Suchergebnisse

The National Biodiversity Assessment of 2011 found freshwater ecosystems to be highly threatened and poorly protected. However, a number of studies have shown that the National Wetland Map (NWM) Version 4 represents less than 54% of wetlands mapped at a fine scale. A more comprehensive South African Inventory of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems (SAIIAE) would greatly improve the assessment of wetland ecosystem types and their condition and conservation status, and is crucial for monitoring trends to inform decision making and planning. In preparation for the third National Biodiversity Assessment of 2018, a review was undertaken to identify possible data sources that could contribute to the SAIIAE. The objectives of the study were to (i) assess which type of information is available for developing a SAIIAE; and (ii) list and understand the availability of fine-scale wetland data for updating the NWM. A variety of data related to species occurrence and distribution, extent and type of inland wetlands and rivers, as well as datasets which describe regional settings of inland aquatic ecosystems, were found across a number of institutions. Fine-scale spatial data amounted to more than double the extent of inland wetlands mapped by remote sensing at a country-wide scale. Nearly 5 million ha of fine-scale data were collected from a diverse number of institutions, with the majority (73%) of these data mapped by Government (3 681 503 ha or 3% of South Africa). It is estimated that < 8% of the sub-quaternary catchments of South Africa had complete wetland data sets, primarily in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Western Cape Provinces. Accuracy assessment reports and confidence ratings were however not consistently available for the wetland datasets. Inland wetlands in the majority of South Africa (84%) therefore remain poorly represented. We recommend future steps to improve the SAIIAE, including improving the representation of inland wetland ecosystem types and focusing on accuracy assessment.

Strategic water source areas are those areas that have a relatively high natural runoff in the region of interest, which is made accessible for supporting the region's population or economy. These areas contribute substantially to development needs, often far away from the source. This disconnect between ecosystem service supply and use means that the social-ecological impacts of development decisions in these areas may not be obvious to users and decision makers. We identified 22 strategic water source areas in southern Africa linked to major urban centers. We quantified the population size and economy they support, and their current levels of protection. We found that strategic water source areas form only 8% of the land area but contribute 50% of the runoff. When linked to downstream urban centers, these areas support at least 51% of South Africa's population and 64% of its economy. Yet only 13% of their land area is formally protected. We recommend using multiple strategies for the legal protection of these areas. Identifying strategic water source areas and their links to downstream users offers an opportunity for achieving synergy in spatial planning across diverse policy sectors, and enables new patterns of collaboration between government, business and civil society.