The Cape Floristic Region, sometimes also called the Cape Floral Kingdom and corresponding to the fynbos biome, covers nearly 90 000 km2. It stretches from the Cederberg in the north-west, around the Western Cape coast and into the Eastern Cape up to the Nelson Mandela Metropole.
a "hotspot" of biodiversity
The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) is world famous for its dramatic and varied land- and seascapes and its astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. As one of only six floral kingdoms in the world and with 9 600 recorded plant species, 70% of them found nowhere else on the planet, the region is a biodiversity hotspot. Under increasing pressure from human development, it is also one of the world's 25 most threatened hotspots.
what are the threats?
While many mountainous areas have been set aside for conservation, the natural vegetation of the region's lowlands has increasingly been removed to make way for agriculture, resort development and urban expansion, and ecosystems have also been damaged by the invasion of alien plants.
why so much diversity?
The region's exceptional species diversity is a result of its wealth of different habitats, each with its own topography, soils and climatic conditions - from semiarid ecosystems, through moist east coast forests, unique wetland and river systems, down to the coastal zone and up to the high mountains.
is it all "fynbos"?
The dominant vegetation of the region is fynbos (Afrikaans for "fine bush"). This fire-prone, scleophyllous shrubland covers just over 80% of the land area and accounts for more than 7 000 of the plant species identified in the CFR. In the lowlands, fynbos is replaced by renosterveld (Afrikaans for "rhinoceros scrub"), an ericoid shrubland, and coastal dunes and thickets that sustain an extremely high density of plants and animals threatened with extinction.
how much is it worth?
Natural resource economists have estimated the total economic value of the Cape Floristic Region's biodiversity - including plants, animals, scenery, ecosystems and ecosystem services like water purification and erosion control - at over R10 billion per year, the equivalent of over 10% of the Western Cape's Gross Geographic Product.
