Eastern Cape Biodiversity Stewardship Forum 2019

March 2019

The GKS project team attended the EC Biodiversity Stewardship Forum that was held in Cape St Francis on 28 February 2019.  The theme of this year’s forum was “Capacitating Biodiversity Stewardship in the Eastern Cape“.  We delivered a presentation at the Forum to show how Biodiversity Stewardship is supported by the GKS project and how organisations like the Friends of St Francis Nature Areas (FOSTER) and the Kabeljous Reserve Action Group (KRAG) are doing an amazing job at supporting the management of a number of provincial and local authority Nature Reserves in the region.  The aim of the presentation was to demonstrate how Biodiversity Stewardship can be capacitated by overcoming resource constraints through creative funding mechanisms and by embracing partnerships.  The Forum was concluded with a site visit to the Irma Booysen Floral Reserve and the Cape St Francis Nature Reserve.  Prof Richard Cowling (Chairman of FOSTER) accompanied the Forum delegates to the reserves and gave a talk about the conservation and archaeological importance of the reserves, how FOSTER has been supporting the management of the network of reserves around Cape St Francis over the past 25 years, and the need for conservation authorities to partner with NGOs (like as FOSTER and KRAG) in order to ensure that these reserves can be formally secured as Protected Areas.