A new section of road through the Noordhoek wetlands could cause the local extinction of the endangered Western Leopard Toad, a keystone species whose presence or absence is an indicator of environmental health – “like the canary in the coal mine”.
A local organisation, the Noordhoek Environmental Action Group (NEAG), is challenging both the 2019 Environmental Authorisation (EA) issued for the road and the 2020 dismissal of their appeal against this EA.
The City of Cape Town, the first respondent in the case, acknowledges that the new road will have some “unavoidable” impact on the toads. But it accepts its environmental consultants’ opinion that an “adequate level” of long-term ecological viability for the toad population can be maintained if the road
