Threatened ecosystems make up 10% of the country’s remaining natural habitat. (Photo by Hoberman Collection/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Few South Africans will have heard of the critically endangered Mossel Bay Shale Renosterveld fynbos and Egoli Granite grassland.
They are among the 120 of the 456 terrestrial ecosystems with a range of water and land species that have been assessed in South Africa and categorised as threatened. Together, they make up about 10% of the country’s remaining natural habitat. Fifty-five are critically endangered, 51 are endangered and 14 are vulnerable.
Last month, Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy published the Revised National List of Ecosystems that are Threatened and in Need of Protection in the Government Gazette.
These ecosystem types are in all provinces, but are concentrated in the fynbos biome of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal’s Indian Ocean coastal belt, the Albany Thicket biome of the Eastern Cape, the Highveld grasslands and Savanna biome, said the department.
The remaining natural extent of threatened terrestrial ecosystems has increased from 8% of the country to 10%, given ongoing habitat loss and threats from invasive species over the past 20 years, it said.
Supporting decision-making
Anyone wanting to undertake any activity in these listed ecosystems will require environmental authorisation to do so, the department said, explaining that the list is used to support decision-making and to inform bioregional planning.
The list was developed from 2016 to 2020 and incorporates the best available information on terrestrial ecosystem extent and condition, pressures and drivers of change.
It was substantially revised by Andrew Skowno and Maphale Monyeki, of the South African National Biodiversity Institute.
“I think the thing that stands out for me is that we have had this list since 2011 and it’s been proven to be quite a powerful tool for the environmental impact assessment [EIA] process and conservation planning,” Skowno said.
“The important thing is that after 10 years we’ve used new input data and we’ve aligned with the global framework for identifying these threatened ecosystems.”
Agriculture a big driver
Skowno said there are different pressures on ecosystems but the main one is the development of croplands for agriculture, while expanding human settlements and, to a lesser extent, plantation forestry are also resulting in habitat loss.
Mining is threatening the Alexander Bay coastal duneveld and the Namib seashore vegetation.
“As a driver of threatened ecosystems, mining isn’t as big as one would think but … where you do get mining pressure it’s very intense. In terms of pure area, it actually affects far fewer ecosystem types than agriculture does.”
Purposeful underestimate
The revised list is purposefully an underestimate because “we don’t know the full extent of our impacts from overgrazing yet; we don’t know the full extent from alien invasive species because we haven’t mapped it at a level of certainty that we can use yet”, said Skowno.
“But we’re busy with that so in the interim we don’t want to assign some of our mountains and some of those areas affected by overgrazing as being threatened because our certainty is too low.”
He said quite a few parts of South Africa are categorised as least concern, but this assessment is also in the process of being updated.
“We’re very happy with our list but we know that in some parts of the country, the list is underrating the threats,” he said, adding that money had been raised to improve the list.
Better practice
Skowno said the revised list is seen as one of the bigger, more effective tools in influencing environmental impact assessments towards better practice.
“What it does is it maps out the entire extent of that threatened ecosystem, the historical extent, so not just where it remains now but where it used to be as well. If you’re doing an EIA in that area, you have to, by law, use the online screening tool.
“That automatically generates a report of the things they need to watch out for and they need to report back on. And so if they’re doing a development in an area that’s got a threatened ecosystem they get notified, and so it gets much harder to ignore it.”
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