Gantouw Project

The Cape Flats Dune Strandveld is endangered and only found in the lowlands of Cape Town and nowhere else on earth. Historically many large mammal species, especially eland were an integral part of the ecosystem. The Cape Town Environmental Education Trust (CTEET) decided to pioneer a special urban biodiversity conservation project. In October 2015 five young Eland were brought to the Rondevlei Section of the False Bay Nature Reserve. The Gantouw Project is an urban conservation tool – by innovatively moving a herd of eland to bush-encroached sites in Cape Town for the effective management of endangered fragmented ecosystems. It is envisaged that the impact of the browse by a large herbivore, the eland, will reverse the negative impacts that bush encroachment has on flora and fauna, this way increasing biodiversity.