Cape Nature Conservation

Highlights

• Volunteer at a reserve close to Cape Town.
• Help to capture, relocate or rehabilitate birds and animals.
• Experience the working with local schools.
• Experience amazing tours and adventures in and around Cape Town.
• Receive personal support from the volunteer coordinator.

Project Information

The Cape Nature Conservation project is situated in Muizenberg, on the outskirts of the city of Cape Town. The reserve spreads through the suburbs of Muizenberg, Lakeside and Steenberg, extends over about 250ha and includes an estuary, freshwater wetlands, saltmarshes, a stretch of beach, and several endangered terrestrial vegetation types. The reserve is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna including 433 plant, 150 bird, 32 fish, 28 reptile, 23 mammal and 7 amphibian species. The estuary is the only functioning estuary in False Bay and plays a major role as a nursery area for recruiting fish such as the endangered White Steenbras. 

The project tasks at the reserve include bio-monitoring and research, ecological management and rehabilitation, visitor management, construction and infrastructure maintenance, stakeholder and community engagement and environmental education. You can expect to be part of all of these functions or a subset, as desired. Activities vary widely and may include monitoring in the form of fish counts, nocturnal mammal counts, bird counts, prawn counts, etc., path maintenance, litter collection, bird hide construction, presentations to children, guided walks, administration and many similar activities. The education programme is large, with presentations reaching over 6000 children in the last years (most from underprivileged backgrounds), so the project is particularly well placed to accommodate volunteers who are interested in education.

Your Role

You will work from Monday to Friday.

The daily activities are highly varied and may include:

• Bio-monitoring and research.
• Ecological Management and rehabilitation.
• Visitor management.
• Construction and infrastructure maintenance.
• Environmental education.
• Education programme – presentations to children.

The work that you are engaged in varies a great deal. No single activity is guaranteed, as all activities vary seasonally and by chance and many are only undertaken quarterly or annually.

Other possible activities that you might be asked to do include:

• Helping to capture, relocate or rehabilitate animals (including birds, fish, small mammals, reptiles, antelopes, grysbok, eland, hippo, etc.),
• Controlling erosion; engaging in botanical rehabilitation,
• Pollinating certain rare plant species by hand,
• Removal of invasive alien species,
• Counting birds, animals and plants,
• Assisting with administration,
• Assisting with structured environmental education programs and community involvement,
• Assisting with environmental emergencies like oil spills, fish kills, fires (in a support/logistics capacity, unless adequately trained and equipped),
• Mowing and path maintenance,
• Cleaning up litter, and a host of other ad-hoc tasks.

You can expect to walk fair distances or have to paddle by canoe or boat to your work site within the reserve for the day. 

It is important to note that this description serves as an example only. The daily tasks and challenges depend on the volunteer, the time of year and the work that needs to be done. The final job description can therefore vary substantially from the above.

Accommodation 

You will live at the Volunteer House. It is a private house in an upmarket residential area with single beds and twin bedrooms. Volunteers are accommodated in twin bedrooms but may upgrade to single rooms upon request. There are 4 bathrooms to share, a communal kitchen to cater yourself, a dining room, a lounge with TV and DVD and a beautiful garden with a swimming pool.
Bedding is provided. Towels will be not provided.
There is a washing machine at the residence for you to use. It works with tokens which can be purchased for R40 per load.