In 2024 the University of Cape Town (UCT) implemented direct, demonstrable actions to maintain, restore and extend existing ecosystems and to support biodiversity of both plants and animals — with particular attention to habitats affected by wildfire and to urban and threatened ecosystems. Evidence includes institutional restoration projects on UCT land (reforestation and invasive-species control), campus-scale ecosystem recovery following the Table Mountain fires, long-running wildlife conservation and citizen-science programmes that protect threatened fauna, and new research units explicitly focused on nature-based restoration and biodiversity-sensitive climate responses.
- Reforestation and restoration of UCT urban forest (Arbour Week planting; dam precinct restoration)
- UCT Properties & Services continued a multi-year reforestation and ecological restoration programme on campus in 2024 (including planting and restoration work in the dam precinct during Arbour Week) aimed at mitigating erosion and restoring indigenous biodiversity after earlier fires. This article documents the reforestation activities, staff leading the work, and the programme’s explicit biodiversity objectives.
- Direct restoration work and progress updates following the Table Mountain fires
- UCT published a 16 May 2024 update (“Three years on: UCT fire – update on restoration work”) describing ongoing active restoration and recovery across affected campus land and facilities, and referencing continued work to rebuild and restore the campus environment and its natural areas after the 2021 fire events. This shows UCT’s continuing, hands-on ecosystem recovery actions in 2024.
- Long-running wildlife conservation & citizen-science — Urban Caracal Project (iCWild / UCT)
- The Urban Caracal Project, hosted by UCT’s Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild), conducts field research, monitoring and public engagement to protect caracals and urban biodiversity around Cape Town. The project page and UCT coverage make clear that the project actively works to conserve a native predator (with implications for wider ecosystem health) through monitoring, community reporting and conservation actions in and around Table Mountain and green corridors. (Project materials and UCT reporting are publicly available.)
- New/expanded nature-based research capacity explicitly targeting ecosystem and biodiversity outcomes — PiNC Lab (ACDI, UCT)
- In September 2024 UCT’s African Climate & Development Initiative launched the People in Nature & Climate (PiNC) Lab to advance nature-based solutions across Africa. The lab’s stated aims include evidence generation and capacity building for nature-based approaches that support ecosystem health and biodiversity — demonstrating institutional research investment in restoration and biodiversity-focused interventions.
Here are additional examples of University of Cape Town (UCT) work in 2024 focused on marine/sea-life ecosystems and biodiversity:
- Marine biogeochemistry & marine ecosystem research
The Marine Biogeochemistry Lab at UCT (UCT-MBL) researches the ocean and atmosphere to better understand Earth systems and climate — leveraging South Africa’s unique oceanographic setting.
Also, a UCT News story (12 June 2024) noted a UCT academic leading climate-change research on ocean systems. The research will investigate the following questions:- What are the controls on hypoxia and suboxia along the African margin? What are the respective roles of primary productivity and ocean circulation? What interactions arise between offshore processes such as the large-scale tropical circulation and margin processes such as wind-driven coastal upwelling, coastal currents, and (sub)mesoscale dynamics?
- How do these processes affect the African margin ecosystems, from planktonic assemblages to benthic and pelagic communities, at higher trophic levels, including species harvested by Africa’s coastal nations?
- What are the basin and global scale consequences of west African margin processes?
“The ocean plays a profound role in regulating Earth’s climate and acts as a vast repository for carbon and heat. Ocean biogeochemists have developed a broad understanding of how the ocean influences climate, [but] we lack a deeper fundamental and mechanistic understanding of the physical, chemical, biological, and geological processes that govern carbon cycling and storage. We have much to learn about the connections between carbon and other elemental cycles, and the specific roles that marine life plays in shaping those relationships,” Fawcett concluded.
These demonstrate UCT directly studying marine life/ ecosystems, and by implication supporting their understanding and hence capacity for maintenance/restoration.
- Marine ecosystem change and biodiversity exposure study
In July 2024, UCT news published a summary of a study led by UCT’s Climate Risk Lab: “Marine species find new homes amid climate change – but at what cost?” This covered how thousands of marine species are moving into new habitats even as others face unsafe temperatures.
While this is more about change than direct restoration, it shows UCT is tackling marine biodiversity, threats, ecosystems under pressure. - Marine research infrastructure, training & capacity-building
The student opportunities page for UCT-MBL lists the “SEAmester Cruises”-style programmes: students sail aboard the R/V SA Agulhas II, train in collecting biogeochemical samples (nutrients, oxygen, chlorophyll), and plankton collections.
This is direct capacity-building aimed at sustaining marine ecosystem research, which is an important component of preserving marine biodiversity.
These items show UCT is actively engaged in marine/sea-life ecosystems — from fundamental research into how marine species are responding to climate, to training on-the-sea expeditions, to institutional structures for marine biodiversity capacity. That means the University is working directly (via research, training, monitoring) to maintain/extend marine ecosystems and biodiversity, including ecosystems subject to change or threat.