RABIE Property Projects and their various partners in the three Kenilworth Racecourse periphery developments - Aintree, Greenford Office Estate and Regent Square - were delighted to learn that the 45ha tract of land in the middle of the racecourse, an area covered by pristine, unspoilt fynbos, had been one of the three finalists in the International Association of Impact Assessment Awards.

The Kenilworth project was pipped to the post for the premier award by the mega Scorpion Zinc Mine in Namibia.

The Kenilworth project was "presented" by Anthony Wain to the IAIAA conference held in the Wilderness recently.

Wain is the senior partner of Planning Partners who have planned and supervised the landscaping and conservation aspects of the Kenilworth development.

He is also chairman of the Kenilworth Racecourse Environmental Advisory Committee which still controls the fynbos and wetland areas at the racecourse.

Every building owner at Kenilworth pays a monthly levy towards the upkeep and maintenance of these areas.

Wain said that Planning Partners had relied heavily on input from the course owners, Gold Circle, the Botanical Society of South Africa, the Environmental Wildlife Society, the Western Cape Board for Nature Conservation and, equally importantly, the developers.

All, he said, had proved remarkably co-operative and this had been one of the easiest developments on which to achieve a total consensus that the conservation be treated as a top priority.

Some of the main beneficiaries of the wetland preservation, added Wain, will be the various Red Data species recorded as thriving in the fynbos area.

One in particular, the Cape Microfrog, which is no bigger than a fingernail, had, said Wain, caught the public's imagination.

"The simple truth is that the racecourse precinct is a hot spot of biodiversity," said Wain, "and probably the best preserved fynbos area in the Greater Cape Town area.