286 species in the middle of a campus: Cape Town's students count what their reserve is hiding

Between lecture halls and busy pathways, the University of the Western Cape's Cape Flats Nature Reserve just gave up its secrets. In a six-day survey, 130 students, naturalists and neighbours recorded 286 species — 651 observations logged, 1,948 photographs filed, and one plant never before recorded in the reserve. Working with rare-flora custodians and bird clubs, the teams showed that a protected pocket of Cape Flats vegetation can hold a small universe inside a working university. The survey's point is practical: you cannot protect what you have not counted, and now this reserve has the receipts.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: community action