The Cape Floristic Region

In the most recent episode of Inside Africa, CNN visits the Cape Floristic Region, a global biodiversity hotspot home to around 9,000 plant species. Despite its UNESCO World Heritage status, the Cape Floristic Region faces growing threats; climate change, invasive species, and human expansion are putting its delicate ecosystems at risk.

Walker Bay, on the Southern coast of South Africa, is one of the most biodiverse biomes on the planet, and one of the most threatened. In the heart of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the Grootbos Foundation leads a science-based effort to conserve thousands of hectares of endangered fynbos. Sean Privett, the Conservation Director at Grootbos Foundation, emphasises the beauty and diversity of the region, “25, 30 years ago, very little was known about the area. So we have spent the last almost three decades really immersing ourselves in getting an understanding of the biodiversity […]. We are on about 1,040 species now just on Grootbos, so if you think the floor of the British Isles is 1500 native species, we are sitting here with a thousand, over a thousand species on one small reserve.”

The region’s biodiversity is under threat from invasive species, urban development, and a changing climate. Rebecca Dames, a scientist at Grootbos Foundation, leads research across the reserve, monitoring plant and animal life. She tells CNN about her documentation, “In about 2016 we started using movement sensitive camera traps to document the wildlife of this region. And most of the wildlife in this area is nocturnal and elusive, so actually getting visual sightings of them is very poor. Through these camera traps, we’re able to unlock this amazing elusive world of the wildlife of this area.”

Dames continues on the exciting new floral finds the foundation has discovered, “We discovered an orchid on Grootbos, which we had never known existed here before. And you think big, beautiful showy is something that everyone’s going to see, but it just takes spending time in the right place to be able to find something and is, it’s a really incredible feeling and being able to document new plants in this area.”

Thilivhali Murivhami, the project lead of the Biodiversity Stewardship Team at Grootbos Foundation, works to connect local communities and farmers in a mutually beneficial conservation program. He explains the benefits, “If you don’t have the biodiversity in your farm, then you don’t have the financial gain out of it. It drops drastically […]. We allocate them the team that we have already trained. And then it’s not just about that these teams have been working on the landscape for the longest. So, by doing that, you create a long-term relationship as well with the landowners.”

In the botanical garden of Stellenbosch University, Professor Nox Makunga takes CNN on a tour of plants that grow naturally across the Cape and that still play a role in local healing today. She explains, “I think it’s very important to have garden like this that are actually quite specialised. And one of the beauties about this garden is the fact that it’s so aromatic. And so, for people that have a visual impairment, this particular garden can be quite exciting because of all the different aromatics that are included in this particular space.”

Makunga’s research remains rooted in the human need to connect with nature, “There’s very clear evidence that gardens and nature and any spaces that are natural, that have plants are very healing. It’s also been shown that people that are recovering from major surgeries, if they’re sitting in a garden, their healing process is much faster than somebody that hasn’t been interacting with nature.”

On the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain, lies Kirstenbosch, one of the most celebrated botanical gardens on earth. Anthony MaGee, the curator of the Compton Herbarium at Kirstenbosch tells CNN about the vitality of herbariums for research, education, and tracking biodiversity over time, “It gives us baseline data of what species we have in the country, but also where they occurred previously before human interventions and going forward where they still occur. And so, we can use that information to reintroduce species but also make decisions of where to develop and where not to develop going forward.”

Despite being one of the most studied floral kingdoms in the world, new species are discovered in the Cape Floristic region almost every year. For MaGee, that’s what makes the Cape so interesting, “It’s still an area that is very much under described. So new species are coming up all the time within this herber. We’ve described a thousand new species in the last 90 years. So almost 10% of the known species of the Cape have been described from botanists working in this collection.”

From seed banks to science labs, the Cape’s researchers are unlocking the secrets of one of the world’s richest plant kingdoms. But science is only part of the story. In two weeks, CNN returns to meet the artists, guides and storytellers keeping the cape’s floral legacy alive, with creativity and education on the world stage.

This interview was featured on the latest episode of Inside Africa on CNN International.