Harmony Flats Nature Reserve - city of Cape Town

Harmony Flats Nature Reserve is a piece of protected land, located between

Strand Strand or The Strand may refer to: Topography *The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a: ** Beach ** Shoreline * Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida Places Africa * Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa * ...

and Gordon's Bay,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. It protects a surviving fragment of

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos vegetation. Harmony Flats was originally established to preserve a habitat for the rare and declining geometric tortoise (''Psammobates geometricus''). This tortoise is now locally extinct, but the reserve still protects about 220 species of plants (many of them

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

) as well as a range of animal species, such as the tiny parrot-beaked tortoise (''Homopus areolatus''), various snakes and a large variety of birds. This is one of the few remaining spots of the

vegetation type Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos. Local volunteers and community organisations are now heavily involved in protecting and managing the reserve.

References

{{Reflist Nature reserves in Cape Town Protected areas of the Western Cape

See also

References