NLC Programme   |   Biodiversity Gardens   |   Cape Flats

#GROW

Integrating botanical expertise with existing conservation efforts

The Crestway High School Biodiversity Conservation Garden was established as part of BOT SOC’s Protecting and Restoring South Africa’s Natural Heritage project.

Located on the Cape Flats, this garden features some of the most threatened vegetation types in the Cape Floral Kingdom.

BOT SOC partnered with Crestway High School to build on the fantastic work already being done by Ingcungcu Sunbird Restoration. The school’s Eco-Club had already begun establishing an indigenous garden as part of a biodiversity corridor to support local sunbirds. This made Crestway High School the perfect site for a BOT SOC outdoor living classroom.

By integrating botanical expertise with existing conservation efforts, learners now experience biodiversity first-hand – seeing, touching and smelling plants, and engaging with educational signage and storyboards developed as part of the project.

Youth skills development and conservation training

BOT SOC had 12 youths in the Cape Metropole who were trained as part of this project. Hosted by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, these youths were upskilled through classroom, theoretical learning and hands-on conservation training.

Beyond their work at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, the youth contributed to citizen science plant monitoring activities through the Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) Programme, capturing species observations on iNaturalist.

These skills were applied when they helped develop and select plants for the Crestway High School Biodiversity Conservation Garden.

The themed planting areas include:

• Cape Flats Sand Fynbos bed that use remarkable survival strategies
• Cape Flats Dune Strandveld bed featuring species that thrive on lime-rich, marine-derived sands and shell fragments
• Medicinal plant bed with species traditionally used for healing

Interpretive signage explains plant ecology, pollinators and conservation importance.

Plant labels provide information on:

• Scientific and common names
• Plant characteristics
• Cultural value
• Pollinators
• Ecological significance

Each label also includes a QR code linking to SANBI’s PlantZAfrica website, allowing visitors to learn more about each species. Interpretive signage was developed by BOT SOC and designed by Jeanette Erasmus.