Several initiatives have been established to mitigate increasing impacts on the freshwater ecosystems within the WCP. Concerning the protection of certain ecosystem services provided by freshwater ecosystems for water provision for instance, focus has shifted to improved and informed management and protection of the Strategic Water Source Areas for both ground and surface water. Paired with this are the projects and initiatives associated with the Greater Cape Town Water Fund (The Nature Conservancy, 2018) and other Water Fund catchments that are being considered.

These, together with more established initiatives are working on the improvement and integration of freshwater ecosystems management in the WCP (e.g. Working for Water and Working for Wetlands, the Berg River Improvement Plan). Work towards clearing the water catchments of invasive alien tree species (IAS) as well as the rehabilitation of freshwater ecosystems (Western Cape Government, 2012; Western Cape Government, 2017) has received increased attention. Moreover, the Provincial Government of the WCP has initiated the development of the Ecological Infrastructure Investment Framework (EIIF), which is being developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). This framework will enable and inform a collaborative and coordinated partnership between the relevant stakeholders, including CapeNature, national and provincial government, tertiary academic institutions as well as NGO’s and the private sector (EIIF REF).

CapeNature ecologists are contributing to a coordinated update of the National Wetlands Map and updates of the Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Area maps (NFEPA; Nel et al., 2011 (a) and (b)). All four major river catchments that form the two Water Management Areas (WMA’s), i.e. Berg-Olifants and Breede-Gourits, have undergone Water Resource Classification and the Resource Quality Objectives (RQO) have been set. Efforts are already being undertaken by the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation (DWS Provincial) and the Breede-Gourits Catchment Management Agency (BGCMA) to monitor at least some of the Ecological Water Resource (EWR) and RQO river sites.

A process to pilot the monitoring of RQO wetland sites in the different catchments has also been initiated and is coordinated by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). There is also a recent initiation of selection of six landscapes within South Africa that will be part of the South African Environment Observation Network (SAEON) and the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environment Observation Network (SAEON 2020). Two freshwater landscapes have been proposed for this project within the WCP, i.e. the Agulhas plain area and the Boland mountain catchment. It is likely that only one of these will be chosen and CapeNature remains actively involved.