In 2024 the University of Cape Town (UCT) implemented direct, demonstrable actions to maintain, restore and extend existing ecosystems and to support biodiversity of both plants and animals — with particular attention to habitats affected by wildfire and to urban and threatened ecosystems. Evidence includes institutional restoration projects on UCT land (reforestation and invasive-species control), campus-scale ecosystem recovery following the Table Mountain fires, long-running wildlife conservation and citizen-science programmes that protect threatened fauna, and new research units explicitly focused on nature-based restoration and biodiversity-sensitive climate responses.

The university’s Integrated Development Framework (IDF) also acknowledges the very sensitive location of the university campus adjacent to a protected biosphere (Table Mountain Nature Reserve) and that in development planning the campus must remain incredibly sensitive to this and take necessary mitigation actions and actions that support biodiversity, including greater biodiversity on campus itself also including adequate buffer zones on the edges of the Main Campus that sits on the edge of Table Mountain. As a sub-component to the IDF the university has a Landscape Development Framework that provides a more detailed framework for the landscape and biodiversity design of the campus and how this interfaces with the neighbouring properties, including Table Mountain.

UCT’s Properties & Services Department has a unit (the Estates & Custodial Department) that focuses on the landscape and biodiversity management on campus, including the interface with sensitive neighbouring properties such as Table Mountain Nature Reserve. This unit is focused on improving biodiversity on campus, maintaining the landscape, maintaining fire breaks on the perimeter of the Upper Campus and maintaining a detailed online tree inventory.  

Various related activities are listed below: 

  1. Reforestation and restoration of UCT urban forest (Arbour Week planting; dam precinct restoration)
    • UCT Properties & Services continued a multi-year reforestation and ecological restoration programme on campus in 2024 (including planting and restoration work in the dam precinct during Arbour Week) aimed at mitigating erosion and restoring indigenous biodiversity after earlier fires. This article documents the reforestation activities, staff leading the work, and the programme’s explicit biodiversity objectives.
  2. Direct restoration work and progress updates following the Table Mountain fires
    • UCT published a 16 May 2024 update (“Three years on: UCT fire – update on restoration work”) describing ongoing active restoration and recovery across affected campus land and facilities, and referencing continued work to rebuild and restore the campus environment and its natural areas after the 2021 fire events. This shows UCT’s continuing, hands-on ecosystem recovery actions in 2024.
  3. Long-running wildlife conservation & citizen-science — Urban Caracal Project (iCWild / UCT)
    • The Urban Caracal Project, hosted by UCT’s Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild), conducts field research, monitoring and public engagement to protect caracals and urban biodiversity around Cape Town. The project page and UCT coverage make clear that the project actively works to conserve a native predator (with implications for wider ecosystem health) through monitoring, community reporting and conservation actions in and around Table Mountain and green corridors. (Project materials and UCT reporting are publicly available.)
  4. New/expanded nature-based research capacity explicitly targeting ecosystem and biodiversity outcomes — PiNC Lab (ACDI, UCT)
    • In September 2024 UCT’s African Climate & Development Initiative launched the People in Nature & Climate (PiNC) Lab to advance nature-based solutions across Africa. The lab’s stated aims include evidence generation and capacity building for nature-based approaches that support ecosystem health and biodiversity — demonstrating institutional research investment in restoration and biodiversity-focused interventions.