Parkscape

Parkscape Parkscape is a voluntary non-profit organisation with a mixed community-safety - environmental focus.

Voluntary advocacy NPO, ensuring safety, and protecting the urban forest, cultural landscapes and biodiversity in the buffer zones and wildland-urban interfaces of TMNP. Our vision is driven by the increasing incidence of crime and fire in the ever-reducing buffer zones of Table Mountain National Park, which pose a serious threat to the urban edge. The devastating fires of March 2015 (which destroyed several homes), and the Devil's Peak fire of 2021 (which caused extensive heritage damage) along with numerous smaller fires and several brutal murders, including the rape and murder of a 16 year old girl in the fynbos of Lower Tokai in 2016, together with numerous ongoing incidents of crime, highlight a critical issue of safety in the 221sq km Park. It is a problem which requires collective and community driven action. Per the Tokai-Cecilia Management Framework, negotiated between the public and SANParks in 2007, Parkscape is also acutely aware of the need for safe and shaded urban greenspace within the buffer zones, which can deliver all the benefits of green infrastructure - ecosystem services - particularly as regards physical and mental health and well-being, and some aspects of climate change mitigation - particularly as regards reducing urban temperatures, while maintaining the treed aesthetic of the cultural landscape of the Constantia-Tokai valley. TMNP is uniquely situated within an urban setting and is, as such, an urban national park and a people’s park. Unlike rural parks such as Kruger National Park, TMNP must meet a broad range of needs from conservation of the Cape Floral Kingdom and Afrotemperate forests to local user needs, particularly the needs of communities that need urban greenspace. Management strategies for the Park must therefore be specific to meeting the demands of an increasingly densified and diverse city environment, from conservation to urban greening and urban forestry for human health and well-being, climate change and sustainable city goals per the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Unfortunately local users regularly run into issues that hinge primarily around safety with respect to crime and fire, access and creeping fees, and failure to manage and maintain infrastructure and biodiversity within the Park. Increasingly locals feel excluded from “their mountain”, with the failure to sufficiently reinvest in the Park exacerbating the situation. The focus on fynbos biodiversity to the exclusion of other biodiversity - including urban forests - and the failure to effectively manage the shrinking buffer zones which lie adjacent to urban edges add to various growing problems. In light of ongoing crime in the Park, together with increased incidents of fire throughout the Park - and an historical reluctance of the SANParks to engage with the public – the vision was born to refocus activity in the buffer zones (per the original foundation documents which underpin the Park’s formation) for the people of Cape Town, starting with Lower Tokai as a potential model. Parkscape’s vision is to create safe, biodiverse and shaded (afforestation of Afrotemperate forest and non invasive exotic species) urban greenspace for all within the buffer zones of the Park, while also providing opportunities for social upliftment, community development, cultural and environmental education – all of which will ultimately serve to address safety concerns.

It's the start of the summer holidays and life starts becoming busier. Take some time out in Tokai forest and let the pe...
13/12/2025

It's the start of the summer holidays and life starts becoming busier. Take some time out in Tokai forest and let the peacefulness of the trees bring some calm to your day.

There is a global recognition of the importance of trees in the urban environment, with many cities planting trees, incl...
13/12/2025

There is a global recognition of the importance of trees in the urban environment, with many cities planting trees, including the City of Johannesburg. It is alarming to note that the City of Cape Town appears to be failing in this regard, with a tree canopy that is rapidly decreasing.

Johannesburg, the African city that claims to be the world’s largest man-made forest, is about to get even greener.

We are hoping that you got your walk in this morning because the rain that was predicted has arrived. If you head to Tok...
12/12/2025

We are hoping that you got your walk in this morning because the rain that was predicted has arrived. If you head to Tokai forest later today, take time to enjoy the fresh scents that the rain leaves behind.

This is so true. One need only compare the temperatures in the open sun to the temperatures under the shade of trees to ...
12/12/2025

This is so true. One need only compare the temperatures in the open sun to the temperatures under the shade of trees to realise the huge impact that trees have. Hence the one reason why so many people choose to walk in the shade on a hot day.

Plant today, breathe tomorrow

Loving the long summer evenings. And lovely seeing getting busier as the summer holidays start to kick in.SANParks - T...
11/12/2025

Loving the long summer evenings.
And lovely seeing getting busier as the summer holidays start to kick in.

SANParks - Table Mountain National Park new Safety and Security Manager started on Monday, and, as a former colleague in the Park Forum, Parkscape looks forward to working with him to strengthen and improve our existing initiatives in the forest, ensuring that this very popular community space maintains the focus on keeping all visitors safe.

Lots of "meet and greet" in yesterday evening. The longer days are wonderful for early evening outings when the sun is...
10/12/2025

Lots of "meet and greet" in yesterday evening. The longer days are wonderful for early evening outings when the sun is still up and there's time and a place to meet and walk with friends, have a chat, have a laugh and realise the summer holiday season really has arrived.

So very grateful that "this" 👇🏽 will be arriving at on 15 December, in time for peak season! This will be the third ye...
09/12/2025

So very grateful that "this" 👇🏽 will be arriving at on 15 December, in time for peak season!

This will be the third year that Fidelity ADT have supported us in this way, being additional "eyes and ears" in the area, and having the capacity to respond to incidents by being on site over the festive season.

Our sincerest thanks to Fidelity ADT for their continued support of Parkscape and the ! You guys rock!

Early evening walks in are all about golden light, happy dogs and meeting up with friends for a walk and a chat. This...
08/12/2025

Early evening walks in are all about golden light, happy dogs and meeting up with friends for a walk and a chat.
This very special place is all about community, wellness and respite from busy urban lives.

And here we sit with a rapidly declining urban forest (5.9% and dropping) thanks to inappropriate development, ineffecti...
07/12/2025

And here we sit with a rapidly declining urban forest (5.9% and dropping) thanks to inappropriate development, ineffective tree preservation policies, arborist skills shortages, staff shortages, PSHB, and anti tree biodiversity agendas.
We are heading for so much trouble and a potentially unlivable, unsustainable and unresilient future in Cape Town.

More urban trees, more savings

Urban trees will be crucial going into hotter and more unpredictable climates. The liveability of many cities will depen...
06/12/2025

Urban trees will be crucial going into hotter and more unpredictable climates. The liveability of many cities will depend on their canopy cover and urban forest resilience.

Trees... Nature's air-conditioning.
06/12/2025

Trees... Nature's air-conditioning.

Shade is nature’s air-conditioning — powered by trees.

AMONG THE PINESLucy Maud Montgomery "Here let us linger at will and delightsomely hearken Music aeolian of wind in the b...
06/12/2025

AMONG THE PINES
Lucy Maud Montgomery

"Here let us linger at will and delightsomely hearken
Music aeolian of wind in the boughs of pine,
Timbrel of falling waters, sounds all soft and sonorous,
Worshipful litanies sung at a bannered shrine.

Deep let us breathe the ripeness and savor of balsam,
Tears that the pines have wept in sorrow sweet,
With its aroma comes beguilement of things forgotten,
Long-past hopes of the years on tip-toeing feet.

Far in the boskiest glen of this wood is a dream and a silence­
Come, we shall claim them ours ere look we long;
A dream that we dreamed and lost, a silence richly hearted,
Deep at its lyric core with the soul of a song.

If there be storm, it will thunder a march in the branches,
So that our feet may keep true time as we go;
If there be rain, it will laugh, it will glisten, and beckon,
Calling to us as a friend all lightly and low.

If it be night, the moonlight will wander winsomely with us,
If it be hour of dawn, all heaven will bloom,
If it be sunset, it's glow will enfold and pursue us.
To the remotest valley of purple gloom.

Lo! the pine wood is a temple where the days meet to worship,
Laying their cark and care for the nonce aside,
God, who made it, keeps it as a witness to Him forever,
Walking in it, as a garden, at eventide."

We wish you a safe, peaceful and wonderful weekend!

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