Veld circles

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  With over 83% of Earth’s wild mammal and 50% of plant populations lost to human overpopulation and overconsumption, urgent environmental action is required to protect our planet for future generations.

• Most of the damage arises in cities, which contain over half of the world’s population crammed into less than 3% of the earth’s surface. For the same reasons, cities also provide a backdrop for environmental education to have its greatest impact.

  Recognised as both the “United Nations’ Most Biodiverse City in the World” and the “Extinction Capital of the World”, and containing 10 of South Africa’s 21 Critically Endangered veld types (three of which are endemic), Cape Town is an exemplary city for the introduction of environmentally interpretive, educational and immersive opportunities presented by FUNDA FYNBOS veld circles.

• A critical first step is reconnecting people with nature, thereby cultivating care for the local environment. Bridging the divide between suburbia and rural wilderness through ecologically sound, educational and informative public biodiversity gardens is a key method of bringing the ‘wild’ back into our cities and everyday life. The FUNDA FYNBOS Veld Circle Project provides a model for such integration by linking environmental education, recreation and habitat restoration in aesthetically structured, open access creative spaces – veld circles – that close the gap between gardens and wildlands.

  Each veld circle showcases locally indigenous wild plants of medicinal, edible, biodiversity and/or horticultural value that are specific to the original veld type of the site.

  These plants are displayed, together with comprehensive signage, in a sizeable, radially symmetrical flower design. The circular design has been chosen as a symbol of wholeness to represent the restoration of a healthy fynbos ecosystem.

 The project name FUNDA FYNBOS encompasses the three core elements of the project, namely:

• 1. EDUCATION

  Conservation education (“FUNDA” = isiXhosa ‘learn’) – veld circles serve as outdoor classrooms showcasing plants of the original veld type at the site combined with interpretive signage

• 2. RECREATION

  Recreation (“FUN”) – inviting, aesthetically appealing space with central play and picnic area

• 3. RESTORATION

  Fynbos habitat restoration (“FYNBOS”) – each veld circle will restore local wildlife habitat and serve as a biodiversity stepping stone

Read about FUNDA FYNBOS in the Daily Maverick’s ‘Our Burning Planet’