Conservation of the Vegetation on the Melville Ridge, Johannesburg

The Melville Koppies Ridge in Johannesburg is an area of natural wilderness within the urban environment. The aim of the study was to establish the relationship between vegetation distribution and environmental conditions on the ridge, as well as to determine the impacts of management on vegetation distribution. The ridge has had a long history of settlement and disturbance, but the vegetation on the ridge is surprisingly species rich, with little evidence of former disturbance. Over the past three decades, vegetation on the ridge has been subject to contrasting management histories, with the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve having strictly controlled and limited access and exclusion of fire, while access to the eastward and westward extensions of the reserve were not controlled at all. This has led to the development of new vegetation communities in the reserve, but higher diversity in the uncontrolled area. Thus, clear conservation objectives are required to guide management