Final Roodeberg property incorporated into Table Mountain Na

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Final Roodeberg property incorporated into Table Mountain Na

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Final Roodeberg property incorporated into Table Mountain National Park

The final Roodeberg property, ERF 16852, has been successfully incorporated into the Table Mountain National Park.

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This announcement was made by WWF South Africa, The Table Mountain Fund (TMF) and South African National Parks (SANParks).

The Roodeberg mountain is situated in the Cape Peninsula, south of the Noordhoek wetlands. The southern portion of the Roodeberg is part of the Table Mountain National Park, while the northern section is made up of five privately owned properties, with four previously run as the now defunct Solole Game Reserve tourism venture.

Launched in January 2014, the Restore the Roodeberg campaign set out to raise the R9.2m required to purchase the remaining Roodeberg properties. After months of hard work, the Restore the Roodeberg team has reached their target thanks to significant contributions from WWF South Africa, The Table Mountain Fund, the National Parks Trust of South Africa, the Rupert Nature Foundation, the Joan St Leger Lindbergh Charitable Trust, the Leisure Charitable Trust and an in perpetuity private landowner agreement.

Successful campaign

"The Restore the Roodeberg campaign has been an unmitigated success in securing high priority conservation worthy land for consolidation into the TMNP," says SANParks' TMNP Planning manager, Michael Slayen. "The consolidation of the five Roodeberg properties has added 260ha of prime conservation land to the national park estate and secured recreational access for hikers, bikers and horse riders along the designated routes in the area."

"While our indigenous fynbos is both fire-adapted and fire-prone, we must do what we can to ensure the land and vegetation can respond as it should. Removal of alien vegetation is expensive and time consuming, yet so vital. It also provides job opportunities in the area, and creates a direct connection with nature," Dr Morné du Plessis, WWF South Africa CEO, commented.

The rehabilitation process, which will be rolled out over a number of years, has been initiated through the government's job creation and training programme being implemented by the TMNP's Biodiversity Social Projects department. The rehabilitation process, which began in June 2014, has already been instrumental in creating over 100 jobs from the local Masiphumelele community.

Focus of rehabilitation

"The initial focus of the rehabilitation work has been on cutting proper fire breaks and clearing the alien invasive vegetation. This will be supported by on-going burning of vegetation stacks in the winter months and over time, the removal of the inappropriate structures, maintenance of footpaths and the rehabilitation of the impacted areas of land," explains Slayen.

This campaign has built on the success of the SANParks, WWF SA, TMF partnership initiative of the early 2000s which incorporated over 450ha of the privately owned Noordhoek wetlands into the Park, so linking the northern and southern sections of the TMNP across the Noordhoek/Fish Hoek valley. This was followed in 2010, by the donation to SANParks of a 180ha of the upper Kompanjiestuin property adjacent to Oceanview.


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