City of Cape Town takes second spot among 450 participants in City Nature Challenge

14 May 2022 - 10:00
By Cebelihle Bhengu
The City of Cape Town clinched the second spot in the City Nature Challenge.
Image: Twitter/ City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town clinched the second spot in the City Nature Challenge.

The City of Cape Town clinched second spot among 450 countries that took part in the City Nature Challenge.

Capetonians who participated explored the city’s nature reserves to record local plant and animal species last month.

Deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews, said this year's challenge had nearly 1,700 participants, an increase of 25% from last year. 

Capetonians visited the city's 20 nature reserves which were open to participants over four days. 

“Together, Cape Town participants were able to record 66,144 observations and 4,388 species across the city. First place in the recorded observations category was La Paz, Bolivia, with 137,345 observations. In the recorded species category, the first place also went to La Paz with 5,320 species.”

He added that the diverse nature and number of species was an advantage for Cape Town.

“Though cities can compete for observations and observers, many cities are in less exciting places in terms of biodiversity and cannot compete with tropical cities and those as rich in biodiversity as Cape Town.”

With World Biodiversity Day on May 22, Andrews called on Capetonians to go out and enjoy the city and its rich biodiversity.

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