Tokai Park
Conservation driven by vision
One of the biggest threats to conservation in the world, South Africa and in this case in Cape Town is public opinion. Biodiversity and the environment are often at odds with human interests. Whether it is resources such as rain forests, oil, habitable land, water resources, minerals, it is humans that prevail at the expense of the environment.
In Cape Town there is an ever-increasing human population and pressure on land for housing primarily on the lowlands where CFSF is limited to its last 11%. One of the three most significant and richest remaining conservation parcels is Kenilworth which is privately owned and subject to increasing pressure to be developed. Standard legal environmental processes are being overridden by politicians in conflict with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation to which South Africa is a signatory.
Tokai is the other area where CFSF can survive but a significant pressure group is lobbying for the area to remain under pine plantation to satisfy their understanding of conservation and personal needs. These two areas may be the last chance in Cape Town to make significant contributions to saving the remnants of CFSF. Therefore, Target 14: 'The importance of plant diversity and the need for its conservation incorporated into communication, education and public awareness programmes' may be the most important of conservation targets of the GSPC.
Hitchcock A, Williams J & Cowell C Lessons learned as Erica turgida is returned Journal for Nature Conservation 56 2020
Tokai Park is a 600 ha wing of Table Mountain National Park, one of our UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This small peninsula of Fynbos extends into the urban matrix and is one of the only corridors connecting the mountains to the lowlands of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos. The park contains four vegetation types: Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, Peninsula Granite Fynbos (both critically endangered), Sandstone Fynbos and some small patches of Afromontane Forest. With over 550 native plant species, Tokai Park is a gem even within one of the world’s 25 biodiversity hotspots.
Tokai Park is loved by the community for its biodiversity, but also its recreational value. The park is popular for walkers (with and without dogs), cyclists, horse-riders, joggers and hikers. It has significant conservation value, and restoration of the Fynbos following decades of pine plantations has been highly successful. Safety, like our notoriously fickle Cape weather, is a factor in the park, and users are urged to understand the risks and be cautious.
By virtue of its status as part of a National Park and Natural UNESO World Heritage Site, Lower Tokai Park has been accorded Protected Area (PA) status in terms of several Acts of Parliament. Images Protected Areas Register and CapeFarmMapper
Lower Tokai Park (Farm 1464) was afforded Protected Area (PA) status with the proclamation of Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) as a National Park in terms of the National Parks Act, 1978, Act 57 of 1976, on 29 May 1998 (see Government Gazette (GG) 29 May 1998 No 18916 in the Government Gazette omnibus linked to the National Register of Protected Areas).
Farm 1464 was also gazetted (GG 29 May 2015 No 38822 – Notice 480 of 2015) under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, Act 57 of 2003 and, since 2009 and as part of a Natural UNESCO World Heritage Site Protected Area, the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas World Heritage Site, under the World Heritage Convention Act, Act 49 of 1999 (GG 30 January 2009 No 31832).
These Acts all accord it PA status.
Perhaps more relevantly for Capetonians, Tokai Park was proclaimed part of the Cape Peninsula Nature Reserve (CPNR) PA (GG 9056 10 February 1984 – Notice 171 of 1984) in terms of the Physical Planning Act, Act 88 of 1967 (repealed) and was later clearly demarcated as such (Provincial Gazette [PG] 4592 30 June 1989 – Notice 52 of 1989) in terms of the same Act.
Don’t rob us, don’t rob our children and don’t rob our grandchildren of the beauty that’s been given to us...
Edward Copperfield
