Get some good time out at ‘Flats Nature Reserve

GOING back to your (grass)roots seeking your Shoobee doobee heritage? Well, venture out to the UWC Cape Flats Nature Reserve right on your doorstep (next to Belhar) and take a stroll through pockets of the Cape’s fast-diminishing Dune Strandveld and Cape Flats Sand Fynbos.

While immersing yourself in the reserve’s greenbelts of preserved Dune Strandveld vegetation with its bigger, thicker bushes and small trees full of berries, fruits and sour figs and the exquisite Cape Flats Sand Fynbos shrubbery and plants, marvel at our heritage biomes.

Historians claim the Strandveld used to be the cradle of mankind and the coastal habitat where we all once lived. It provides ample food and shelter and also attracts birds and larger animals – even lions and buffaloes once roamed the Cape shores in this vegetation.

Today, sadly only a fraction of both the Cape's indigenous Strandveld and Sand Fynbos is left, thanks to urban sprawl, picnic sites and holiday home developments.

Cape Flats Nature Reserve’s research officer, Laurenda van Breda, said: “There is only 46% left of our endangered Cape Flats Dune Strandveld which does not occur anywhere else in the world. The worst part is that only 16% of it is formally being protected in nature reserves. An even sadder story is that of our indigenous Cape Sand Fynbos, where only a shocking 11% is left and only 1% protected.”

Van Breda said the UWC Cape Flats Nature Reserve was originally established as a refuge for Cape endangered vegetation types, but now also functions as a base for ecological teaching, environmental education and research.

Nestled on the campus of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) , the 34-hectare private urban reserve was established in 1977 and declared a National Monument the following year in 1978, the reserve enjoys Provincial Heritage Site status.

“Situated in a university, this urban nature reserve is a wonderful resource for students to do their research right outside their lecture rooms. And we have over 240 plants, 120 bird species, reptiles, mammals – even our largest cat, the caracal, ” Van Breda said.

The reserve also boasts an indigenous nursery and offers photo walks, bird walks and fauna surveys.

It is located next to the main entrance to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in Robert Sobukwe Road, Bellville. Their contact number is 021 959 3900.