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Wild Cape
Nature Trust
About
the Trust
The Wild Cape Nature
Trust is dedicated to plant and wildlife conservation in South Africa's
Cape Floral Kingdom. The trust was founded
by Ian & Genevieve Giddy in 2007. It is guided by a Board of
Trustees.
Goals:
- To
contribute to the preservation of an important part of the Cape
Floral Kingdom.
- To
further knowledge of the region's flora and fauna, by supporting a
research program (described here)
- To
improve understanding by offering
access and accommodation
for visiting students and conservationists.
Means:
The
primary means of achieving this goal has been the protection
of a property whose flora represents important elements of the
Cape Floral Kingdom. We call this property Wildcliff.
 About
Wildcliff
- On behalf of the Trust, Ian and Genevieve Giddy have
purchased a property in the Langeberg mountain range in the Western
Cape. Take a visual tour of the property here.
- Wildcliff consists of 955
hectares, deep kloofs with afro-montane forest, rocky mountaintops and
high meadows of fynbos. It borders on the Boosmansbos Wilderness Area,
a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- The property will be maintained as a Private Nature
Reserve. It is owned
by the
Trust and will be held in perpetuity for purposes of conservation and
research.
- Access is limited to other
conservation-minded people, and biological researchers.
- Wildcliff has, in the past, had farming on a limited
portion. It has an old farmhouse and
two other renovated houses.
- The farmhouse, Talari, is used for visits by the Trustees
and
their families, and for other conservation-minded visitors.Additional
accommodation at the Heron House
and Weaver's
Nest is provided for researchers,
conservationists and volunteers.
<> - The Wildcliff team needs help with surveys such as mapping,
and with
clearing
the invasive alien
vegetation such as black wattles and pines.
- We are developing hiking trails to reach places of
beauty or significant natural interest.
We welcome
comments, or enquiries from potential volunteers or researchers.
About
the Cape Floral Kingdom
 South Africa
has the third-highest level of biodiversity in
the world, thanks in no small part to the Cape Floral Kingdom. The
Table Mountain National Park alone has more plant species within its
22,000 hectares than the whole British Isles or New Zealand.
A stretch
of land and sea spanning 90,000 square kilometres, or
0.05% of the earth's land area, the Cape floral kingdom contains
roughly 3% of the world's plant species. Of the 9,600 species of
vascular plants found in the Cape
floral kingdom, about 70% are endemic, ie occur nowhere else on earth.
The
areas's freshwater and marine environments are similarly
unique, with plants and animals adapted to highly specialised
environments. On land and sea, the kingdom is rich: 11,000 identified
marine animal species, 3,500 of which are endemic, and 560 vertebrate
species, including 142 reptile species of which 27 are endemic.
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