Turning strategy into action: implementing a conservation action plan in the Cape Floristic Region

Abstract

The Cape Floristic Region and adjoining marine areas have exceptionally high levels of biodiversity and endemism, concentrated in a relatively small area of 90,000 km2. Major threats to this biodiversity include the loss of habitat to agriculture, rapid and insensitive development, over-exploitation of marine resources and wild flowers, and the spread of invasive alien species. Some important habitats have been reduced by over 90% and less than 5% of land in the lowlands has been set aside for conservation. These pressures are predicted to intensify, as the region acts as a magnet for settlement and development. This paper thus describes the development of a conservation action plan for the region, arising from the Cape Action Plan for the Environment (CAPE). The plan turns the long-term strategy, which identified priorities for conservation action, into a practical 5-year action plan. The tension between protection and the use of natural resources is addressed within the context of institutional frameworks. CAPE has succeeded in bringing together previously fragmented institutions, and has ensured that they work together more effectively. It has also strategically realigned existing resources earmarked for conservation. The factors that contributed to this success include a long history of research-based management, the existence of a body of understanding and knowledge that made it possible to rapidly assess conservation priorities; a small but viable number of scientists to carry out the planning phase of the project and institutions willing to take it forward. However one of the objectives of this paper is to illustrate the history of conservation in the Cape Floristic Region.