PRESS RELEASE SEPTEMBER 2007

For the Harmony Flats outing with Rusthof learners
 
Strand, 6 September 2007
 
"Living in Harmony: Children help survey for endangered fauna and flora "
 
by Marienne de Villiers and Silvia Mecenero
 
The air buzzed with excitement, as 60 Grade 9 learners from Rusthof High School explored the wonders of Harmony Flats Nature Reserve on 6 September during Arbor Week.
 
Harmony is a tiny green gem hidden on the Cape Flats in Strand. The 9-ha plot is surrounded by extremely poor communities and rampant urban sprawl. It supports a unique mixture of threatened vegetation, of which there is less than 7% left in the world. The combination of Renosterveld and Lowland Fynbos, known as Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos, is home to an astonishing variety of plants including the Critically Endangered Ixia versicolor.
 
Two members of the Avian Demography Unit were as excited by their morning at Harmony Flats as were the Rusthof kids. Drs Silvia Mecenero and Marienne de Villiers co-ordinate SABCA (the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment) and SARCA (the Southern African Reptile Conservation Assessment) respectively. They met up at the reserve with a team from Cape Flats Nature, a partnership between the City of Cape Town's Biodiversity Management Branch, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Table Mountain Fund (WWF-SA) and the Botanical Society of South Africa, associated with Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E). The project's aim is to encourage sound sustainable management practices for urban conservation areas so as to benefit surrounding communities, particularly where incomes are low and living conditions poor.
 
The morning's activities began with talks by Rupert Koopman (CREW, Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers Project), Silvia and Marienne about the fascinating fauna and flora of the area and on the importance of conserving the reserve. Then it was off to the field, and the hunt for flowers, butterflies and reptiles was on.
 
Two species of butterflies were observed at the reserve, one the common African Monarch, and the other a Silver-bottom Brown. It is hoped that further surveys will uncover more and special butterfly species, considering the special plants that occur in the area.
 
An encouraging reptile find was a Parrot-beak Tortoise, or Common Padloper. This little tortoise, named for its strongly hooked beak, averages only 70-90 mm in length when fully grown. It once shared Harmony Flats with the Geometric Tortoise, but while the more hardy padlopers were able to survive the frequent unnatural fires that plagued the reserve, the Geometrics were not. Much excitement resulted from the discovery of a Spotted Skaapsteker. Despite its intimidating name, this handsome snake is not dangerous to humans and mostly feeds on rodents, lizards, frogs and other snakes. Some confusion was caused by a glimpse of a small stubby legless reptile which disappeared quickly under grass tufts before it could be closely inspected. Later finds of similar beasts indicated that this was probably a Common Slug Eater (or Tabakrolletjie, for its habit of rolling into a tight ball when threatened), a harmless little snake that eats snails and slugs.
 
According to Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect.” We hope that through the morning of exciting discoveries at Harmony, the learners of Rusthof absorbed an understanding of the uniqueness of the small nature reserve on their doorstep, and the importance of the conservation of ecosystems as a whole. This may, in some small way, empower them to live “in harmony” with their environment.