Salt River Nature Park – Project Overview

Salt River Nature Park, Cape Town South Africa
Marius Zenker, Cape Town

We are supporting a neighbourhood initiative and urban greening project in Salt River, Cape Town, where a previously derelict plot and dump site was transformed into an indigenous wildlife garden for the community.

The space serves as safe space for humans, plants, birds, insects and other creatures. Over 60 local plant species have been planted together with the community and since the start of the project in April 2019 the space has seen a huge transformation. Now in July 2020 over 20 plant species are flowering and the creatures are moving in at an astonishing pace. Much of the diversity is mapped on iNaturalist:
Map | Beobachtungen

HIGHLIGHTS

The garden is fully sustained by rain- and greywater caught and collected in the neighbourhood.
A compost pile to process all green ‘waste’ of the garden on site, has been installed.

In collaboration with the community and Watershed Projects an ecobrick couch with 204 ecobricks using approximately 170 kg of waste plastic was built.
To assess the local bird population as well as the impact of the garden over time, monthly bird monitoring is taking place.