Cities and towns around the world will once again compete to see who has the most biodiversity in the friendly and fun City Nature Challenge, taking place from Friday (29/04) to Monday (02/05). This year, Bloemfontein will be participating in this bioblitz-style competition.
The challenge, which started in 2016 between Los Angeles County and San Francisco, has subsequently grown into an international event.
Since South African cities joined in 2019, the country has consistently delivered nature’s winners, with Cape Town winning with the most observations and the most species observed last year, and South African participants in general gaining global recognition for their contributions.
Nature lovers are encouraged to join the challenge in 2022 by logging all the plant and animal species they see in their gardens or their region over the weekend.
These nature lovers, or citizen scientists, log their observations using the nature application iNaturalist.
The following week, between 3 May and 8 May, those interested will identify all the species recorded and logged on the app.
The Botanical Society of South Africa (BotSoc) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers programme (Crew) and a host of partners are organising nature walks in Bloemfontein, and invite anyone to join.
The goal of the City Nature Challenge is to connect people to their local nature, and to each other. Information collected throughout the weekend also feeds into local and national conservation and nature monitoring activities.
The South African entrants are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, eThekwini, the Garden Route, Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Bay, Overstrand, Southern Overberg, Stellenbosch, Thoyohandou, Tshwane and the West Coast.
BotSoc’s conservation manager, Rupert Koopman, says it is wonderful that so many BotSoc branches are joining the challenge this year.
“That means there’s ample opportunity for BotSoc members and all nature lovers to become citizen scientists for the weekend and join the action. We’ll also have BotSoc and Crew representatives attending events across South Africa.”
Even if your city, town or region is not participating, it is still easy to join as part of the global project.
For information on the challenge, how to get involved and BotSoc and Crew’s support to the challenge, visit botanicalsociety.org.za/crew-programme or call Deon Potgieter of the local BotSoc branch at 083-599-7145.
