The City of Cape Town hosts another biodiversity event with the mayor

At a City of Cape Town / Local Action for Biodiversity Event held in March 2008 in Cape Town, the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Helen Zille, promised a lunch for the winners of an innovative biodiversity quiz which was part of the event. The lunch was held last week on 18 September at the Blaauwberg conservation Area.

Mayor Zille welcomed fellow LAB participant city representatives to the event: the Waitakere Deputy Mayor, Penny Hulse, and Director, Sue Bidrose. Mayor Zille proudly announced that Cape Town joined the 21 LAB cities in signing the Durban Commitment at the LAB Workshop, re-affirming Cape Town’s commitment to the conservation of its unique biodiversity.

Zille said that Cape Town is “on the brink of a biodiversity mega-disaster as we have 13 plant species which are already extinct and 319 threatened plant species which is more than any other city in the world.   In real terms, on the ground this means that within the City of Cape Town irreplaceable biodiversity of international significance is crammed into almost every open space and road verge.  As such, the City recognises that the golden thread of biodiversity is an integral component of our City and is the responsibility of every City employee and Capetonian”.

As part of the LAB project, the 21 pioneer participants undertake to implement 5 on-the-ground biodiversity initiatives. Mayor Zille announced that one of the city’s 5 initiatives as part of the LAB project would be the Diep River Corridor, which seeks to conserve and rehabilitate a pilot corridor which will run through dense urban development linking Rietvlei to the Blaauwberg Conservation Area.  The corridor also protects the only remaining functioning floodplain system in the City and remnants of endangered Strandveld vegetation and critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos vegetation.