About the Forum

About The Princess Vlei Forum

The Princess Vlei Forum is a nonprofit organisation with individual and organisational members. Our mission is to restore, conserve and protect the Greater Princess Vlei Conservation Area (GPVCA) for the benefit of communities and nature.

Our key objectives are to:

Protect the space: ensure through legal and civic action that the land is not sold, and that the conservation area is granted long-term protection on environmental and heritage grounds.
Revitalise the space: lobby for resources from the City and donors to restore the biodiversity, create infrastructure to facilitate user enjoyment, and enable its transformation into a nature and heritage park as envisaged by the community.
Encourage community use of the space for different activities by making it inviting, safe and accessible
Empower community members to be long-term stewards of this and other public spaces by running environmental awareness programmes, awakening passion and love of nature in young residents, networking and organised action.

The Forum was launched on October 31, 2012, to co-ordinate a wide-spread community campaign to protect the vlei from commercial development. On March 22, 2014, the decision to scrap the mall was announced by Deputy Mayor Ian Nielson at the Princess Vlei Forum's Day of Action and Celebration.
In December 2015 the Forum signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the City of Cape Town, to formalise our status as a community partner in the management and transformation of the GPVCA.
Since March 2014, Forum has worked with the City to overcome the historical and ongoing neglect due to apartheid spatial planning. We have been guided by the community vision of a nature and heritage park at Princess Vlei. This vision was generated over three years through workshops, surveys, and conversations with community stakeholders. The City has released a Concept Development Plan for the area, based on the community vision and engagement with the Forum. Implementing and developing this plan is in progress.

Since 2015, the Forum has:

Successfully lobbied to have the GPVCA declared a Provincial Heritage Site.
Successfully lobbied the City:
To create a full-time position of supervisor at Princess Vlei
To install upgraded braai areas and a play park
To begin work on a circular walkway around the vlei.
Placed over 1 hectare under active restoration and 5,5 Ha under passive restoration
Involved 546 community members in planting events, and grew its database to 1200
Brought 2600 school learners to the vlei for creative, informative and immersive nature activities.
Collaborated with the Community Think Tank to roll out a weekly heritage market

Join the Princess Vlei Forum

Download our Constitution

"Dressing the Princess" documentary on Waterbear

Awards

Organisation of the Year in the Southern African Finals of the International Association of Public Participation 2014 (IAP2).
Imagine Princess Vlei project awarded Highly Commended recognition for Outstanding Achievement in the Developing World by the IAP2.