 Managing river catchments or watersheds effectively is essential for protecting biodiversity and maximising the amount of water available for human use. This goes hand in hand with managing demand for water in our water-scarce country with growing human needs. To guarantee the continued flow of clean water, we need to maintain natural ecosystems in a healthy condition, to remove alien vegetation, to control the spread of fires and to keep our rivers and estuaries in a healthy state, following a "catchment to coast" philosophy.
The C.A.P.E. programme is addressing all these aspects of catchment management in the Cape Floristic Region by working to:
In addition to catchment management, these areas of work are also important for protecting biodiversity. Controlling the spread of fires is important in the fire-generated fynbos biome, to ensure that areas burn at intervals which are appropriate for regenerating the vegetation. Clearing alien species through mechanical and biological control is also critical to protecting the indigenous fauna and flora. Estuaries are crucial breeding grounds for many marine species and play important functions in keeping the freshwater and coastal ecosystems healthy.
Other areas of biodiversity management involved in carrying out the C.A.P.E. strategy are:
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