Growing SA’s heritage sites
The SA National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) is in charge of championing biodiversity for the benefit of all citizens, says CEO Tanya Abrahamse.
She adds that the past year has been particularly successful for Sanbi and its national botanical garden network.
“SA’s national botanical gardens received their highestever number of visitors and income generated since the establishment of the network more than 100 years ago,” Abrahamse says.
“The combined number of visitors to all national botanical gardens for the year exceeded 1,8m, which was 26,7% higher than the previous financial year.”
Kirstenbosch Gardens’ new tree canopy walkway — commonly referred to as the Boomslang — enjoyed a record number of both local and international visitors and, as such, was voted the Most Beautiful Object in SA at the 2015 Design Indaba.
Kirstenbosch was also named the International Garden of the Year by the International Garden Tourism Network, was ranked number one of 186 things to do in Cape Town by renowned travel site TripAdvisor, and welcomed over 1m visitors for the first time in its 102-year history.
Significant investment was made towards improving, upgrading and refurbishing Sanbi’s buildings, equipment and tourism infrastructure. This was part of the organisation’s department of environmental affairs-funded infrastructure programme.
Sanbi continued to host a variety of government-funded Expanded Public Works Programme projects.
These projects were carried out in the Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Pretoria and Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.
This provided temporary employment to more than 100 previously unemployed workers and improving boundary fencing, pathways, irrigation systems and removing alien invasive plants.
Further, adds Abrahamse, these gardens hosted more than 800 Groen Sebenza pioneers, many of whom took up permanent posts in the course of the year.
“The Groen Sebenza programme is one of the tools through which the biodiversity human capital development strategy is delivered,” she says.