The University of Cape Town integrates environmental stewardship and sustainability across its research and partnerships. Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration are central to this vision. UCT’s scientists, legal experts, and industry partners collaborate to safeguard threatened ecosystems—from the fynbos biome of the Greater Cape Floristic Region to African rangelands and coastal zones—while advancing innovation in conservation science, genomics, and nature-based solutions. These partnerships reflect UCT’s values of excellence, sustainability, and social responsiveness, applying research directly to real-world biodiversity challenges.
1. NASA BioSCape Campaign (2023–2024) - large-scale biodiversity mapping in the Cape Floristic Region
UCT researchers Jasper Slingsby, Anabelle Cardoso and Cherie Forbes were named participants in NASA’s BioSCape, an integrated airborne and field biodiversity campaign in the Greater Cape Floristic Region—one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots. The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), located at the southern tip of Africa, is one of the world’s six floral kingdoms and a global biodiversity hotspot renowned for its exceptional plant diversity and endemism — hosting over 9,000 plant species, of which nearly 70% occur nowhere else on Earth. Despite its ecological richness, the CFR is severely threatened by urban expansion, agricultural conversion, invasive alien species, altered fire regimes, and the growing impacts of climate change, which are shifting rainfall patterns and intensifying droughts. These pressures have led to habitat fragmentation and biodiversity loss across the region’s unique fynbos ecosystems. Consequently, the CFR is a priority area for conservation and restoration research, including UCT’s collaborations to map, monitor and protect this globally significant yet fragile biome.
Through the BioSCape project, intensive data collection in late 2023 and continued analyses through 2024 aimed to map and understand vegetation, animal habitats, and terrestrial–marine ecosystem linkages. BioSCape is a flagship international collaboration (UCT, University of Buffalo, UC Merced and others) directly collecting biodiversity data at landscape scale, providing new insights into the distribution and vulnerability of species and ecosystems in South Africa. It is funded by NASA, The South African Department of Science and Innovation, The National Research Foundation, UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands.
2. Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour & Coevolution (launched July 2024) - conserving African animal biodiversity
In July 2024, UCT launched Africa’s first Max Planck Centre, jointly led by UCT's FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence. The centre studies species interactions, coevolution and adaptation in changing environments, combining field ecology, behavioural science, and genetics to inform biodiversity conservation. In the next five years, the centre will investigate how behaviour, communication, learning, evolution, and biodiversity are connected and how changing environments affect behavioural interactions between bird species and between birds and humans. A key research area is to monitor how interactions between species adapt to changing environmental conditions, such as higher temperatures and drier seasons.
The first Max Planck Centre on the African continent will foster the formation of strong new links between research communities in Africa and Europe. This formal international research partnership brings European and African expertise together to advance understanding of species resilience and the conservation of animal biodiversity under climate stress.
3. People in Nature & Climate Lab (PiNC Lab, launched Sept 2024) - nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration
The African Climate & Development Initiative (ACDI) launched the PiNC Lab in September 2024 to research and scale nature-based solutions (NbS) across Africa. This innovative lab aims to tackle some of the continent’s most pressing societal and environmental challenges, by exploring how nature can be used to promote both human and ecosystem health while adapting to and mitigating climate risks across Africa. The Lab investigates how ecosystems contribute to human well-being and climate adaptation, measuring biodiversity, restoration and ecosystem-service outcomes.
PiNC works with government, industry and community partners to apply restoration and biodiversity science in threatened landscapes, bridging research, policy, and local implementation.
4. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (ongoing 2024) - species monitoring and conservation partnerships
UCT’s FitzPatrick Institute continues long-term monitoring, recovery, and conservation work on threatened bird species and ecosystems, including the fynbos and Karoo biomes. Its scientists collaborate with SANParks, BirdLife South Africa, and international NGOs to generate data used in national biodiversity assessments.
These partnerships constitute applied biodiversity management that directly extends and protects animal species in ecosystems under threat.
5. Genomics & Bioinformatics Training Partnership (2024) - industry-linked capacity building for biodiversity science
In July 2024, UCT announced a major pan-African genomics and bioinformatics training initiative involving 24 academic partners and 9 industry sponsors. The programme trains approximately 400 scientists annually in genomics applications relevant to biodiversity and conservation.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) played a significant role in the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP), an initiative highlighted in a recent Nature Genetics report which has launched successful grassroots genomics and bioinformatics programmes to train over 400 African scientists annually. It represents a landmark in advancing scientific capacity across the continent. In 2023, AfricaBP implemented the Open Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics Regional Workshops (Open Institute), conducting 28 workshops across 11 African countries and covering all five African geographical regions. These workshops attracted over 3 700 registered participants, with 408 scientists receiving hands-on training in molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, and the ethical, legal, and social issues associated with acquiring genetic resources. Notably, over 40% of the participants were female, reinforcing the commitment to inclusive representation within the field.
By expanding genomic and data-science capacity, this partnership strengthens tools for biodiversity monitoring, population genetics, and restoration tracking, embedding biodiversity research in both academic and industry practice. The 400+ scientists trained are now part of a community of practice supporting efforts to address biodiversity challenges in Africa.
6. Industry-linked restoration research (True Range partnership, 2024) - measuring biodiversity recovery in rangelands
In June 2024, UCT’s Southern African Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (SAPECS) advertised a postdoctoral fellowship co-funded by True Range, an industry partner focused on rangeland restoration. The project evaluates biodiversity, carbon and social outcomes of landscape-scale restoration. The postdoctoral fellow will join a team focused on measuring restoration outcomes for biodiversity, carbon, and social wellbeing in rangeland systems.
This partnership directly connects UCT research with the private sector to measure ecological restoration and biodiversity gains in degraded ecosystems.
7. Biodiversity datasets and conservation data products (2023-2024)
UCT researchers contributed to newly published biodiversity datasets—such as bioacoustic records of fynbos ecosystems and palaeo-ecological reconstructions of Holocene biodiversity—in Nature Scientific Data and other journals. These datasets inform conservation planning for threatened plants and animals.
UCT’s data production feeds national biodiversity assessments and supports evidence-based restoration and species-recovery strategies.
Synthesis: what this demonstrates
- Scale and scope: UCT’s 2023–2024 biodiversity work spans major international field campaigns (NASA BioSCape), new global research centres (Max Planck–UCT Centre), applied NbS laboratories (PiNC Lab), genomics-industry training programmes, and direct industry partnerships measuring restoration outcomes.
- Collaboration type: Activities include airborne and field biodiversity surveys, species-level monitoring, genomic capacity building with industry sponsors, and NbS research with NGOs, municipalities and private partners.
- Focus on threatened ecosystems: Many projects target the Greater Cape Floristic Region, one of the planet’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots, as well as African rangelands and other vulnerable ecosystems.
Through its Vision 2030 commitment to sustainability, the University of Cape Town actively advances biodiversity research and collaborates with industry and global partners to protect ecosystems under threat. In 2024 UCT participated in NASA’s BioSCape campaign, launched the Max Planck–UCT Centre for Behaviour and Coevolution and the PiNC Lab on nature-based solutions, expanded genomics training with industry sponsors, and undertook applied restoration and monitoring research with private and public partners. These initiatives demonstrate that UCT works directly through research, innovation and engagement to extend biodiversity, conserve species, and restore fragile ecosystems in South Africa and beyond.