- The South African National Parks (SANParks) completed a key expansion of Table Mountain National Park by adding 25 hectares of conservation land.
- The newly established Kommetjie Ecological Corridor links Noordhoek and Kommetjie, creating an essential habitat for local biodiversity.
- Restoration of the area has begun, with alien vegetation clearing underway to support indigenous plant and animal life.
In a significant milestone for nature conservation, the South African National Parks (SANParks) successfully completed the incorporation of vital land into the Table Mountain National Park (TMNP), creating a crucial ecological corridor between Noordhoek and Kommetjie.
The achievement was celebrated at Imhoff Farm in Kommetjie on Tuesday 22 October, where a signing and handing over of the land took place.
Mike Slayen, SANParks planning manager, explains how the deal for the handover of 25 hectares of land came about.
“From the establishment of TMNP in 1998, we’ve had challenges on how to link the northern section of the park, which ends in Champman’s Peak, to the southern section that starts at Slangkop and Kommetjie,” he tells People’s Post. “The only viable way to link it was by incorporating the Noordhoek wetlands and creating a Kommetjie corridor.”
However, the lowlands were privately owned by Red Cliff Property and Kommetjie Estates.
“We entered into a discussion with the land owners who committed to making that land available and selling it to us. So, together with the World Wide Fund (WWF) and other partners we raised the funds for about 450 hectares of the Noordhoek wetlands and then we had a remaining portion of corridor to link between Slangkop Mountain,” said Slayen.
A process involving the landowners, SANParks, City of Cape Town, WWF-SA, Table Mountain Fund and other stakeholders was initiated to achieve the creation and protection of the ecological corridor via the Noordhoek Wetlands.
Following detailed expert studies and stakeholder discussions, the core wetland properties, totaling 439 hectares, were acquired by SANParks and declared as part of the Table Mountain National Park in 2004 and core areas of the Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site in 2015.
“We entered into discussions with land owners again and it was agreed if they could achieve their development applications they would donate the land to us,” said Slayen. “So, today we are signing the donation agreement of 25 hectares to SANParks to complete the Kommetjie Ecological Corridor which we will now embark on restoring back to fynbos.”
Restoration of the wetlands commenced in earnest in 2004, with ongoing rounds of alien vegetation clearing and introducing new management programmes for recreational users such as hikers, dog walkers and horse riders using the wetlands and the adjacent four kilometre Noordhoek beach.
Missing link
However, there was a “missing link”, the remaining portion of the Kommetjie ecological corridor.
Kommetjie Estates and Red Cliff Property respectively donated 4,7 and 20,8 hectares of high-value conservation land to SANParks, which not only completes the ecological link but also enlarges the originally planned area of the corridor by 6,7 hectares.
Gerhard van der Horst, Managing Director of Red Cliff Property, explained that the land had been in his family for 112 years.
“The land has been in our family since 1912, so 112 years and the full extent of the holding was 2 500 hectares, including this piece of land,” he said.
“Somewhere close to 75% of that land holding is conserved, so only 25% is being developed in terms of public infrastructure, but 75% is either part of the park or open areas.”
He added that the handover was a long process that ended in a good balance between conservation and development.
“The fact that there is conservation around our developments creates a nice place to live, it is a small piece of a much bigger puzzle.”
Meanwhile, restoration of the “missing link” corridor portion has commenced with the clearing of alien vegetation and the invasive, fire-prone gum trees.
