John Yeld
13 August 2007
Cape Town — The University of the Western Cape says it is "deeply committed" to conserving natural resources in its care and that close on a quarter of the campus will be formally protected in its Cape Flats Nature Reserve a national monument.
It was responding to criticism from botanists, following the decision by the provincial environmental authorities to approve plans to build a new Life Science Centre on part of the university's property that contains "critically endangered" indigenous vegetation.
But, in its statement, UWC gives a simplified version of the findings of a botanical survey of the affected area. The survey report makes it clear that the investigation, conducted last year, was quite severely restricted.
The province approved the proposed development against the recommendation of its own statutory nature conservation authority, CapeNature, although this approval is still subject to an appeal process.
The building, on a 2.9ha site, will destroy close to 1ha of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos one of South Africa's most critically endangered vegetation types of which just 1% is formally conserved.
In its statement, UWC said it had had a "relatively coherent plan" for development of the campus for nearly 20 years.
"In preparing the way for this, it negotiated transfer of the land which we now plan to build on (the so-called 'dog's leg') in exchange for a much larger piece of land integral to the reserve area. This was approved by environmentalists.
"In the last few years, (UWC) has developed a coherent plan for the whole campus, dividing it into precincts for various purposes, with the overall intention of having an efficient and attractive campus."
A botanical survey conducted as part of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) had revealed "no rare or unexpected species" on the proposed development site and also no plants that did not already occur in the reserve, the university stated.
But this is a simplified version of the survey report by botanist Dr Dave McDonald.
McDonald states plainly that his field survey was limited in nature and was conducted during the "non-ideal" period of October when many of the winter flowering bulbous plants have set seed and could not be identified.
As a result, he says, he was forced to rely on historical records. "Attention was given particularly to locating rare and threatened species ... Neither (a rare leucospermum) nor any other rare species were found on the 'dog's leg' during the survey, but records show that species such as the parasitic Harveya squammosa, the sand loving Geissorhiza tenella and Salvia africanalutea occur only on the 'dog's leg' and not in the main Cape Flats Nature Reserve."
McDonald also states that the control of woody weeds is relatively easy, and that the majority of the "dog's leg" is "remarkably" free of alien grasses, "which in contrast are a problem on the flat areas of the Cape Flats Nature Reserve".
He also points to the property's very important conservation status:
"This site is essentially irreplaceable and any change in land use would translate to a significant loss in terms of the conservation of the habitat types represented and to achieving the national target of conserving 30% of this veld type."
Nevertheless, he does conclude the site can be developed.
UWC's statement says the site is degenerating with "demonstrable" species loss, and is too small to be sustainable.
"UWC is deeply committed to the conservation of the natural resources in its care," it said.
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