Cape Town, a Generation Restoration role model city, is a leader in biodiversity conservation policy, integrating nature preservation into urban planning. Its substantial waterway restoration programs preserve biodiversity while enhancing water security, and its restoration portfolio includes wetland restoration, coastal dune enhancement, and invasive species removal.

About the city

Cape Town is the legislative capital of South Africa, with a population of approximately 5 million residents. Cape Town is located in the Western Cape in the southwest of the country, a coastal city near to the point where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans converge. It has a Mediterranean climate with cool, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. Cape Town is the second-largest contributor to the South African economy, with a diversity of industries including services, finance, manufacturing, and tourism. Due to its location within a uniquely rich floral kingdom, Cape Town is one of the most biodiverse cities in the world, and is home to two World Heritage Sites, including the Cape Floristic Region (Table Mountain National Park and Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden forming a key node thereof), and Robben Island.

Local challenges

Cape Town is impacted by various climate change risks, including changes in rainfall patterns, increasing temperatures, increasing wind, and coastal hazards. The City is experiencing decreasing average annual rainfall and changing seasonality of rainfall, impacting water access and availability. Risk of severe drought is present, evidenced by Cape Town closely approaching “Day Zero” in 2018 after three consecutive years of drought. It also experiences increasing average annual temperatures and maximum temperature events, including more frequent and intense heat waves. In addition, its coastal location makes Cape Town vulnerable to coastal hazards, including sea level rise, coastal erosion, and more frequent extreme storm events. 

At the same time, in spite of its rich biodiversity, Cape Town struggles with biodiversity loss due to agricultural and urban expansion, leading to habitat destruction and degradation of soils. Proliferation of invasive species, pollution, overgrazing, and overharvesting of plant species further degrade ecosystems and pose major threats to ecosystem health.

How the city leads in restoration

Cape Town has proven itself to be a leader in restoration, particularly in its advancement of innovative biodiversity strategies integrating nature conservation into city planning.

Cape Town has committed itself to achieving carbon neutrality and climate resilience by 2050, outlined through its Climate Change Strategy and associated Climate Change Action Plan. This includes numerous strategic focus areas for Cape Town centered on nature-based solutions (NbS), including implementing tree planting and urban greening programs to decrease urban temperatures, removal of invasive species from water catchment areas to support the city’s water security and decrease fire risk, and rehabilitation and restoration of the city’s rivers and wetlands.

Cape Town has shown itself to be a pioneer in biodiversity conservation and is the first municipality in South Africa to implement a spatial biodiversity plan. The Cape Town Biodiversity Spatial Plan 2025, built on prior plans, aims to inform and guide planning, environmental assessment, and natural resource management, by a wide range of sectors whose policies and decisions impact biodiversity. Community participation was integral in preparing this plan; a draft shared with the public received 591 comments advocating for the protection of the local environment, especially formal protection of green open spaces. This showcased high levels of community engagement in Cape Town to promote a more sustainable city. The final plan aligns with the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act and national biodiversity targets, ensuring integration between local planning and ecosystem protection.

Incorporated into the Cape Town Biodiversity Spatial Plan 2025 is the Biodiversity Network or BioNet, a fine-scale, systematic spatial biodiversity map of Cape Town that is openly available for public use. BioNet provides the spatial foundation for guiding land‐use planning, environmental assessment and natural‐resources management across the municipality, enabling the mapping of priority biodiversity areas against urban resilience and development priorities, for better informed planning that centers biodiversity conservation. The latest version of the map incorporates Strategic Water Source Areas and Groundwater Protection Zones as informant layers, thereby promoting water security and groundwater protection, which are key issues for Cape Town’s sustainability.

In terms of environmental inputs into spatial planning, Cape Town is the first municipality in South Africa to integrate an approved Environmental Management Framework (EMF), into the City’s Municipal Spatial Development Framework (MSDF), with the MSDF guiding all spatial planning within the City. The EMF is an environmental-specific policy tool that uses the BioNet to promote sustainable development, by helping decision-makers find a balance between economic development and environmental protection. This supports the retention of environmentally sensitive areas in the landscape, an important step for restoring biodiversity.

In response to the 2018 drought and as part of the coordinated response to Day Zero, the City partnered with the Nature Conservancy to launch the Greater Cape Town Water Fund, a public-private partnership to ensure that the city has access to water for residents, businesses, and industry, through the use of NbS. This includes a long-term solution to improve specific catchments to enhance water inflow into the major dams servicing the City, invasive species management, and green jobs creation. 

Other key strategies for the city include its Environmental Strategy, which presents a policy framework to enhance, protect and manage Cape Town’s natural and cultural resources for long-term prosperity. The document envisions multiple long-term outcomes for the city, such as clean air, robust wetlands and river corridors, sustainable use of the natural resource base (including biodiversity and green infrastructure), reduction of environmental risk, and the promotion of a green economy that is inclusive and resource efficient. Similarly, Cape Town’s Water Strategy highlights protecting and maintaining natural ecosystems to ensure water security. 

Cape Town is carrying out various programs to protect and restore the natural environment within and around its urban area, including restoration of wetlands, coastal dunes, and the removal of invasive alien species combined with restoration of indigenous vegetation. For example, the Rondebosch Common restoration project is a project to rehabilitate the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos area within the urban edge of Cape Town. Through a partnership between the City of Cape Town and the community conservation organization Friends of Rondebosch Common (FRC), the project aims to effectively scale invasive plant clearing, secure plant species with critically low numbers, reintroduce locally extinct species, and encourage a healthy fire regime. This project represents an important opportunity to preserve the area’s critical biodiversity. 

The Green Infrastructure Programme (GIP) in Cape Town is a cross-departmental framework aimed at mainstreaming ecosystem services in urban development. It aims to improve current natural assets and support the planning of new green and sustainable features. This includes best practice guidelines for tree planting, including protection of existing trees, tree maintenance and pruning, and effectively controlling invasive species. The GIP’s best practices for urban greening emphasize the interconnectedness of green assets, protection of biodiversity, neighborhood greening, green infrastructure developments, and rewilding, among others. Another best practice relates to urban watercourses, the restoration of which is being carried out through the GIP and the linked Liveable Urban Waterways (LUW) Programme.

Cape Town’s LUW Programme is rehabilitating waterways across the City, using water-sensitive design, NbS, and green infrastructure. Through the program, Cape Town has already intervened in numerous waterways throughout the city. Projects within the program include the rehabilitation of the Diep/Sand River catchment where wetland extensions, invasive plant removal, canal naturalization, and litter-trapping infrastructure were installed. Another, in the Zeekoe River catchment, showcased community gardens, public-amenity walkways, and sediment-treatment ponds. These two projects also provided case studies for asset valuation of ecosystems. Generally, the LUW Programme demonstrates how transforming degraded and canalized urban channels into functional green-blue corridors delivers multiple benefits, including improved flood mitigation and aquifer recharge, enhanced biodiversity and ecosystem services, and stronger community engagement.

Highlight impact metrics

Social:

  • Biodiversity Management Branch: 250+ permanent staff 
  • Green jobs: 2 760+ green jobs created; 104,239 person-days of employment through nature-based initiatives; 453 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs
  • Environmental education: 40,707 person-days of environmental learning; reached 20 000+ learners, 878 teachers from 184 schools, and 19,000 adults
  • Skills Development Programs: 135 participants, with 33 progressing to longer term employment, further studies or entrepreneurship

Environmental:

  • Invasive Species Management: 8,532 ha of terrestrial nature reserves cleared; 317 ha of aquatic ecosystems cleared; 2,693 ha of public open space cleared
  • Habitat Restoration Facility: seeds from 63 native plant species were collected; 7,376 native plants were propagated at the City’s Restoration Facility; seeds from 58 native plant species were broadcast in City Nature Reserves; 4,863 native plants were reintroduced in City Nature Reserves

Economic:

  • Carbon Credits: ZAR R 53 million (USD $ 3.3 million / € 2.8 million (Feb 2026)) raised through carbon credit initiatives, advancing climate finance and low-carbon development 
  • Nature Reserves revenue: 680 000+ visitors to city nature reserves (Note: This is an under-estimate as most City nature reserves are open access, with free entry and visitor numbers thus not recorded, plus Table Mountain National Park numbers excluded as not managed by the City); ZAR R 22 million (USD $ 1.3 million / € 1.2 million (Feb 2026)) in revenue generated

Note: Data relates to the July 2024 to June 2025 financial year. Most of the data provided are for the City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Management Branch only and relate to work on City-managed nature reserves over a one-year period. This excludes data for Table Mountain National Park (not managed by the City, but by the South African National Parks entity) and does not include data from other City line functions such as the Coastal Management Branch, and Recreation & Parks Department. The data is however a significant portion of the City’s value add in terms of terrestrial habitat restoration, job creation, environmental education, and skills development, and thus serves as an indicator for the City as a whole.

Role Model City

City Map

Ecosystem Types

Freshwaters, Mountains, Oceans and coasts y Urban areas

Climate, Biodiversity, and Pollution Risks Addressed

  • Extreme temperatures
  • Droughts
  • Sea-level rise
  • Extreme precipitation / flooding
  • Coastal erosion
  • Habitat destruction
  • Invasive species
  • Species loss / extinction
  • Ecosystem degradation
  • Water pollution

Restoration Techniques Applied

  • Blue-green infrastructure networks
  • Ecological connectivity
  • Green infrastructure
  • Invasive species control
  • Native species
  • Riverbank restoration
  • Shoreline restoration
  • Wetland restoration

Beyond restoration

While ecological restoration remains a central pillar of Cape Town’s sustainability agenda, the city also advances resilience through broader policy frameworks that address social, infrastructure, and governance systems. Cape Town’s Integrated Development Plan is the central strategy for development in Cape Town, guiding municipal planning. The plan is centered on improving safety, services, and economic growth in the city through robust programming around housing, transport, public spaces, the environment, and amenities. 

The Resilience Strategy of Cape Town outlines a holistic roadmap for resilience to both acute shocks (such as droughts, flooding, infrastructure failure, and civil unrest) as well as long-term stressors (such as climate change, traffic congestion, food insecurity, and poverty and inequality). The strategy emphasizes five pillars: a compassionate, connected, capable, shock-ready and forward-looking city. To achieve this, the strategy highlights the need for systems-thinking, integrated governance, social inclusion, and environmental stewardship in carrying out this vision. 

Together, these interconnected frameworks demonstrate Cape Town’s shift toward a systems-based approach, in which ecological restoration, resilience, and sustainable urban development are treated as mutually reinforcing goals.

What other cities can learn

Cape Town shares the following advice from Alderman Eddie Andrews, Executive Deputy Mayor and Member of the Mayoral Committee: Spatial Planning and Environment, for other cities trying to advance restoration:

  • “Mainstreaming biodiversity planning and restoration into city-wide spatial planning gives Nature a seat at the decision-making table when it comes to development and other land use changes.”
  • “Biodiversity Spatial Planning, like nature conservation, is not only about plants and animals. It is equally about people. In Cape Town, equity and ecology go together. We have learnt that protecting and restoring nature cannot be a side project; it is how we survive.”
  • “Policy alone is not enough. In Cape Town, our policy commitments must translate into measurable, visible action and implementation. Through experience, we know what we need to do, and we know that to make progress we simply have to get started, no matter how small our first actions may be.”
  • “Cape Town’s course is clear: our path to resilience, equity, and growth, runs through the protection and restoration of nature. In a world that often separates “development” from “environment,” we choose to hold them together – because one cannot survive without the other. In Cape Town, biodiversity conservation and restoration are not luxuries – they are our lifeline. By protecting our natural assets, we are safeguarding the future of every community, every child, and every city yet to come.”

Further resources