1. COLLABORATE TO BIOBLITZ

Collaborating with a large group of organisations and clubs contributed a lot to our success in the 2019 City Nature Challenge. The enthusiasm of organising team City of Cape Town biodiversity management branch and the Cape CREW team was infectious and pulled in other organisations such as various CREW and WESSA volunteer groups – plus 15 others!

To give you an idea of the breadth of support you can raise, these included: Southern Underwater Research Group (SURG), Scouts South Africa, Sun Valley Eco-Watch, Long-term Intertidal Monitoring through Participation, Evaluation and Training (LIMPET) Programme, FynbosLIFE, Cape Herpetology Club, Cape Flats Nature Reserve, South African National Parks (SANParks) Honorary Rangers, Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Group, Renew the Elsieskraal River Association, V&A Waterfront, World Wildlife Fund – South Africa, Botanical Society of South Africa Kirstenbosch Branch, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Freshwater Unit at SANBI, Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET), Two Oceans Aquarium, DSK German School, Communitree and the Cape Town Mountain Club.

Our 2020 City Nature Challenge will target even more stakeholders and we hope that organisations such as CapeNature, SANParks, Table Mountain Fund, Rotary South Africa, and the Beach Co-op will join in. Our aim is to unite conservation-driven organisations and institutes for a common cause. Cape Town’s biodiversity, although unique, is severely under threat and we need to innovate ways for the public to get involved in helping to preserve it.

2. BUILD PARTICIPATION

The one challenge category where Cape Town did not excel was the number of participants. Our largest gap was among the youth, including tertiary-education students and scholars. Since the City Nature Challenge is also an environmental education exercise, we are trying hard to involve students by running events with CTEET and tertiary institutions for biology clubs and students with biology majors so they can apply their theoretical knowledge while having fun.

3. SHOWCASE YOUR CITY

Each 2019 City Nature Challenge stakeholder and collaborator extensively marketed the challenge and the bioblitz events that they hosted. This marketing, along with fun prizes on offer for participants who excelled in the challenge, helped raise interest high and resulted in Cape Town beating its species and observation targets. In the longer term, it is also key to promoting and ultimately helping protect the city’s biodiversity.

For the 2019 City Nature Challenge, City of Cape Town libraries donated free WiFi access over the four days of the challenge for participants without internet access to upload observations. This also helped add to the publicity and buzz around the event.

4. BE PREPARED

Many people were unfamiliar with the iNaturalist app and were excited to discover how it enables quick and convenient observations without the hassle of dealing with a computer. The app’s online help includes video tutorials, guidelines, etiquette and instructions. We found, though, that the training workshops run by SANBI and City of Cape Town for both the organisations’ staff and volunteers helped generate camaraderie among participants.

For our 2020 City Nature Challenge, iNaturalist and photography training workshops led by SANBI and the City of Cape Town biodiversity branch will be posted on the iNaturalist Facebook page and as news on the project page. Keep checking for any updates.

5. SET UP YOUR BIOBLITZ

We found this a really effective and fun way to make observations for the challenge. Target your favourite open places in your city and make as many observations as possible. You can do this informally on your own, with your family and friends, or even as a fun office event.

Targeting a range of habitats for species variety is important and you can also join an organised bioblitz. These are usually led by a biologist or reserve manager, which helps make it a fun learning experience.

For the 2019 City Nature Challenge, our organised bioblitzes had themes such as rocky shores, forests, wildflowers, mushrooms, birding, snake and amphibian searches. They were led by some of our most highly regarded experts such as Drs Margo and George Branch, Drs Bryan and Robin Maritz, Cape Nature botanists, CREW leaders, and City of Cape Town Biodiversity Branch staff.

6. CELEBRATE YOUR ACHIEVEMENT

Wherever you finish on the leaderboard, you will have had a wonderful experience and contributed interesting data to understanding of your city’s biodiversity. At our celebration, we made sure that we acknowledged all the support we received from participating organisations and organised a prize-giving for participants. The top prizes of a weekend at Cape Nature or Montispectus for uploading the most observations and species went to CREW volunteers Magriet Brink and Helen Pickering.

ALL THE FUN OF NATURE

You can find the time and date of bioblitzes on the iNaturalist southern Africa Facebook page (@iNatureZA) and as news posts on each city’s 2020 City Nature Challenge iNaturalist project. If you are unsure about what events are happening in your local neighbourhood, check with your nearest nature reserve or city park to see what activities they are hosting. Keep track of the leaderboard.

CNC2019 and winning the title of the world’s most biodiverse city has boosted camaraderie among conservation organisations and spurred greater interest from the general public in local biodiversity. We wish all the cities participating an exciting and epic challenge. It is sure to be fun and exciting – don’t miss out and let’s try to make SA win the title again!