Our corridor
Our corridor is a biodiversity corridor along the Braamfontein Spruit. The Braamfontein Spruit is an urban river in Johannesburg (South Africa) that runs from Braamfontein northwards through suburbs like Melville, Greenside, Parkhurst, Blairgowrie, Parkmore, Morningside and Bryanston. Jozi Trails has been caring for the trails along this river for many years and keeping the river accessible to cyclists, runners and walkers. This is a rare green space for off-road cycling, walking in nature, birding and swimming in the middle of a massive city - a rare and precious public green gem. Together with the environmental professionals of the Biodiversity Collective, Jozi Trails is now leading the way in enriching this valuable public space with biodiversity.
A biodiversity corridor is a long connecting stretch of intact biodiversity that connects otherwise isolated green spaces to one another, and allows animals and plants to move through urban spaces. Just as cars have roads in cities to be able to get across the city, animals need biodiversity corridors to safely cross urban areas and find places to rest and eat and drink along the way. Without the connection of a biodiversity corridor, isolated green spaces become vulnerable. Once fire and all the flowers of one species are gone, with no way for new seeds to replenish that plant population. Whereas when you are part of a biodiversity corridor, plant species that are lost to fire are linked to a whole network of other plant populations that can reseed the space. Similarly animal populations are strong when part of a biodiversity network.
What is really special and significant about the Braamfontein Spruit is that it still has significant green open spaces connected to it, such as Delta Park, and a number of other large parks. In these green open spaces there is potential to bring back the unique plants and animals that were part of the Joburg landscape before Joburg began. The unique collection of plants and animals of northern Joburg is called Egoli Granite Grasslands.
While there are still remnants of well-functioning ecosystems along the Braamfontein Spruit, the larger catchment area is primarily built-up and consists of residential and industrial infrastructure. The vegetation along the river is generally still present, but there are many invasive species that tend to dominate the landscape. For these reasons we are working on changing the ecological direction and bringing back Egoli Granite Grassland vegetation within this area.
We have demarcated a specific part of the Braamfontein Spruit catchment area, which can be seen on the map. This area encompasses important riverine habitats, but it also connects different socio-economic divides within the city. Our objective is to work on grassroots-driven ecological restoration across these social and spatial divides. There are great opportunities within our corridor area. Many houses and properties have large gardens which can serve as stepping-stone gardens for our corridor, if planted with the right species. There are also plenty of public spaces as well as corporate gardens that can be used, and the river provides a continuous green spine along the corridor.
We are inviting all stakeholders along this river corridor to join us in the ecological restoration of the Braamfontein Spruit. We have developed an easy-to-use Garden Planner tool which is made available freely as an open source resource within our website. There is an extensive Plant database that helps people pick the right species for their garden to contribute to expanding Egoli Granite Grassland coverage. We are furthermore working towards developing training programmes, online courses, in-person workshops and a network of partners to take our corridor building to the next level. Please check the Join Us section for more information on how to get involved!
