African News Agency
More than 1 500 schoolchildren from across Cape Town will participate in the city’s biodiversity awareness and education programmes as the world marked International Day for Biological Diversity yesterday.
The city’s biodiversity mix includes about 3 000 plant species in 19 different vegetation types. The 16 nature reserves conserve important elements of this rich biodiversity, Mayco member for energy, environmental and spatial planning Johan van der Merwe said yesterday.
“We are excited to be welcoming pupils from all communities to our reserves during May and June as we try to nurture a love for conservation through our interactive educational programmes.
“These have proven to be popular and we hope that our programmes may be the spark for budding nature enthusiasts,” he said.
“Pupils from approximately 15 schools will participate in the interactive biodiversity awareness programmes held at the Tygerberg, Table Bay, Blaauwberg, Witzands, Edith Stephens, Bracken, Zandvlei, Helderberg and False Bay nature reserves, where they will be educated about the importance of biodiversity and their responsibility in ensuring its protection and conservation.”
Besides the educational programmes for school pupils, some of the City’s efforts around biodiversity awareness and education include environmental clubs where the public and experts can interact, and the smart living challenge zone at the Two Oceans Aquarium.
Exhibitions are expected to be held at various libraries and shopping centres around the city in a bid to to drive further awareness. Some of these include the Philippi East, Brackenfell and Kraaifontein libraries.
“We all depend on biodiversity – which means the variety of life on Earth – in ways that are not always obvious or appreciated. The availability of food, clean water and air depends upon ecosystem products and services. Biodiversity also provides areas for us to enjoy and creates jobs,” said Van der Merwe.
“In the last financial year, over 140 000 person days of temporary employment were created through the City’s Kader Asmal Expanded Public Works programme project.”
In addition to this, other government departments created jobs linked to the natural environment, including Working for Water, Working for Wetlands, Working on Fire, Working for the Coast and various infrastructure development programmes.
Commenting on the International Day for Biological Diversity, Van der Merwe said: “Let us all make a start by doing something positive for our environment, and not disregarding the importance that small contributions make to the overall well-being of our ecosystem. Already, 13 of our plant species are classed as extinct. A further 319 plant types are threatened with extinction.“
Ways in which ordinary Capetonians can also get involved include visiting nature reserves throughout the year; joining environmental clubs; always planting non-invasive, local (indigenous) water-wise plants in gardens; and avoiding pesticides and harsh chemicals as these can harm plants and animals.
Schools wishing to book for environmental education programmes at their local nature reserve reserves can visit capetown.gov.za/nature reserves