Cape Town's Magical Forests

Newlands Forest in Cape Town, with the summer sunset through the pine trees that are being replaced with a rare indigenous forest.

The sun slants in long rays filtered through the crisp air of the Cape mountains.  It sets early here in most places, but some spots get a longer evening as the sun dips past the craggy mountaintops above the trees.   Here a forest lives and breathes once again, up above the modern city of Cape Town, an island of biodiversity in a sea of people, cars and needs far removed from its ancient smells and moss-covered secrets.  Deep in this forest a special magic lingers on after the sun has set.

That magic is very special indeed. An ancient glade of woods have survived here since the time of the mega-continent of Gondwanaland 180 million years ago.  Some of the tree species we know today have a common ancestor here. Through a fortunate combination of wind, water and inaccessibility this is one of the last remnants of what was once a continent-circling forest primeval. 

This towering bastion of ancient biodiversity is called a Western Afrotemperate Forest, or Afromontane Forest.  Today we know it as Cape Town's Newlands Forest.  In the old days of sail the long hardwood trees of these forest glades provided much needed hardwood for the shipping and construction industry in the Cape.  Spars needed repairing and ships needed lumber. Since the earliest days settlers chopped down these trees everywhere they found them.  Once they chopped them down they planted more fast-growing lumber like pine trees.  These woods mostly became a large timber plantation. Only a few shady  and hard-to-get-to dells with rippling streams still held the last of the old forest giants, a seed bank of diversity nearly lost to humanity.

A a pine plantation, with the barren floor almost bereft of life, whereas, below a replanted Afromontaine forest a few hundred meters away.  The Cape Peninsula Mountain Chain supports 2 285 plant species in 471 km², of which 158 are endemic.

A replanted Afromontaine forest in Newlands Forest.  The Cape Peninsula Mountain Chain supports 2 285 plant species in 471 km², of which 158 are endemic, like many of the species found here.

So a forest that survived the very breakup of continents over  tens of millions of years only just clung on through a few centuries of development.  That it survived at all is perhaps a testament to the forestry values of our ancestors, who believed in conserving at least a little in order to maintain their future timber stocks. 

From those few small stands of ancient woodlands a new plan came together after the end of apartheid.  Forward thinking plans in forestry were set in motion through the South African National Parks, Western Cape Nature Conservation Board and the South African Government's Department of Environmental Affairs. Together they employed jobless people from underprivileged communities, planting forest seedlings and today the sterile stands of pine are making way for the old forest once again. 

South Africa has embarked on a long-term plan to eliminate water hungry trees from the land and restore the original vegetation countrywide, not only to increase biodiversity but to secure water catchment systems and create sustainable jobs.  It is called the Working For Water Project.  A large foreign tree like a pine or eucalyptus can soak up to 18 tons of water per day, whereas local vegetation like the Afro-montaine forest actually preserves water, holding it in the soil and releasing it slowly over time. The plan is to replace much of these foreign trees with rare indigenous plants.

Pine trees on the right run up against the small saplings that are part of the restoration effort.  Little by little the pines are thinned out and the forest trees start to take over.

The trails through this reserve wind through all the stages of replacement and planting.  Pine forests still dominate in some places but are being thinned out as the ancient trees are replanted as skinny little saplings. In just a few hundred meters it is possible to walk through pine trees, cut trees, the beginnings of small forests  replanted and then a primeval Afro-montaine forest, like stair-stepping through the stages of regeneration.

The old forest secures water resources, is more fire resistant, and much more diverse.  Jobless people have been put to work and trained in forestry, even becoming experts who are sought after for their knowledge in how to propagate these incredibly rare species.  How special is this place?  The Cape Floral Kingdom, less than .5% of the continent, harbors 20% of all the plants in Africa.  This is also where the highest number of IUCN Red list endangered plants are. The Newlands Forest sits on the Cape peninsula, a part of this floral kingdom and a tiny area where half of the rarest plant species in the world live.

A Helicopter helps keep fires under control. It is heading home after dusk with it's water bucket, which is has been using on local fires. 

The plants of the Table Mountain chain can be damaged by very hot fires, wiping out entire species.  Helicopters like these are based at Newlands during the hot, dry summer months to help with fire control.  

It is the deep in the dry season in Cape Town but because of a rare combination of  converging topography and possibly the very presence of the forest itself the rain falls here more than any other place on the Cape Peninsula. New research suggests that the forest itself can help create rainfall.  When it falls it is retained by the forest, modulating the dry/wet cycle and delivering clean water into the Cape Town metropole.  Today the streams usually flow year around and this little forest is the place where I walk when I am in Cape Town.  

Spending time here is special. It shows what we as humans can do to regenerate our tired and played-out ecosystems, if we only try a little.  When a cash-strapped city like Cape Town with all the problems of poverty and crime that it has can get it together to recognize and restore such a precious ecosystem then there hope. 

Since 2004, this forest is part of the UNESCO World Heritage system.  Called the Cape Floral Kingdom it has as much biodiversity as the Amazon.  According to the UNESCO journal, Dr Sandra Knapp, Merit Researcher at London’s Natural History Museum said, “For botanists like me, the fynbos area is fascinating. It is the most species-rich habitat on Earth, and is an area where speciation is happening at a rapid rate. This means that the fynbos is an area where diversity of life on Earth is being generated today, making it a key area for the conservation of plant diversity.” 

Devils Peak presides over the lower part of Newlands Forest.  In the foreground pines have been felled to make way for the more diverse indigenous woodland.  In the middle-ground the pines are still standing, but they are slowly being thinned out.

Perhaps there is more to survival of the fittest than mere usefulness.  What if, by its very nature, nature can invade our minds with a need to preserve, to keep safe.  Everywhere on our world small pockets of biodiversity have been preserved against great odds.  What if that preservation we have all taken for granted as something we humans did out of care was at least partly driven by the wild itself.  Perhaps living systems can reach out to a deep psychological need and inspire us to save them against our very consumptive human nature.  It is just a thought, but anyone who has spent time in an ancient dell of mossy trees with a sparkling stream might identify with an odd feeling of being watched by a thousand woody cells driven by the urgent need to stay alive.

That may sound crazy, but in this very good report in the respected magazine The Atlantic it seems that mind control from the plant and animal world is in fact something we humans have lived with for a long time.  

Nevertheless, in the Newlands Forest over 30 000 forest seedlings were planted in the first three years of this huge restoration effort, and the project has been so successful that the Table Mountain National Park is rolling it out in many of the forests on the Cape Peninsula.   Over the last two months as I worked on the post production part of the Creating A Climate For Change film it was this place that inspired me. I hope it can inspire you too.  

The magic of Newlands Forest and the leadership shown by the people restoring it helps us all see what can be done if we work towards a common goal.  In these old woods lies the story of the breakup of continents, the rise and fall of the glacial epochs, and a more recent story.  One which we are writing today about how small places like this can inform us of how we can take care of the greater ecosystems that supply us with our daily needs.
 

Spring Blossoms in Newlands Forest

Cape Town Film Launch- This Friday The 17th of Feburary

Please come to the launch of the film Creating A Cliamte For Change at an arthouse Cinema in Cape Town this Friday.  Everyone is welcome, its 30 Rand at the door.  The invite is above.  There will be  Johannesburg screening at WITS University's Origin Center on Tuesday the 28th of February as well.  Feel free to circulate the invite to anyone who may want to attend.

Creating A Climate For Change- The Movie And Updated Blog Post

I understand that the film for some reason did not come through email, so here it is again.  My apologies.

If You Cant See the Film In Your Browser
CLICK HERE to view it on my channel.

After three weeks away from most other responsibilities and a chance to just get my head down and do some work, I have now finished the editing of the Creating A Climate For Change documentary.  The  screening and launch for Durban was great, and allowed the project to benefit from the publicity of the COP17 Conference in Durban, but for a stand-alone film edit the project needed hundreds of hours of further editing.  That is now done, and I am happy to announce the documentary is uploaded and viewable here.  I am looking for broadcast partners worldwide, so if anyone knows some folks who might like to buy it for broadcast, that would be great.  Link TV may be running it in the next few months.  If that is the case I will make sure to post the flighting times on here.


Happy New Year!

Double Click to open this video to open it full screen, and choose on the lower right of the picture 480p to view it in.  The quality is much better.

Creating A Climate For Change - The Movie-Updated

If You Cant See the Film In Your Browser


CLICK HERE to view it on my channel.

After three weeks away from most other responsibilities and a chance to just get my head down and do some work, I have now finished the editing of the Creating A Climate For Change documentary.  The  screening and launch for Durban was great, and allowed the project to benefit from the publicity of the COP17 Conference in Durban, but for a stand-alone film edit the project needed hundreds of hours of further editing.  That is now done, and I am happy to announce the documentary is uploaded and viewable here.  I am looking for broadcast partners worldwide, so if anyone knows some folks who might like to buy it for broadcast, that would be great.  Link TV may be running it in the next few months.  If that is the case I will make sure to post the flighting times on here.


Happy New Year!

Double Click to open this video to open it full screen, and choose on the lower right of the picture 480p to view it in.  The quality is much better.

Lessons From Durban: Bottom's Up!

Dark clouds gather over the fifth day of meetings in Durban South Africa, where the world's leaders met to discuss Climate Change.

In the aftermath of the COP17 event in Durban where the Creating A Climate For Change Project was launched, a few things became clear to me.  One was that I had been working very hard without a break for three months, and needed to take some time off.  The other much more important thing was that these large conferences between nations are not delivering the change we need to see in order to lower our dependence on fossil fuels.  Nations are struggling, either with a need to develop or with a need to keep their economies afloat.  When times are tight long-term attempts to reduce fossil fuel dependency are going to be a very tough sell, unless there is a clear short-term financial and electoral benefit.

So some will look at Durban as a huge success, particularly high-end polluters like China and the United States.  They will toast "business as usual" as their economies struggle onward, wholly dependent upon fossil fuel use, without the necessary spending on sustainable alternatives. Essentially the conference skirted all of the major issues and settled for an understanding that we do need an agreement, but that we should decide all of that later, at least four years from now, preferably longer. This is bad news for scientists and farmers who understand that we are really putting ourselves in a very bad future position by not regulating greenhouse gas emissions now.

It became crystal clear to me on this project through Southern Africa that there is an urgency to stop the runaway greenhouse effect, a very real need that is having dire consequences for people across this region and the rest of the world.  I have argued on this blog and in my writing for both Global Post and Link TV that one of the reasons we are in a downward economic spiral is because we are using our planet's resources unsustainably.  Higher food prices, especially basic commodities like corn and wheat, mean less cash in the financial sector and less money everywhere to fuel further growth. Check out these well-made graphs tracking food prices worldwide.  World corn and wheat prices have again shot up by 50% in the last half of 2011, and are higher now than in 2008, and this will again have a knock effect in virtually every part of our global economy. 

In the project I spoke to Dr. Anthony Turton, an economist and water resource manager who looks  at water and food security through the lense of National Security.  This former secret service operative  helped bring the ANC and and National Party together for a dialogue in the 1980s, and eventually helped unveil the new constitution in South Africa in 1994.  He is not an environmentalist, but a realist who at one time received funding from the national and international security establishment to look at environmental problems as national security issues.  He says "Our global economy is a subsidiary of our global ecosystem".  When the ecosystem declines the economy will too, and it is my opinion -and many others that this is exactly what is happening right now.

Barring some game changing energy technology or a cataclysmic event in our personal, political or environmental horizon, it seems we are stuck with government inaction at the highest levels for the next twenty years at least.  However, as I learned at COP17 and in my work, many people are already working across the world at changing the status quo from the bottom up. Small energy projects in places like Mozambique, China's emergence as a huge developer of green energy technologies, grassroots recycling movements, buying an electric car, these are all part of the way we can start to live sustainably with our planet today.  It is obvious that we the people are the only ones who can make change happen now, and the sooner we get started the better.

The Rooftop of the Re-Purpose Center in Durban.  Cabbages and other foods complement local plants and a chessboard in this roof-top garden right in the center of the city.

At the Repurpose Center in Durban a group of concerned citizens and architects got together with the city of Durban to help revitalize the city center, provide more jobs, and create rooftop gardens that preserve endemic South African plants while providing nutrition for underprivileged communities.  This center is an example of exactly how grassroots movements can become mainstream and make a huge difference in their communities.  With enough projects like this, humanity can learn to become better stewards of our environment, and create the changes that will make us all more healthy, happy and help us look after our global ecosystem -and in turn our economy. 

Happy Holidays.

The Exhibition Online

Ancient Baobabs Tower above an island deep in the Jakotsha Trust Conservation Area in the Okavango Delta.  This Baobab below is dying as the ecosystem that supported it for at least a thousand years changes.

Elephants like this family herd  on the Maramba River in Zambia are already ranging across borders.  These elephants trundled down to the river from the Zimbabwe side, drank their fill and moved on into Zambia as the sun set.

The Omaruru River in flood in Namibia.  This year Namibia experienced more than twice its normal rainfall in many areas of the country.  This image was taken from a road that almost never floods. More variability in climate can be expected as Southern Africa warms.

A Zebra ranges across the Torra Conservancy in Namibia at sunset.  The conservancy is one of the best run in the country, and allows local communities to benefit from tourists, helping finance the protection of of this ecosystem, as well as lions, elephants, giraffe, rhino, and even this one lone Zebra.

Another path winds into the distance at the Tora Conservancy in Namibia.  This year the grass grew over the rocky soil, and turned this desert landscape into a garden.  If Humanity to is to survive the coming changes, then we will have to embark on another path, one that sees us as custodians of our environment.

A true-to-color thunderstorm rolls into the Damaraland area of Namibia, lit by the setting sun.  As southern Africa’s climate warms, violent thunderstorms, searing droughts and more variable weather is predicted.

A typical high-veld thunderstorm rolls across the grasslands of the Cradle of Humankind, near Johannesburg South Africa.  New discoveries here highlight the evolution of our species here in Africa.  Today, Africans are part of a global solution that will hopefully see our species continue to thrive in the face of climate change.

The power of nature reigns after a downpour over the springtime landscape at Golden Gate National Park on the border between Lesotho and South Africa.

The Namib Desert Above Gobabeb Trai

Oom Pieter Bees, 76 from the Topnaar Community in Namibia’s Namib Desert.  “The Climate here has changed, when I was younger we used to have many more wet years”.

Piet Kruger, a Baviaanskloof Farmer who has sold his sheep and is replanting his farm with Spekboom bushes. In his gravelly voice looking out over his farm before a big storm system rolls in, he  says: “If I can farm buffalo, or elephants, or just the wild bushveld I will be happy, but I don’t think we will ever farm again here like we used to.  We have to change”.

Many people work planting spekboom in the western part of the Baviaanskloof.  At Zevenfontien (Seven Fountains) Community Farm in the western Bavianskloof Mountains community elder Jacob Deinaar Van Mathews talks to Hans vin Voegue in Jacob’s house on the farm.  Hundreds of people live on the farm and some of them find work restoring the landscape by planting spekboom.

Topnaar Communities in the Namib Desert are getting assistance from the Gobabeb Training and Research Center in how to evaluate their livestock, so they can make more informed decisions.  Only through education can small communities adapt to climate change.

In the north of Zambia near the town of Mpika the ladies of the Mupumbishi Women’s Club help each other sort out their seed grain for their next bean crop.  Beans and other legumes like peanuts are one of the main elements of Conservation Farming.  There are more than 300,000 Conservation farmers in the country.

Near Mchinji in Malawi small farmers are working in conservation farming methods as a way to adapt to Climate Change.  Eight year old Brian Phiri holds up a bowl full of peanuts.  Conservation farming has changed his life, since now his family has enough money to send him to school.

Max Thokabotshabelo, a community guide from the Okavango Delta in Botswana, poles his Makoro canoe through the papyrus as night falls.  In the distance a hippo grunts, and the swish of the grass past the Makoro blends with the rising sound of night insects.  “Nature is the best for relieving stress” says Max.

Johanna Swartz runs a team of Spekboom planters in the Baviaanskloof on contract for the Gamtoos Irrigation Board, with help from the NGO Living Lands.
“There is a great change in my life, because all the things I needed and can’t buy before, I can buy them now. I don’t struggle with money any more.  Now there are opportunities I would grab, too, things that I love”.

This is an online version of the exhibition  Creating A Climate For Change, which is currently touring South Africa. It was made possible through a grant from the Open Society of Southern Africa and the Open Society Foundation For South Africa.

Creating A Climate For Change -The Movie

The Half hour movie Creating A Climate For Change is undergoing a second edit, it will be re-released at the beginning of 2011.