| Table Mountain National Park | |
|---|---|
 Table Mountain seen from the slopes ofLion's Head | |
 Location of the park | |
| Location | Cape Town,Western Cape,South Africa |
| Coordinates | 33°58′00″S18°25′30″E / 33.96667°S 18.42500°E /-33.96667; 18.42500 |
| Area | 221 km2 (85 sq mi) |
| Established | 19 May 1998 |
| Governing body | South African National Parks |
| www | |
  Table Mountain National Park (South Africa) | |
Table Mountain National Park, previously known as theCape Peninsula National Park, is anational park inCape Town,South Africa, proclaimed on 29 May 1998, for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of theTable Mountain chain, and in particular the rarefynbos vegetation.
The park is managed bySouth African National Parks (SANParks), and is included as part of the UNESCOCape Floral RegionWorld Heritage Site.
The park contains two well-known landmarks:Table Mountain, for which the park is named; and theCape of Good Hope, the most southwestern extremity ofAfrica.
Arguments for a national park on the Cape Peninsula, centred on Table Mountain, began in earnest in the mid-1930s. The Table Mountain Preservation Board was set up in 1952, and in 1957 its recommendation to the National Monuments Board was accepted and Table Mountain was declared a national monument.
In the mid 1960s, the Cape Town City Council declared nature reserves on Table Mountain, Lion's Head, Signal Hill, and Silvermine. Following high fire incidence in the 1970s, Douglas Hey was appointed to assess the ecological state of Table Mountain and the southern Peninsula, and he recommended (1978) that all the Peninsula's mountains above 152m should be conserved.
This laid the foundations for the Cape Peninsula Protected Natural Environment (CPPNE) area, finally established in 1989. However, environmental management was still bedevilled by the fragmented nature of land ownership on the Peninsula.
Following a big fire above the city bowl in 1991, Attorney General Frank Kahn was appointed to reach consensus on a plan for rationalising management of the CPPNE.
In 1995, Prof. Brian Huntley recommended that SANParks be appointed to manage the CPPNE, with an agreement signed in April 1998 to transfer around 39,500 acres to SANParks.
On 29 May 1998, then-presidentNelson Mandela proclaimed the Cape Peninsula National Park. The park was later renamed to the Table Mountain National Park.[1]
The park runs approximately north–south along the range of mountains that make up the mountainous spine of theCape Peninsula, fromSignal Hill in the north, throughLion's Head,Table Mountain,Constantiaberg,Silvermine, the mountains of the southernPeninsula, terminating atCape Point.
The park is not a single contiguous area; the undeveloped mountainous areas which make up most of the park are separated by developed urban areas on the shallower terrain. Thus the park is divided into three separate sections, as listed below.
This section coversSignal Hill,Lion's Head,Table Mountain proper, including the Back Table (the rear, lower part of the mountain),Devil's Peak, the Twelve Apostles (actually a series of seventeen peaks along theAtlantic seaboard), andOrange Kloof (a specially protected area not open to the public).
It borders oncentral Cape Town in the north,Camps Bay and theAtlantic coast in the west, theSouthern Suburbs in the east, andHout Bay in the south.
This section was formed from the Table Mountain National Monument,Cecilia Park, andNewlands Forest.Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is not officially part of the national park, but its higher reaches are maintained as part of the park.
This section runs northwest–southeast across thePeninsula from theAtlantic seaboard to theFalse Bay coast. It coversConstantiaberg,Steenberg Peak and theKalk Bay mountains. It borders onHout Bay in the north-west, the suburbs ofConstantia andTokai in the north-east,Kalk Bay in the south-east, andFish Hoek andNoordhoek in the south-west.
This section was formed from the Tokai State Forest and theSilvermine Nature Reserve.
This section covers the most southern area of theCape Peninsula, stretching fromCape Point and theCape of Good Hope in the south, as far north asScarborough on theAtlantic coast andSimon's Town on theFalse Bay coast. It was formed from the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve.
This area forms part of theCape Floristic Region and as such supports a high diversity of flora, much of which is rare andendemic.Protea,erica,restio andAsteraceae species, as well asgeophytes, are all found in abundance. The main indigenous vegetation types arePeninsula Sandstone Fynbos andCape Granite Fynbos, both of which are endangered and endemic to Cape Town - occurring nowhere else in the world.[2][3]
In addition, some sections of the park are the natural home of deep, indigenousAfro-temperate forests.
A well known local tree is theSilver tree (Leucadendron argenteum), a popularly cultivated species which is found in the wild only on the slopes ofLion's Head and a few scattered locations elsewhere on the Cape Peninsula (a notable area is aboveKirstenbosch[4]).
The Park lies in the heart of the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is a bio-diversity hot spot and seen by botanists as a botanical anomaly.[5] In fact, there are more species of plants in Table Mountain National Park (over two thousand) than exist in the whole of theUnited Kingdom.[6] Much of the unique flora in the area surrounding the park has been lost to agriculture and urban development.
Indigenous plants are being increasingly harvested for traditional medicines, an activity some regard as a form ofpoaching. Such produce can be found on sale as remedies on the streets of Cape Town's central business district.[7] Indigenous species are also threatened by invasive plants such asAcacia cyclops, threeHakea species, and invasivepines that were planted in commercial timber plantations on the slopes of the mountain also . Today theTable Mountain range has the highest concentration ofthreatened species of any continental area of equivalent size in the world.[8]
SANParks have been criticised for their programme of removing invasive non-indigenous trees. These alien forests make up only 2% of the park, but cover areas that were previously incredibly rich in biodiversity.
Some of the mature alien invasive trees that pose a threat to the fynbos region arePort Jackson,Rooikrans,Hakea,Pine andblue gum.[9]
The invasive trees were originally planted as commercial plantations for timber, once most of the indigenousafro-montane forests had been felled. Unfortunately, the fertile lower slopes that were selected for the plantations are also the areas of the park which host the highest proportion of endemic and threatened species.
The park's current programme is to allow for the re-growth of theindigenous forests, while slowly removing the plantations of invasive trees. This removal has been controversial however, as some of the pine plantations are recreational areas for people living in the wealthy suburbs adjacent to the park.[10][11]
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Larger predators that historically roamed the area include theCape lion,leopard (which persisted as late as the 1920s, and tracks are claimed to still be found today[12]), as well asspotted hyena andblack-backed jackal. Largeherbivores similarly disappeared at the hands of the European settlers, for exampleelephant,black rhinoceros,kudu,eland,mountain zebra andbontebok, although the last three species were re-introduced to the Cape Point section of the park.[13]
Smallermammals are still found in the park:caracal,rock hyrax and a variety of smallantelope species, such as theCape grysbok and notably the recently re-introducedklipspringer.
The population of the alienHimalayan tahr originated from a pair that escaped from the now defunct Zoological Gardens onGroot Schuur Estate below Devil's Peak in 1935. As of 2006, virtually all tahrs have beenculled from Table Mountain, thus clearing the way for the re-introduction of the smallerklipspringer, with which the tahr would have competed with due to similarniches.[14] However it is still highly likely that a few survived.
Chacma baboons inhabit the southern parts of the park. They are highly visible and popular with tourists, but are capable of becoming extremely dangerous when they become accustomed to human beings and start to associate them with free food. Many residents who live in places close to the park, such asDa Gama Park, Tokai and Scarborough, often clash with baboons which have attempted, and succeeded, in raiding their houses for food.
Some residents resort to measures such as reinforcing their security by erecting electric fences, as well as illegal measures like shooting them with pellet guns, running them over, and setting dogs on them.[15][16] This is ineffective as it can maim the baboons and simply reinforce their penchant for gaining easy food, as it is easier for baboons to raid a dustbin for scraps than forage in the mountains with only one hand.[17] Thus it is imperative that visitors to the park are not allowed to feed the baboons at all.
A rare endemic species ofamphibian is only found on Table Mountain, theTable Mountain ghost frog. The Park lies in the heart of the Cape Floral Kingdom, which is a bio-diversity hot spot and seen by botanists as a botanical anomaly. In fact, there are more species of plant in Table Mountain National Park (over two thousand) than exist in the whole of the United Kingdom.[18]
The Table Mountain National Park Marine Protected Area is an inshoremarine protected area around theCape Peninsula. It was proclaimed in Government Gazette No. 26431 of 4 June 2004 in terms of theMarine Living Resources Act, 18 of 1998.[19]
The MPA is of value forconservation of a wide range ofendemic species, and has considerable economic value as a tourist destination. It encloses a large number ofrecreational dive sites visited by local residents and tourists from further afield.
The shark andwhale watching tourist industries are also represented, and there are several popularsurf breaks. The MPA is mainly a controlled zone where extractive activities are allowed under permit, with six small no-take zones. The MPA is administrated by the Table Mountain National Park.
The marine ecology is unusually varied for an area of this size, as a result of the meeting of two major oceanic water masses nearCape Point, and the park extends into two coastal marinebioregions.
The ecology of the west or "Atlantic Seaboard" side of the park is noticeably different in character andbiodiversity to that of the east, or "False Bay" side. Both sides are classified as temperate waters, but there is a significant difference in average temperature, with the Atlantic side being noticeably colder on average.[20]
The MPA contains culturally significant fish traps, historical wrecks and traditional fishing communities, and is also important for commercial fisheries. Part of the West Coast rock lobster industry takes place within the MPA – as well as recreational and subsistence fishers, and an illegalpoaching industry mostly targetingabalone,rock lobster and territorial linefish from the no-take zones.[20]
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