Cape Peninsula Baboon Strategic Management Plan 2023–2034

The Chacma baboon (Papio ursinus ursinus) is indigenous to and plays an important ecological role on the Cape Peninsula. Baboons prefer to use low-lying land for foraging; and prefer high-lying areas such as caves, cliffs and tall trees in which to roost. However, on the Cape Peninsula, a substantial portion of all available low lying land has been transformed into residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural landscapes. This has resulted in human-baboon conflict.

The City of Cape Town, SANParks and CapeNature have worked together with various communities and in committees and forums towards managing the human-baboon interface. After roundtable discussions on baboon management within the Cape Peninsula on 7 June 2022, the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT), consisting of representatives from South African National Parks (SANParks), the City of Cape Town and CapeNature, deliberated on a Terms of Reference and work plan.

The outcomes were to deliver a draft Memorandum of Agreement between the three authorities and a Strategic Management Plan for baboon management in the Cape Peninsula to span the following ten years.