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Cape Region (Delaware)
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The Cape Henlopen Region, or the Cape Region, is a region in Sussex County, in southern Delaware, on the Delmarva Peninsula. The region is part of the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area, the region takes its name from Cape Henlopen, as does the Cape Henlopen School District and Cape Henlopen State Park. Much of the populated areas are found along the Delaware Bay, Rehoboth Bay. Northern and western parts of the Cape Region are rural areas dominated by farmland, the area is often referred to as the Delaware Beaches. The Cape Region is situated on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Rehoboth Beach has a mild subtropical climate consisting of hot, humid summers and mild winters. The highest official temperature recorded in Rehoboth Beach was 102 °F in 1997. The lowest official temperature recorded in Rehoboth Beach was -11 °F in 1982. At the 2010 Census, the total population of the Cape Region was 41,584 which is an increase of 10,998 from 30,856. The Cape Region tends to be more affluent than western parts of Sussex County
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South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
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Table Mountain National Park
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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 park on the Cape Peninsula, centred on Table Mountain. The Table Mountain Preservation Board was set up in 1952, and in 1957 its recommendation to the National Monuments Board was accepted, in the mid 1960s, the Cape Town City Council declared nature reserves on Table Mountain, Lions Head, Signal Hill, and Silvermine. This laid the foundations for the Cape Peninsula Protected Natural Environment area, 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, on 29 May 1998, then-president Nelson Mandela proclaimed the Cape Peninsula National Park. The park was renamed to the Table Mountain National Park. The park is not a contiguous area, the undeveloped mountainous areas which make up most of the park are separated by developed urban areas on shallower terrain. Thus the park is divided into three sections, as listed below. This section covers Signal Hill, Lions Head, Table Mountain proper, including the Back Table, Devils Peak, the Twelve Apostles, and Orange Kloof. 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 this section was formed from the Table Mountain National Monument, Cecilia Forest, and Newlands Forest. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is not officially part of the national park and this section runs northwest-southeast across the Peninsula from the Atlantic seaboard to the False Bay coast. It covers Constantiaberg, Steenberg Peak and the Kalk Bay mountains and it borders on Hout Bay in the north-west, the suburbs of Constantia and Tokai in the north-east, Kalk Bay in the south-east, and Fish Hoek and Noordhoek in the south-west. This section was formed from the Tokai State Forest and the Silvermine Nature Reserve and it was formed from the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. This area forms part of the Cape Floristic Region and as such supports a diversity of flora, much of which is rare. Protea, erica, restio and Asteraceae species, as well as geophytes, are all found in abundance, the main indigenous vegetation types are Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos and Cape Granite Fynbos, both of which are endangered and endemic to Cape Town - occurring nowhere else in the world. In addition, some sections of the park are the home of deep
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Cederberg
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The Cederberg mountains and nature reserve are located near Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town, South Africa at about 32°30′S 19°0′E. The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam cedar, which is an endemic to the area. The mountains are noted for dramatic rock formations and San rock art, the Cederberg Wilderness Area is administered by CapeNature. Cederberg is now the accepted spelling for the area, which combines the English. The Cederberg mountains extend about 50 km north-south by 20 km east-west and they are bordered on the west by the Sandveld, the north by the Pakhuis Mountains, the east by the Springbok Flats and the south by the Kouebokkeveld Mountains and the Skurweberge. The main access road, the N7, runs to the west of the range, the nearest towns are Citrusdal to the southwest and Clanwilliam to the north. There are several mountains in the range, including Sneeuberg and Tafelberg. Tafelberg should not be confused with the Table Mountain in Cape Town, notable landmarks include the Maltese Cross, Wolfberg Arch and Wolfberg Cracks. The dominating characteristic of the area is sharply defined sandstone rock formations and this group of rocks contains bands of shale and in recent years a few important fossils have been discovered in these argillaceous layers. The fossils are of primitive fish and date back 450 million years to the Ordovician Period, the summers are very hot and dry, while the winters are wetter and cold with typical annual rainfall in the low-lying areas of less than 700 mm. The higher peaks receive a dusting of snow in winter, summer days are typically clear and cloudless. Due to the clear skies most of the year, it makes an excellent site for skywatching and has its own amateur observatory, the predominant vegetation is Mediterranean fynbos in the wetter south and west, changing to semi desert scrub in the north and east. The endangered Clanwilliam cedar of the family Cupressaceae and the snow protea of the Proteaceae are endemic to the area, the areas apex predators are the felids leopard and caracal. Other mammals include the rock hyrax or dassie, meerkats and other mongooses, larger antelopes, the vulnerable Cape mountain zebra, there are also many birds, small mammals, reptiles and insects. Other threatened species found in the Cederberg Wilderness Area include the cyprinids Clanwilliam yellowfish, in caves and overhangs throughout the area, San rock art can be found, evidence of the earliest human inhabitants. European settlement brought forestry and some agriculture, and led to destruction of the local cedar trees, with thousands felled for telephone poles, furniture. The European arrival also led to the elimination of the San population, the Cederberg was possibly the southernmost battleground of the Second Boer War. A small band of Boer guerrillas penetrated into this area from the Boer republics, hundreds of kilometres to the north, in this they failed, the farmers may have had little sympathy for the British but they had a fair notion of who was going to win the war
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De Hoop Nature Reserve
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De Hoop Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It lies three hours from Cape Town in the Overberg region, near Cape Agulhas, the tip of Africa. Approximately 340 square kilometres in area, it is one of the largest natural areas managed by CapeNature, De Hoop is one of the components of the Cape Floral Region Protected Areas World Heritage Site. De Hoop Nature Reserve is flanked by protected area, the De Hoop Marine Protected Area. De Hoop Nature Reserves climate is Mediterranean, with warm summers, the reserve gets 380 mm of rain annually. In summer, winds blow in from the east, west and southeast, the vegetation De Hoop Nature Reserve is part of the worlds smallest and most threatened plant kingdom, known as the Cape Floral Kingdom. The reserve also contains one of the largest areas of the lowland fynbos. De Hoop is haven for both terrestrial and marine animals, the reserve has a total of 86 mammal species. These include the rare bontebok and Cape mountain zebra, eland, grey rhebok, chacma baboon, yellow mongoose, leopard, although rare, are also found in the reserve. The waters within the De Hoop Reserve support good populations of mammals such as dolphins. The bays of De Hoop are the grounds for southern right whales. The marine protected area of the reserve has a total of 250 species of fish, De Hoop supports a large number of resident and migratory bird species. The reserves total bird species count is 260, several water birds breed in the reserve. The reserve is home to the only remaining breeding colony of the rare Cape vulture. The eastern part of the reserve is used by the Denel Overberg Test Range for missile testing. There is no danger to hikers as the reserve closes the area well before the testing date, CapeNature Protected areas of South Africa De Hoop Nature Reserve travel guide from Wikivoyage De Hoop Nature Reserve
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Boosmansbos Wilderness Area
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The Boosmansbos Wilderness Area of 142 km2 is situated 20 km north of Heidelberg in the eastern Langeberg mountain chain of the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Boosmansbos, i. e. angry mans forest, is named after a resident hermit of the early 19th century who had known to scare youngsters who visited his apiaries. The elevation reaches 1,637 m at Grootberg peak, located at the center of the wilderness area, the tributaries of the Duiwenhoks River, which drain its southern slopes, tumble along precipitous gorges to 200 m above sea level on the southern perimeter. In the southwest the wilderness area encloses the Grootvadersbosch Nature Reserve of 250 ha, the wilderness area conserves mountain fynbos and valley forest. Among the special fynbos plants conserved are Erica and everlasting species as well as the rare Langeberg rambling aloe, important forest tree species occurring in the valleys are sickle-leaved yellowwood, stinkwood and red alder. The area receives rain in any month of the year, although mid summer and mid winter are the driest,64 km of footpaths allow access to the wilderness, among which a circular 27 km section which can be completed in two days. Protected areas of South Africa South African National Parks CapeNature, Boosmansbos SA places, Boosmansbos Heidelberg information page
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World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
