In April, the City of Cape Town called on its citizens to defend its City Nature Challenge crown, and that’s exactly what Capetonians did.
The Mother City managed to nab the second place, a huge victory when you consider that 450 cities participated in the challenge.
‘I am extremely proud of all of those residents who participated in this challenge. Your explorations and photos of our city’s diverse plant and animal life made its mark. The results are finally in and I’m excited to confirm that Cape Town achieved second place out of over 450 cities around the world who also participated in the City Nature Challenge over the long weekend,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
Even more amazing is the fact that residents managed to record 66 144 observations and 4 388 species across the city. While there are no losers, first place in the category was awarded to La Paz, Bolivia, which managed to achieve 137 345 observations. In the recorded species category, first place also went to La Paz with 5 320 species.
‘A special thanks to all the participants, and especially to the people who helped identify 80% of the over 66 000 observations that were recorded in Cape Town. Nearly 1 700 people participated in Cape Town, meaning there is plenty of potential for growth, but we should celebrate that for the second year running, we had an increase of just over 25% in our number of participants year-on-year. This is a wonderful achievement,’ said Alderman Andrews.
The competition managed to get residents snapping pics with their phones as the competition took place between 29 April and 2 May 2022. Capetonians were encouraged to explore all that our beautiful city has to offer by heading to their favourite nature reserve and natural open spaces, recording all the local plant and animal species over the four days. Participants were required to download the iNaturalist.com app and share their observations by uploading all of their findings on the app.
While the competition saw various cities across the world compete for the title, neighbouring cities within our province had their loyalties tested too. Residents spent their long weekend exploring the beauty of the West Coast, Stellenbosch, Overstrand and Southern Overberg – what a treat!
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Picture: The City of Cape Town