Eco-corridors survive in the city

THERE ARE increasing reasons to support the creation of ecological corridors in Joburg that could be “the key to saving biodioversity in a fast-changing concrete world”.

Tyrone Mckendry, a Master’s student of the school of animal, plant and environmental sciences at Wits University, whose research identified three ecological corridors, between nature reserves, conservancies and undeveloped areas/open space, using spatial mapping data, says that, although the city is highly urbanised and densely populated, it has “novel” ecosystems, which are nonetheless threatened.

There is huge interest, he says, in creating ecological corri- dors that act as a movement corridor for the city’s wildlife, but which will also increase property values.

“There are many different types of corridors and at many scales, as short as a couple of hundred metres long that allow wildlife to move through urban areas, or as large as hundreds of kilometres long.”

In his study of the Rietfontein nature reserve, he found the “corridor vegetation condition and structure was good as was connectivity across most of the corridor”. He detected 13 different mammal species. Interestingly, however, mammal richness is higher in the areas outside of the protected area. – Sheree Bega