Learning, Naturally!

Press release: Friends of Tokai Park

It gives Friends of Tokai Park, its partners, funders and sponsors great pleasure to announce 2020’s Nature Week, a key element of our Tokai Park Biodiversity Gateway Project and a wonderful, fun-filled opportunity for some 600 Cape Town learners to enjoy aligning the theory of their Life Sciences curriculum with the natural biodiversity of Tokai Park’s Fynbos.

Tokai Park is a core conservation site that is home to remnants of two critically endangered Fynbos vegetation types: Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (less than 1% conserved) and Peninsula Granite Fynbos (less than 30% conserved). Tokai Park is also a hotspot within a biodiversity hotspot. With over 550 native plant species in 600ha, it is a remarkable botanical site. Sadly, there are 22 plant species at the park threatened with extinction. Despite its value, the surrounding community is divided over its fate.

Putting life back into sciences and the natural back into nature, some 550 learners from schools within a 5-10 km radius of Tokai Park – Shiloah Christian School, Constantia Primary, St Mary’s RC Primary, Cape Academy, Hillwood Primary and Westlake Primary – will be visiting Lower Tokai Park for Nature Week from in the mornings of Monday 9 to Friday 13 March to mix fun with learning in the heart of Tokai Park’s Core Fynbos Conservation Site.

Freed of their classrooms and released into nature, learners and their educators will find their Life Sciences syllabus bursting into exuberant life. The four key Life Sciences activities are Plantation and Fynbos Vegetation Surveys; a Guided Nature Walk; the Fynbos Restoration Trail; and Wildlife, Small mammals. These activities bring to life themes of biodiversity; succession and fires; Fynbos biodiversity and restoration, and population ecology and food webs.

Dr Alanna Rebelo, a postdoctoral researcher at Stellenbosch University and coordinator of the Tokai Biodiversity Gateway Project, feels that it is critical that leaners are exposed to nature and taught sound ecological principles. The words of our fellow African, Baba Dioum, ring so true, Dr Rebelo says. “In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught”. It is our duty to make sure that our learners are taught about their incredibly rich natural heritage.

It is not only a matter of biodiversity conservation, but of public safety, she says. “If the general public are not taught sound ecological principles, we can end up in serious trouble” she says. “Nothing demonstrates this more than our understanding of fire and Fynbos. If we think fire is something we should try to stop and suppress, we will only end up delaying the inevitable, and creating a wildfire that is so out of control that it could really threaten the lives and property of the people of the city of Cape Town. It is critical that we understand why managing fires is not only important for biodiversity, but for our own safety.”

The Nature Week morning programme will start at 9AM each day with a short, 10-minute introduction to Tokai Park and its value. Thereafter, learners will simultaneously rotate through each carefully structured 40-minute activity in four groups of ~25, each led by an environmental educator, support personnel and an educator, to complete a packed programme of activities followed by a debrief in the form of a fun quiz and refreshments.

In addition, Nature Week has an afternoon programme where ecoclubs from Bergvliet Primary School, Norman Henshilwood High School and John Graham Primary School will take time to give back to nature. In the afternoons, ecoclubs will learn about the value of Fynbos, and how we can restore it when it is invaded by alien trees. This will include an alien clearing (hand-pulling activity) with a mini-hack competition! We will end the day with refreshments and a fun quiz.

Nature Week will run from 9-13 March at the Dennendal Avenue and Lions Gate entrances to Lower Tokai Park, and culminate in our Fynbos Festival on Sunday 15 March at The Range (watch this space!). Should you wish to attend as a media person, or should you have any questions attending this exciting event, please contact our Secretary, Alanna Rebelo, at info@tokaipark.com.

When: 9-11AM and 2-4PM, Mon-Fri 9-13 March 2020

Where: Lower Tokai Park

Who: 600 learners from Cape Town schools supported by Friends of Tokai Park, its funders, sponsors and partners

Why: Lower Tokai Park’s rich biodiversity, its critically endangered Fynbos species and its status as a hotspot within a global hotspot enables learners to attach real-world meaning to their Life Sciences curriculum