Cape Peninsula Baboon Strategic Management Plan 2023/24 to 2033/34 and public comments

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.