Wilderness in an urban setting: Planning and management of the Cape Peninsula National Park, Cape Town, South Africa

The Cape Peninsula National Park (CPNP) is unique because it is situated within the Cape Floristic Kingdom, one of the six floral kingdoms of the world, as well as within a metropolitan area with over 2.8 million people. A key challenge facing Park management is the management of the urban-wilderness interface in an open access system. Park management has adopted a number of proactive and complementary planning and management strategies to deal with urban-edge challenges. Specific initiatives have been developed and implemented to address natural hazards, development pressure, legislative shortcomings, and social problems. This paper shows that the long-term sustainability of the CPNP will depend on the ability of Park management to embrace the urban context.