CapeNature maintains clean audit record and expands the Western Cape’s Protected Areas
CapeNature's 2025/26 Annual Report shows the Entity added more than 44 000 hectares to the Western Cape conservation estate over the year. The additions extend protection across mountain catchments that feed the province's water supply, guarding them against the invasive plant growth and wildfire risk that threaten water security. Ultimately the protected areas expansion improves our ability to conserve the rich and unique Western Cape biodiversity.
The Annual Reports also notes CapeNature’s sustained clean audit status – ten clean audits in a row. A clean audit reflects the good systems, processes and key controls to prevent significant errors, that have been put in place at the Entity. Should errors occur, the Entity has processes to detect and rectify the errors without a significant impact on operations and governance.
Sustained clean audits reflect the CapeNature’s commitment to clean governance and does not happen due to isolated efforts. It is a collective effort and is based on adherence to the basic financial and supply chain disciplines and ensuring that regular controls and processes are in place and working effectively. A clean audit tells us CapeNature is managing public money the way it should be managed. But what stands out this year is what that discipline delivered: more than 44 000 hectares added to the conservation estate, and work created in the communities that live alongside it.
The Annual Report covers the first year of CapeNature's 2025–2030 strategic plan, during which the Entity met every performance target it set including seven new performance indicators introduced in the previous year.
CapeNature manages 872 384 hectares across 31 protected area complexes, stretching from the Knersvlakte and Cederberg in the west to the Swartberg and Outeniqua mountains in the south and east. The Western Cape Protected Area Expansion Strategy identifies both biodiversity conservation and securing strategic water source areas as priority for the province's reserves.
Two of the seven new indicators relate directly to water security. During the year, CapeNature cleared 23 309 hectares of invasive alien plants and maintained 205 firebreaks.
Clearing invasive alien plants and maintaining firebreaks in our mountain catchments protects the water supply for towns and cities well beyond our reserve boundaries, and it's work that puts people from neighbouring communities into jobs, on the ground.
The 44 231 hectares added against a 5 000-hectare target came largely through the extension of the Knersvlakte Nature Reserve, alongside 16 new biodiversity stewardship agreements with private landowners. Management effectiveness assessments rated 99,7% of the estate as effectively managed, nearly the entire area under CapeNature's care.
CapeNature created 543 Expanded Public Works Programme opportunities in communities neighbouring protected areas, and a further 2 647 opportunities through services procured from 73 small, micro and medium enterprises.
The year also produced discoveries in the field: researchers confirmed a new distribution record for the slender redfin, a rare freshwater fish, in the upper Doring River, and found more than 50 tadpoles of a previously undescribed Capensibufo toad species during long-term monitoring work.
ABOUT CapeNature
CapeNature is a public institution mandated to promote and ensure biodiversity conservation within the Western Cape and is the custodian of the Cape Floristic Region. The Entity manages most of the mountain catchments and reserves that supply ecosystem services to the citizens of the Western Cape. This requires good scientific data, a sound understanding of fynbos ecology and commitment to the principles of integrated biodiversity management and planning. Most of this work is in remote areas out of the public eye but has a direct bearing on the quality of life of millions of people in the province.
MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
CapeNature
General Manager: Advocacy
Petro van Rhyn
pvrhyn@capenature.co.za
071 231 7576
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