Greater Cederberg Biodiversity
17 July 2006

Cape Nature Conservation in conjunction with the Cape Action for People and the Environment (CAPE) launched the Greater Cederberg Biodiversity Corridor (GCBC) on Tuesday, 15th June, 2004. This groundbreaking initiative developed from a conservation ethic that uniquely recognizes the 'lived in, worked in' nature of an extended landscape. It is a first for South Africa and it incorporates a variety of land- uses, and places emphasis on both the natural and cultural resources of the Cederberg area. Existing protected areas are often too small and isolated to maintain viable ecosystems and evolutionary processes. In such circumstances, conservation efforts must focus on linking major sites across wide geographic areas in order to maintain large-scale processes and ensure the maintenance of a high level of biodiversity. Such networks of protected areas and landscape management systems are biodiversity corridors. This new approach to conservation, that is, the creation of a biodiversity corridor, came about because existing nature reserves do not necessarily conserve ecosystems and natural processes. They have as a rule been established to ensure the survival of specific species and their habitats. CAPE realised that efforts to conserve life-supporting processes should include natural corridors that stretch across habitats and climatic regions. This would help ensure the conservation of critical habitat types and support the concept of holistic conservation as opposed to the protection of individual species. The main function of corridors is to connect areas of biodiversity value through a patchwork of sustainable land uses, increasing the movement and genetic exchange between individual plants and animals. As a result of large-scale habitat transformation there are only three opportunities to create these land linkages in the Cape Floral Kingdom (CFK), of which the GCBC is one. The CFK is one of the world's six floral kingdoms, and the Succulent Karoo is one of the 25 internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots. The CFK and the Succulent Karoo both fall within the GCBC. The unique flora and highly adaptive animal life that will consequently be protected by the GCBC will play a significant role in the challenge to secure the future of the Western Cape's natural assets.