5/5 Rohit D. 3 years ago on Google
Table
Mountain
National
Park,
previously
known
as
the Cape
Peninsula
National
Park,
is
a national
park in Cape
Town, South
Africa,
proclaimed
on
29
May
1998,
for
the
purpose
of
protecting
the
natural
environment
of
the Table
Mountain Chain,
and
in
particular
the
rare fynbos vegetation.
The
park
is
managed
by South
African
National
Parks.
The
property
is
included
as
part
of
the
UNESCO Cape
Floral
Region World
Heritage
Site.
The
park
contains
two
well-known
landmarks: Table
Mountain,
for
which
the
park
is
named;
and
the Cape
of
Good
Hope,
the
most
southwestern
extremity
of Africa.
Arguments
for
a
national
park
on
the
Cape
Peninsula,
centred
on
Table
Mountain,
began
in
earnest
in
the
mid-1930s.
The
Table
Mountain
Preservation
Board
was
set
up
in
1952,
and
in
1957
its
recommendation
to
the
National
Monuments
Board
was
accepted
and
Table
Mountain
was
declared
a
national
monument.
In
the
mid
1960s,
the
Cape
Town
City
Council
declared
nature
reserves
on
Table
Mountain,
Lion's
Head,
Signal
Hill,
and
Silvermine.
Following
high
fire
incidence
in
the
1970s,
Douglas
Hey
was
appointed
to
assess
the
ecological
state
of
Table
Mountain
and
the
southern
Peninsula,
and
he
recommended
(1978)
that
all
the
Peninsula's
mountains
above
152m
should
be
conserved.
This
laid
the
foundations
for
the
Cape
Peninsula
Protected
Natural
Environment
(CPPNE)
area,
finally
established
in
1989.
However,
environmental
management
was
still
bedeviled
by
the
fragmented
nature
of
land
ownership
on
the
Peninsula.
Following
a
big
fire
above
the
city
bowl
in
1991,
Attorney
General
Frank
Kahn
was
appointed
to
reach
consensus
on
a
plan
for
rationalising
management
of
the
CPPNE.
In
1995,
Prof.
Brian
Huntley
recommended
that
SANParks
be
appointed
to
manage
the
CPPNE,
with
an
agreement
signed
in
April
1998
to
transfer
around
39,500
acres
to
SANParks.
On
29
May
1998,
then-president
Nelson
Mandela
proclaimed
the
Cape
Peninsula
National
Park.
The
park
was
later
renamed
to
the
Table
Mountain
National
Park.
The
park
runs
approximately
north-south
along
the
range
of
mountains
that
make
up
the
mountainous
spine
of
the Cape
Peninsula,
from Signal
Hill in
the
north,
through Lion's
Head, Table
Mountain, Constantiaberg, Silvermine,
the
mountains
of
the
southern Peninsula,
terminating
at Cape
Point.
The
park
is
not
a
single
contiguous
area;
the
undeveloped
mountainous
areas
which
make
up
most
of
the
park
are
separated
by
developed
urban
areas
on
the
shallower
terrain.
Thus
the
park
is
divided
into
three
separate
sections,
as
listed
below.
This
section
covers Signal
Hill, Lion's
Head, Table
Mountain proper,
including
the
Back
Table
(the
rear,
lower
part
of
the
mountain), Devil's
Peak,
the
Twelve
Apostles
(actually
a
series
of
seventeen
peaks
along
the Atlantic seaboard),
and Orange
Kloof (a
specially
protected
area
not
open
to
the
public).
It
borders
on
central Cape
Town in
the
north, Camps
Bay and
the Atlantic coast
in
the
west,
the Southern
Suburbs in
the
east,
and Hout
Bay in
the
south.
This
section
was
formed
from
the
Table
Mountain
National
Monument, Cecilia
Park,
and Newlands
Forest. Kirstenbosch
National
Botanical
Garden is
not
officially
part
of
the
national
park,
but
its
higher
reaches
are
maintained
as
part
of
the
park.
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