Everyday human (in)securities in protected urban nature – Collaborative conservation at Macassar/Wolfgat dunes nature reserves, Cape Town, South Africa

A Decision Support Tool for Green Infrastructure Planning in the Face of Rapid Urbanization

“…Fifth, being a spatial tool at municipal scale, our analysis is limited to spatial access and does not consider the wider socio-political mechanisms of access, such as knowledge and social relations, shaping the ability of someone to derive benefits [83]. Although it would be near impossible to assess at city scale, research on social modes of access is important for understanding the community structures and amenity features that foster sense of safety and appropriate usage levels [84][85][86]. Sixth, while habitat structure can be derived from hyper-spectral classification, such as NDVI, assessing species diversity and dispersal requires either citizen science inputs or local site surveys of species presence [87][88][89].…”

Citizen Science beyond Science: A Collaborative Approach for Transformative Sustainable Development

“…On both sides of the collaboration, the citizen and the scientist need to transform their mindsets. Collaborative management partnerships can influence community perceptions and change ideas about nature disservices (Graham 2015), fears, and taboos, and can change the researchers' and students' perceptions of nature values and benefits (Breed and Mehrtens 2022). Collaborative approaches need to rest on several interlinked criteria, such as an institutional culture that is receptive and committed to learning from outcomes (Roux et al 2017), champions who are embedded in the relevant institutions and communities (Roux et al 2017), and partners who are all conscious of social rules and managing expectations (Pretty 2003), especially those coming from different countries and/or cultures.…”

Postcolonial nature conservation in practice: the everyday challenges of on-ground urban nature conservation, Cape Town, South Africa

“…The Wolfgat Nature Reserve was proclaimed under provincial legislation as a Local Authority Nature Reserve in 1986, whilst Macassar Dunes Conservation Area is currently managed as a Local Authority Conservation Area (recognised only at the municipal level and not formally designated under protected area legislation). At present Macassar Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) Dunes is in the process of being 'upgraded' in terms of protection status to a provincially proclaimed 'Nature Reserve', like Wolfgat NR (Graham 2015a). At over 1000 Ha, the dunes are substantially sized urban protected areas, containing significant species diversity and recognised by nature conservation advocates and policy makers as priority conservation sites within the city (Holmes et al 2012a).…”

“…The institutional focus on 'pure' biodiversity conservation presents a management challenge for some on-ground conservators, who argue that the municipality does not adequately fund nor understand the importance and everyday realities of collaborative conservation arrangements with poorer local communities (see also Graham 2015a).…”

“…Management unfolds amidst substantial impoverishment and informality of historically ghettoised local communities, diverse ways of knowing nature, and in the context of persistent spatial, social, racialised and economic divides (Goodness and Anderson 2013). Entailing sometimes messy, difficult and fraught relations between conservators and local communities (Pitt and Boulle 2010), conservation management in the everyday is deeply political (Graham 2015a). Imperative yet much understudied is exploration of these politics in relation to exclusionary and racialised nature conservation practices, perpetuated through apartheid and in the preceding colonial era.…”