are part of
nature – plants, trees,
insects, fish, animals and
people.
and this grounds it within the communities with which it works.
of the City of Cape Town, the South African National Biodiversity
Institute, the Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA) and the Botanical
Society of South Africa. These organisations share a common
ho
w does cchange
hange happen?
how
interest in exploring and demonstrating how to manage priority
In order to realise these objectives and build effective social nature
biodiversity sites in the City, in a way that benefits surrounding low-
conservation practice, Cape Flats Nature has to impact on
income, urban communities. They are also partners in South Africa’s
community behaviour and attitude towards nature and nature
8
9
Ecosyst
ems are interEcosystems
dependent, interactive
communities of people,
plants, animals and microorganisms, and the soil, water
and air on which they depend,
within a certain area. Change
to any one part of the system
triggers change in all other
parts of the system.
“In the past if I saw a snake I would
kill it. Now I know what the snake is
there for, I won’t kill it.”
key objectiv
es
objectives
• Build viable and sustainable examples of
urban nature conservation initiatives at
four pilot sites.
• Catalyse a co-ordinated approach that
urban community
partnership
conservation. It also has to impact on the negative attitude and
behaviour towards communities common in traditional nature
conservation practice. Cape Flats Nature’s three primary partners in
focuses on integrating and streamlining
promoting change are ‘the community’, local government and the
existing initiatives, strategies and funding
nature conservation community more broadly.
opportunities.
• Build a positive case that simultaneously
conserves the biodiversity of the sites and
demonstrates the practical contribution
a people-centred appr
oac
h
approac
oach
these sites can make to improve the
Cape Flats Nature works in a people-centred way that develops
urban living environment on the Cape
local leadership for nature conservation action and unlocks benefits
Flats.
for the surrounding communities, particularly townships, where
• Manage the four pilot sites to ensure
replicability and dissemination of best
practice.
• Integrate the projects as key components
of the City’s Biodiversity Strategy.
• Establish a financial vehicle to support
nature conservation management on the
pilot sites.
• Foster local community involvement in
the development and management of the
four sites.
incomes are low and living conditions are poor.
er
sity Ne
tw
or
k is
Cape Town’s Biodiv
Biodiver
ersity
Netw
twor
ork
made up of the minimum nature
sites and linkages between these
sites needed to conserve the unique
biodiversity of the City. This Network
was identified as part of the
Biodiversity Strategy for the
implementation of the City’s
Integrated Metropolitan
Environmental Policy.
A people-centred approach values people as well as plants. It
asks, “What more can nature do to take care of people’s needs?”
and then only…. “And what can people do to take care of nature’s
needs?” Primarily it is about recognising that people’s needs and
basic human rights are valid and about placing them at the centre of
nature conservation. It is about building bridges between people
and nature so that both benefit.
10
11
Our approach is to
work with people
–not for them, not
against them –
to protect biodiversity
in
their own
environment,
for their own benefit.
a community vie
w of Cape Flats Nature
view
a community vie
w of Cape Flats Nature
view
“Cape Flats Nature is building an
invisible fence of care and
knowledge around nature.”
“Cape Flats Nature is like a bee
which connects everything and
spreads knowledge.
making contact
creative activities that would impact positively on
catalytic rrole
ole
conservators were recruited from the Cape Flats and
Cape Flats Nature’s brief was to enhance existing
both nature conservation and local communities
Cape Flats Nature has a catalytic role. In other
have since demonstrated the advantages of having
initiatives at project sites and to start from scratch
were generated. Potential community champions
words, it is intended to operate as an instrument, or
locals, who can understand, identify, and
only where nothing was happening. During the start-
and other project stakeholders then participated in
tool, which helps others to get the job done. One
communicate with project site communities, on the
up phase of the project, Cape Flats Nature began by
an integration workshop, where ways Cape Flats
way of fulfilling this role is to co-host all community
team. The City, which is responsible for day-to-day
listening to key role players involved at each of the
Nature could support the activities were identified.
activities in partnership with community-based
management of the sites, employs the conservators.
organisations or others working at community level.
Cape Flats Nature is responsible for partnering them
pilot sites. The project went out into communities
neighbouring its four sites and began to get to know
the various networks and systems, the organisations,
the leaders, the priority issues and needs. More
importantly, they began to build relationships with
people, introducing Cape Flats Nature, introducing
nature conservation and introducing the sites.
Usually this meant hours on the telephone and
attending endless meetings of the various
organisations and community structures. Where no
organisations existed, it meant going door-to-door.
design pr
ocess
process
in experimenting with, and the unfolding of, a
tangible benef
its
benefits
areas (such as moderating wind, temperatures and
dedicat
ed on-the-gr
ound nature
dedicated
on-the-ground
conser
conservvation management
floods), Cape Flats Nature began to catalyse more
During the stakeholder design process, it emerged
building community leader
ship
leadership
tangible benefits in the areas of education, recreation
that on-the-ground management of the sites needed
A key strategy to secure community involvement is
and job creation. For example: pioneering the urban
significant improvement. On-the-ground
building community leadership for nature
Cape Flats Nature Trail; educator training; Arbor
management not only contributes to the objective of
conservation. Leaders from the different communities
week presentations at schools; community-led events
conserving biodiversity, but also integrates nature
who emerged as champions for nature conservation
such as environmental education walks,
conservation into the day-to-day life of the local
were invited to join the Champion’s Forum. The
‘Weedbuster’ Action Day, Big Dune Day; school
communities by providing a real person to whom
forum is an informal space for peers. It provides
holiday programmes; clean up programmes; poverty
they can relate.
regular opportunity to foster alliances, generate
Alongside the existing benefits provided by nature
people-centred nature conservation practice.
alleviation programmes including alien clearing and
Cape Flats Nature lobbied for dedicated
learning without always ‘being taught’ and to explore
Stakeholders around each pilot site attended site
wetland restoration; and ensuring the sites are linked
conservators to be based at the pilot sites and
the complexities of urban nature conservation. It has
level workshops where ideas of practical and
with tourism development opportunities.
catalysed funding for their employment. The
taken three years for the forum to become
12
13
six k
ey ffeatures
eatures of Cape Flats Nature’s urban
ke
community par
tner
ship
partner
tnership
peer poac
hing
poaching
Some of our plants were
stolen………
established and owned by the champions. As they begin to attend
Formal and inf
ormal ne
tw
or
ks: Cape Flats
informal
netw
twor
orks:
their local sites and integrates nature
meetings regularly and are more and more able to articulate the
Nature works with mainstream, politically
conservation into everyday life.
Yo!
issues they want to address, Cape Flats Nature is shifting to a less
…… after we showed you
around.
Hayibo! Not stolen!
Harvested!
Gone!
I am sorry. I had no idea our
‘amagqirha’ would harvest your
plants.
They are precious to us people
too!
powerful structures and a wide range of interest-
central and more facilitative role in the forum.
based organisations and individual people in
Tangible benef
its: Cape Flats Nature strives to
benefits:
communities.
facilitate tangible benefits for neighbouring
communities, such as access to environmental
a community agenda
Relationships: The quality and continuity of
education, improved education through the use
By the end of the start-up phase, Cape Flats Nature was no longer
relationships built with people in surrounding
of outdoor classrooms, unlocking job
solely responsible for networking people and nature at the project
communities is essential, in terms of both
opportunities and providing safe, beautiful
sites. Community members and organisations themselves are
contributing to improved livelihoods and
spaces for recreation.
practically and strategically involved in seeing programmes
protecting biodiversity.
Action inspires action: Cape Flats Nature first
designed and implemented. While nature conservation is now on
community agendas, its significance varies across communities
Responsiv
eness: Cape Flats Nature’s work is
esponsiveness:
builds community involvement through action,
and time. The project still needs to invest considerable effort and
responsive to the unique situations of each
rather than building formal governance
site’s context and shifts over time as the
structures. Action primarily refers to action taken
situations themselves shift.
by community members themselves, rather than
resources to keep the issue of conservation alive amid the many
and conflicting needs of the communities within which it works.
listing demands for action by others.
Int
egrating sit
e int
o community
Integrating
site
into
community:: City nature
Ah. Perhaps we could make
amends. Maybe help with that
community nursery you have
been talking about?
14
15
Cape Flats Nature has found that participa-
conservators working with Cape Flats Nature go
tion in decision making best evolves from a point
out to people where they are. The presence of
of active involvement in nature conservation. The
conservators at community meetings and
project supports and works with different struc-
initiatives encourages people to visit and use
tures as they emerge in the ongoing process.
questions and answ
er
answer
erss
“How do you reconcile an open-ended, people-
“How do you build a broad community base?”
appropriate, everyday language. Have local people
centred, participatory approach with the need to
We found it really useful to interrogate our definition
on your team, people who speak the languages used
meet plans and objectives?”
of stakeholder and to think ‘out of the box’ when
by communities you are working with.
Write it into your plans! Make it visible! Integrate the
considering who we should be working with. It is
participatory approach into your goals and objectives.
strategically important to work with the mainstream,
work through internal dynamics. When problems
Set specific objectives after the initial design process.
powerful community structures and to have their
arise, include others in finding solutions, particularly
“What is ‘participation’ and how do you encourage
Look for flexible donors who support this approach.
support. It is, however, also important to connect
where the problems are ‘people’ problems.
it?”
Look for balance between objectives orientation and
with smaller organisations that may have specific
creative responsiveness! Acknowledge and respond to
interests, such as the environment, urban agriculture,
people’s immediate needs where possible, but also
youth development or health, as well as with individual
In feeling out this approach, Cape Flats Nature has
had many experiences and asked many questions.
Here are some of the questions and some of the
answers we have discovered.
The understanding of ‘participation’ ranges from
giving information, to consulting on existing plans, to
social mobilisation. For Cape Flats Nature,
participation is about building mutually beneficial
relationships. It’s about listening. It’s about paying
needs by introducing them to new information and
attention to whose voices are heard in communities and
resources. Expect differences to emerge in the process
who has what interests. It’s about developing a shared
and deal with them through discussion, not
vision, shared motivations and shared activities.
manipulation.
For Cape Flats Nature, the goal of participation is
people, especially those living on site boundaries.
help community groups to see beyond immediate
Build bridges across traditional community divides
and between communities still divided by old
Apartheid norms. Invest in your relationships with
others, and in their relationships with each other. Help
to facilitate links between community representatives
Building participation does take time and energy.
and local, even senior, politicians and officials.
not simply to teach people how to look after ‘their
The conservators at the project sites are trying to
site’ and protect biodiversity, but to develop the
integrate ‘participation’ into their very long task lists
establish and then maintain relationships. Be
by looking for opportunities to achieve day-to-day
prepared to join them in some of what they do and
biodiversity management actions through community
to accept the hospitality they may offer. Be open
activities. It’s an ongoing challenge!
about your agenda and communicate about it in
attitude, the self confidence, the commitment and the
ability to ensure a sustained, effective effort in the
sites and beyond. In other words, working towards
community empowerment.
Be prepared to go out into communities to
16
17
Expect challenges and conflict and help people to
“How do you build a group of volunteers from low
income communities?”
Volunteers from low-income communities are often:
• Under-resourced: volunteers don’t have their own
transport, money for transport, or money for
making phone calls.
• Under-skilled: volunteers do not have high levels
of education, interest or expertise in nature
conservation issues.
• Under-employed or unemployed: volunteers are
often job hunting and continually hopeful of
finding employment.
• Enthusiastic: volunteers appreciate and enjoy
opportunities to learn and are motivated by
exposure to new information and things.
feathered friends
Holiday programme. Flocks of
bored youth looking for
entertainment. Calls of
excitement. Bird monitoring is
a scientific task. Results must
be reliable. Everyone and noone wants to be involved. Long
term. Only five volunteer to
serve as bird monitors. But
they too migrate. The
monitoring group grinds to a
halt before take off even
happens. Another year,
another group, another bird
club, this one in full flight.
Track down the missing
monitors, bring the groups
together, more training, ongoing support, endless
encouragement.
Watch them fly!
institutional partnership
At Cape Flats Nature, we try to counter some of the challenges by
getting to know the volunteers and understanding their various
motivations for volunteering. We are up front about job opportunities
and take care to explain what we can and cannot offer. We have come
to realise that this is a conversation that we need to have repeatedly
with volunteers.
We have learnt to anticipate the lack of resources and additional
effort it takes to work with volunteers from low-income communities.
For example, we always have to factor in transport costs or transport
volunteers ourselves. This raises the awkward question of whether we
are building dependence or fostering self-sufficiency between
volunteer groups and the project. It would seem that those groups
situated further away from the sites tend to be less self-sufficient,
relying on the conservators to call meetings and provide transport,
while those closer to their site work more interdependently with the
conservators.
The training we offer is designed to begin at the very beginning and
takes into account the lack of background and education participants
have on the issues. We have learnt that this is a long and ongoing
process. And lastly, we try to provide support and capacity building for
Cape Flats Nature is a partnership project. It was conceptualised,
established and is strategically supported by the founding
institutions through a project advisory group. The founding
institutions are the local authority, the City of Cape Town, a parastatal, the South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), and nongovernmental organisations, the Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA)
and the Botanical Society of South Africa. SANBI is the
implementing partner, holding the Cape Flats Nature accounts and
employment contracts. Cape Flats Nature is also a key project
within national government’s bioregional programme, Cape Action
for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.).
The City plays multiple roles in the life of the project. It is a
founding partner, a member of the Project Advisory Group, a donor
and a site of work (the four pilot sites are City-owned and the City is
responsible for managing them).
the conservators who work regularly with volunteers.
an enabling institutional par
tner
ship
partner
tnership
The institutional partnership underpinning Cape Flats Nature enables
the project to play a catalytic and transformative role, to move quickly
18
19
a par
tner
ship
partner
tnership
pr
oject
project
A key project within C.A.P.E., Cape
Flats Nature is a unique partnership
of the:
• City of Cape Town;
• South African National Biodiversity
Institute;
• Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA);
and
• Botanical Society of South Africa.
“CFN is a mongoose. It scrounges
for resources, is all over the place, busy
and many families. It will take on
cobras - and win.
and to take risks that a large institution like the City cannot take on its
and to get leadership in government to recognise that
communications materials and hosts visitors on
own. This is vital, as pioneering good practice means taking risks. It
biodiversity conservation is essential for sustainable
behalf of other institutional partners.
means experimenting with different approaches and invariably
development.
making mistakes, learning from both successes and weaknesses.
in
tner
ship
invvesting in the par
partner
tnership
Cape Flats Nature was seed funded by C.A.P.E. partners and
donors. This, together with the range of institutional partners, lends
The City, which is responsible for day-to-day
As with any important relationship, it takes time,
management of the sites, employs the conservators,
effort and commitment to work in partnership. The
while Cape Flats Nature is responsible for funding
responsibilities of the partners are set out in a
and partnering them in a people-centred approach to
Memorandum of Understanding, a living document
nature conservation practice. Terms of reference for
used to facilitate the ongoing relationship and avoid
the employment of nature conservators placed at
The relationship between Cape Flats Nature and the City is complex
role confusion. One of the project’s success factors is
project sites were developed with City officials. The
because of the multiple roles the City plays in the life of the project.
that relevant role players from the City have been
key elements of this agreement are:
Cape Flats Nature delivers on its objectives through the channels of
involved all along the way, from conceptualisation,
• Joint annual planning;
the City and is tasked with helping the City deliver on its objectives
to participation in the community activities, to
• Joint quarterly evaluation and planning meetings;
contained in the Biodiversity Strategy and Integrated Metropolitan
serving on the Project Advisory Group. Cape Flats
• Participation of the conservators in quarterly
Environmental Policy.
Nature reports regularly to a range of City forums. It
the project legitimacy and enables leverage with local government,
Biodiv
er
sity S
trat
egy
Biodiver
ersity
Strat
trategy
One of the Integrated
Metropolitan
Environmental Policy
(IMEP) implementation
strategies is the
Biodiversity Strategy.
This strategy aims to
protect, optimise and
enhance the unique
biodiversity found within
the City of Cape Town.
se
tting out the tterms
erms
setting
donors and others.
the City as a targe
targett
Not only is Cape Flats Nature partially constituted by the City, it
Champions’ Forum meetings;
keeps communication with politicians open by
• Day-to-day reporting to City line management;
is also an intervention into it. A critical part of Cape Flats Nature’s
participating in and hosting councillor tours, inviting
• Written quarterly reports to Cape Flats Nature;
work is to mainstream a people-centred approach to nature
councillors to project activities and linking them
conservation in policy and practice, to secure long-term
with community role players. It regularly provides
commitment from the City for nature conservation on the Cape Flats
updates and stories of interest in partner
20
21
and
• A co-operative problem-solving approach to
challenges and conflicts.
four k
ey ffeatures
eatures of Cape Flats Nature’s
ke
institutional par
tner
ship
partner
tnership
Policy frame
wor
k: Cape Flats Nature is
framew
ork:
Comple
Complexx relationship: While Cape Flats
questions and answ
er
answer
erss
National Biodiversity Framework and any applicable
deliberately located within the City’s
Nature is partially constituted by the
Here are some of the questions we’ve held working
bioregional plans. This is set out in the Biodiversity
policy and strategy.
City, it is also an intervention into it.
in partnership and some of the answers we have
Act (10 of 2004).
Catalytic rrole:
ole: Cape Flats Nature does
Inside and out
out:: Champions inside and
not manage the sites it works with. It
outside the partnership’s various
“Why is local government such an important role
does not hold responsibility for the
organisations and structures provide
player in nature conservation?”
Despite the tensions and time consuming nature of
ordinary functioning of its sites. However,
critical support and leverage for the
Local government is mandated to look after the
working in partnerships, they are incredibly
it has played an important role by
project.
environment on behalf of current and future
valuable. The value lies in the different expertise,
catalysing funds for the employment of
generations. Local government plays an important
experience and resources partners bring to the
conservators at its pilot sites and
role in managing biodiversity because of its
process. It lies is freeing bureaucratic institutions
demonstrated to the City the value of
responsibility for spatial planning, land use decision
from red tape and allowing risk taking and learning
dedicated, on-the-ground nature
making and infrastructure development and for the
from practice. It lies in the power of co-ordinated,
conservation management working in a
establishment of local municipal nature reserves.
broad based action for change in local government
people-centred approach.
Ecosystem services are better protected by
policy and practice from inside and out.
discovered within these relationships:
“Why work in partnership when it obviously requires
integrating biodiversity issues across this spectrum of
local government responsibilities.
Local government is also called to align their
development plans and decision making with the
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23
a lot of extra work?”
no
or
ce
nott b
byy ffor
orce
“How do you make a partnership work for all the
partners?”
At Cape Flats Nature we have discovered three
critical elements for keeping a partnership beneficial
for all involved:
are constantly trying to find the balance between implementing our
• Dealing with tension: tension within a partnership
is inevitable. The project is realising the
plans and adhering to role boundaries, on one hand, and working
importance of identifying points of tension and
innovatively with the outcomes of our work in the field, on the
finding ways of resolving it together before issues
other hand.
explode or alienate members of the partnership.
• Champions: the project needs champions within
its institutional partners, people with passion and
“What do you do when one of your partners is
vision, who support and promote the project.
struggling to deliver on its commitments?”
Champions from within the City, both political
Cape Flats Nature has often faced the dilemma of
and administrative decision makers from various
choosing between solving a particular problem in
departments, have been critical in providing
one of the sites or getting the City to do its job. On
support and opportunity for the project to
the whole the project has resisted falling into a stop-
demonstrate what can be achieved.
gap function of providing a middle management role
• Ownership and branding: Cape Flats Nature has
for the sites. Because City resources are so limited it
had to pay careful attention to the project’s image
has been tempting to abandon the strategic, long-
and how it is branded. This is not easy to get
term view and get on with meeting the real needs
right, but all the partners are learning to share
confronted everyday. If we don’t do it, the sites often
and best utilise the opportunities and recognition
simply go without. Within this context, we hold onto
that come with the project.
our mandate, but try to apply it with elasticity! We
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25
The south east wind howls. Sand
blasts the shack, sounding like
rain pelting on iron. It’s hot. My
father sits, his head in his hands.
We know better than to disturb
him. Through the noise of the
wind, I hear the sounds of more
shacks going up. A muffled
banging and scraping. Force won’t
move us and threats haven’t
stopped people building here.
Despite the wind and the sand.
The radio is playing, the music
comes to an end. I catch my
sister’s eye. The voice is one we
know. It’s telling us about these
dunes, about how fragile the
environment is and why it is
important to us living here.
Another voice joins hers, telling
about his youth group, our youth
group, who want to protect this
place. My father lifts his head.
He recognises the voices too. And
I see a flicker of hope in his
eyes.
conservation partnership
Cape Flats Nature’s partnership with the nature conservation
2003: The Cape Times/Caltex
Environmental Award
2003: Green Trust Award Finalist
2004: Good Practice Award from
learn from other conservation initiatives and to influence urban
regional, national and international conservation and
practice. This is a key lesson now guiding a more tightly
environmental management forums; it hosts and is
integrated role of the project together with the City to
hosted by conservators from other areas of the City,
avoid the pitfalls of polarising interests.
approach, where the team reflects on activities and
initiatives within South Africa.
experiences, and draws out important lessons. These
are written up in the form of case studies and are
further develop an alternative nature conservation practice which
learning fr
om practice
from
can be rolled out and replicated in other City sites and beyond.
Cape Flats Nature’s greatest asset is to learn from real
mainstreaming a people-centred
appr
oac
h tto
o urban nature conser
approac
oach
conservvation
Cape Flats Nature is mainstreaming a people-centred approach by
Award for Best Practice
locating itself firmly within the nature conservation community.
Biodiversity Institute, the Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA) and the
Award Trust
Botanical Society are founding members of the project and serve on
used to inform ongoing work. The City now intends
to integrate this practice into the nature conservation
branch with Cape Flats Nature’s support.
practice and this is also potentially of great value to
the nature conservation community. While the
consolidating and articulating what is emerging from
changing the face of nature
conser
conservvation in the City
field experience, it has been difficult to adopt a
Cape Flats Nature provides a conduit for the Table
completely inclusive, learning-from-practice
Mountain Fund’s Capacity Building Programme to
approach with the conservation community within
build a new cadre of black and women managers in
the City. The consequence has been to alienate instead
the conservation sector. The Fund covered bursaries
of attract many of those from whom it could draw
for certificated study, short course fees and
expertise and experience and to limit the impact of its
placement at project sites.
project works consciously on its own practice,
Leading organisations such as the South African National
Impumelelo Innovations
Internally, the project practices an action learning
activities and shares lessons with other similar
conservation practice. Part of the project’s founding vision is to
the Dubai International
2005: Gold Award from
own advances in building social nature conservation
works with other conservation agencies in project
community in the City and beyond is rooted in its commitment to
awards and
int
ernational
international
recognition
Cape Flats Nature also participates in relevant bio-
its advisory board together with decision-makers on nature
conservation in the City of Cape Town. To promote its approach,
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27
going shopping 1
Its about six. Getting dark. I send the kids out. For
potatoes. Or cabbage. Or bread. They come back,
big eyes, empty hands. Hungry. We search in the
usual places. Five Rand. Enough for something from
Sparkies Corner Café. It will take me half the time if
I use the path across the veld.
tw
ok
ey ffeatures
eatures of Cape
two
ke
Flats Nature’s
conser
tner
ship
conservvation par
partner
tnership
going shopping 2
Learning par
tner
ship: Cape Flats
partner
tnership:
questions and answ
er
answer
erss
They’re not interested, they have no idea about
the biodiversity.
Nature is a learning project, drawing
Here are some of our questions about the
on its own experience and the
conservation partnership and some of the answers
And they’re a fire hazard.
experience of conservationists more
that the partnership has discovered in working with
broadly in further developing a
them:
The people using the path are just going shopping.
That path definitely has to be re-routed.
But the community reps have specifically asked to
keep it. We’re supposed to be attracting these
people into nature conservation not shutting them
out.
going shopping 3
Why did you change your mind?
I read that newspaper story.
………?
About the girl who got mugged going shopping.
It happens everywhere.
….….
We had another meeting, with all the
stakeholders.
people-centred approach to urban
conservation.
We’ve decided to keep it open access, erect
boardwalks over the sensitive areas, build picnic
benches and plant edible indigenous shrubs along
the boundaries.
ethos of reporting success has emerged. While this is
community. This location is its key
adopting an instrumentalist approach (“We think this
is a good idea, now we just have to get them to
agree”) is self-limiting. When used as a ‘bag of tricks’
or as a means to an end, you risk losing the very
buy-in community development methods are
intended to achieve. We’ve found that people are
generally happy to participate in contributing
Yeah?
towards problem lists and plans…but the proof of
real developmental conservation lies in harnessing
people’s will to act and change.
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broadly in the conservation community. A puzzling
external pressure to ‘succeed’. Because of it, an
developmental tools for window dressing, or
conservators.
‘good practice’ with a view to sharing this more
recognised and replicated for what it is and not just
within the nature conservation
black and women urban
A key objective of Cape Flats Nature is to generate
developmental nature conservation practice is
Trust the process! Applying community
and building a new generation of
project?”
paradox we face in doing just this is the internal and
for window dressing?”
people-centred conservation practice
failures in a way that still inspires support for our
“How do you ensure that the hard slog of deep,
Roo
ootted: Cape Flats Nature is rooted
vantage point for mainstreaming a
“How do you tell people about challenges and
an important part of a public relations and advocacy
strategy, we have come to realise that it has injured
relationships, hampered internal learning and the
extension of practice with others in the field. Far
from being the symbol of success, Cape Flats Nature
is really a picture of ongoing and difficult
engagement. We need to find a constructive way of
sharing the less than successful sides of our work
too. We need to embrace our failures and
weaknesses so that we can benefit from them and
share these benefits more widely. We need to make
more room for colleagues to contribute their
The Auntie looked
confused. I guess she’d never
stopped to think of this empty land
outside her yard as a nature reserve, certainly
concerns, experience and learning and trust that
special contribution and a key feature we contribute
authenticity inspires support.
to ‘rolling out’ social nature conservation practice.
“Once we’ve established good practice, we’re
supposed to see it replicated at other sites. But the
turning
backyards
into front
gardens
We are generating a great deal of material about
principles of practice, approach and core processes.
heart of our practice lies in particular relationships
We not only pilot ways of working in communities,
and in sensitivity and responsiveness to each unique
but also ways of building practice, of continuously
situation. This is what distinguishes it from other
approaches. Doesn’t it make the vision of
learning from doing, which is appropriate to working
“replication” and “roll-out” a bit of a misnomer?”
and ideas to share and we can sometimes tell from
Yes and no. Conservation and social practice is fluid
experience what will or won’t work and where the
and complex. Our work doesn’t follow a template. It
tensions will be. But we don’t have an off-the-shelf
is not a fixed programme that can be replicated
DIY kit. The real challenge is to create a learning
anywhere, any time. It is precisely the activity of
environment and to share freely and constructively
working in a dynamic, responsive way, that is our
with others who have similar objectives.
with communities. We have various methods, tools
not as something valuable. Why would she? I was
about to launch into my usual bit about indigenous
plants and narrow endemics when something in her blank
look made me stop…”But you could make the reserve part
of your garden!” I blurted out. “You don’t have dogs do you?
No! Good. Well then, what I mean is, never mind moving your
fence, you could take it down all together. If you like, I could
give you some seeds from a special plant that only grows in this
area, but seems to be dying out. I also have some seedlings,
A people-centred approach to nature conservation is
about looking for common ground and mutual benefits,
building bridges between people and nature. It’s a slow,
long-term, time and energy consuming approach that
believes that the biggest threat to biodiversity is not
people, but ignoring people.
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31
little plants we want to grow here too. We even have some
that can be used medicinally. Do you like flowers?” I was
warming to the idea. “Ja”, nodded the Auntie, “I like
flowers and Paul over there is very interested in
plants. Do you have a lot of these plants?”, she
asked eagerly, “enough to turn this old
yard into a real garden?”
Cape Flats Nature, a partnership between the City of Cape Town,
the South African National Botanical Institute, the Table Mountain
Fund (WWF–SA) and the Botanical Society of South Africa, and a
key project within C.A.P.E., is committed to finding effective,
sustainable ways of realising this approach to urban nature
conservation.
As the project moves into the next stage of its lifecycle, it intends
to focus more consciously on its own practice, reaching out to other
urban nature conservation practitioners to exchange experiences
and lessons, deepening and refining the emerging urban community
nature conservation practice. It intends to consolidate initiatives at
the four pilot sites, and to extend the practice into further City
Biodiversity Network sites. None of this is Cape Flats Nature’s
terrain exclusively. It is only possible in partnership: partnership at
institutional level, partnership at community level, partnership
across the conservation community. The kind of partnership
ecosystems are made of. We invite you to join us.
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Telephone: +27 21 691 4929
Fax: +27 21 691 2557
Email: info@capeflatsnature.org
Website: www.capeflatsnature.org
As a pioneering partnership project, Cape Flats Nature represents an invitation to
join in experimenting, testing, learning and developing an alternative, social nature
conservation practice in impoverished urban areas.
This booklet is written for anyone with a passion for urban people,
development and/or the environment... nature conservators, planners, health
workers, housing officials, social activists, community leaders. It is intended as a
discussion starter, an opportunity to stir up and then distil ideas: What can nature
in your city or town do for you? And what can you do for nature in your city or town?
Three years into the Cape Flats Nature partnership learning experience,
an external evaluation challenged the project to better articulate its approach and
its practice, and provided a framework to begin sharing the outcome of the pilot
demonstration phase. The hope is to generate broad discussion that will strengthen
the project’s work in the roll-out phase that follows, and grow the community of
experimenters in this field.
This booklet presents the project’s approach, key features of the
partnership, and some of the major questions the project team has grappled with
and the answers that have emerged. A sense of local community flavour and spirit is
conveyed through the pictures, quotes, and four pieces of fiction that animate the text.