GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - Garden Routers who took part in the 2023 City Nature Challenge (CNC) fared well by uploading 13 085 observations, placing the region 33rd on the world stage and 4th on the southern Africa stage.
The annual City Nature Challenge motivates people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities.
A total of 2 506 species was recorded in the Garden Route, placing the region 18th in the world and 2nd in southern Africa. A total of 241 dedicated observers took part.
Christine Ridge-Schnaufer, one of the organisers of the local CNC, thanked everyone who took part. "We look forward to a bigger and better CNC in 2024."
A small function was held at the Garden Route Botanical Gardens to hand out the prizes and thank everyone involved in the challenge.
The Garden Route Botanical Gardens supplied the venue, and Marshmallow Garden Café supplied coffee to everyone. CapeNature and the Garden Route Botanical Gardens sponsored prizes for some lucky participants.
On the world stage, Región Metropolitana de La Paz had the most observations (126 435) in the 2023 CNC. They documented 5 344 species with 3 025 observers.
Cape Town ranked second out of 482 cities in the number of observations recorded and fourth in the number of species recorded. Participants in Cape Town were able to record 52 518 observations and 3 847 species across the city.
A small function was held to hand out prizes.
The Garden Route City Nature Challenge core committee who gathered to draw the lucky winners, from left: Christine Ridge-Schnaufer (Wessa Eden), Christiaan Viljoen (Garden Route Botanical Garden), Thabiso Mokoena (stakeholder engagement officer: Cape Nature), Shaun Swanepoel (organiser iNat, Garden Route), Corne Brink (Botanical Society, Garden Route) and Jenny Potgieter (Crew Outramps).
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