General South African Environmental Links
South Africa is home to one-sixth of the world’s marine species with the Indian Ocean on the east coast and the Atlantic on the west coast. The country has more species of wild animals than Europe and Asia put together and a vast variety of endemic and migratory birds.
The vision of the Department of Environmental Affairs is to create a prosperous and equitable society living in harmony with the environment.
Government leads protection of the environment by example. At regional level, the provincial conservation agencies are major role players, and independent statutory organisations such as South African National Parks(SANParks) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) are valuable partners in the country’s total conservation effort.
South Africa has taken several concrete steps to implement the United Nations’ Agenda 21 on Sustainable Development. These include reforming environmental policies, ratifying international agreements and participating in many global and regional sustainable-development initiatives.
Environmental heritage
South Africa has between 250 000 and a million species of organisms, many of which occur nowhere else in the world.
While South Africa occupies about 2% of the world’s land area, it is estimated that the country is home to 10% of the world’s plants and 7% of the reptiles, birds and mammals.
The southern African coast is home to almost 15% of known coastal marine species, providing a rich source of nutrition and supporting livelihoods of coastal communities.
In terms of the number of endemic species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, South Africa is ranked as the fifth-richest country in Africa and the 24th-richest in the world. It is one of only 17 countries that collectively contains two thirds of the world’s biodiversity.
The National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment [PDF] by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Sanbi revealed that 34% of South Africa’s ecosystems were threatened, with 5% critically endangered; while 82% of the 120 main rivers were threatened; and 44% critically endangered. Of the 13 groups of estuarine biodiversity, three were in critical danger and 12% of marine biozones were under serious threat.
South Africa’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan [PDF] aims to guide conservation and the management of biodiversity to ensure sustainable and equitable benefits for all communities.
The country’s three globally recognised biodiversity hotspots are:
- the Cape Floral Region, which falls entirely within South African boundaries
- the Succulent Karoo, which South Africa shares with Namibia
- Maputoland-Pondoland, which South Africa shares with Mozambique and Swaziland.
The coastline meets the Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans, which provide exceptional habitats ranging from cool water kelp forests to tropical coral reefs.
The Cape Floral Kingdom has the highest recorded species diversity for any similar-sized temperate or tropical region in the world. It is a world heritage site.
Biodiversity is protected and promoted through institutions and initiatives such as the:
- South African Biodiversity Facility
- South African Biosystematics Initiative
- South African Environmental Observation Network
- Biobank South Africa
- Sanbi.
Important dates
| World Wetlands Day | 2 February |
| National Water Week | 19 to 25 March |
| Earth Day | 20 March |
| World Water Day | 22 March |
| World Meteorological Day | 23 March |
| World Environment Day | 5 June |
| World Oceans Day | 8 June |
| World Desertification Day | 17 June |
| National Arbour Week | 1 to 7 September |
| International Day for the Protection of the Ozone Layer | 16 September |
| World Tourism Day | 27 September |
| World Habitat Day | 4 October |
| National Marine Day | 20 October |
Biomes
There are eight major terrestrial biomes, or habitat types, in South Africa. These biomes can, in turn, be divided into 70 veld types.
The biomes are the Savanna, Nama-Karoo, Succulent Karoo, Grassland, Fynbos, Forest, Thicket and Desert. The Fynbos Biome is one of only six floral kingdoms worldwide.
|
Conservation areas
There are a number of management categories of protected areas in South Africa, which conform to the accepted categories of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
South Africa has a long-term strategy to expand the conservation areas under formal protection from 6% to the international standard of 10% of the total area of the country. The Department of Environmental Affairs has developed mechanisms for the establishment and expansion of protected areas.
The department has committed significant financial resources towards the expansion of formal protected areas, bringing the number of national parks to 19, and the total formal conservation estate to four million hectares. Since 2004, the department has declared four new marine protected areas (MPAs), increasing the total coastline under protection to 20%.
Scientific reserves
These are sensitive, undisturbed areas managed for research, monitoring and maintenance of genetic sources. Access is limited. Examples are Marion Island and the Prince Edward islands near Antarctica.
|
Commercial and tourism-conservation development and the involvement of local communities are regarded as performance indicators. These areas include national parks, provincial parks, nature reserves and indigenous state forests proclaimed in terms of the National Environment Management: Protected Areas Act, 2003 [PDF].
South Africa is in the process of establishing transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) in cooperation with its neighbouring countries.
The conservation status of the areas within these TFCAs varies from national parks, private game reserves and communal natural-resource management areas to hunting concession areas. Though fences, highways, railway lines or other barriers separate the constituent areas, they are managed jointly for long-term sustainable use of natural resources.
TFCAs aim to facilitate and promote regional peace, cooperation and socio-economic development. The success of TFCAs depends on community involvement. In turn, TFCAs are likely to provide local communities with opportunities to generate revenue.
The National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Amendment Act, 2004 (Act 8 of 2004) [PDF] protects South Africa’s biosphere reserves, which are generally formed around existing core conservation areas.
Biosphere reserves include outstanding natural beauty and biological diversity, exist in partnership with a range of interested landowners and can incorporate development, as long as it is sustainable, while still protecting terrestrial or coastal ecosystems.
South Africa added a sixth biosphere reserve to its register when the Vhembe region of Limpopo became one of 22 newly proclaimed reserves by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). The 22 new biospheres, located in 17 countries, were added to Unesco’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves during the 21st session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme. The total stands at 553 sites in 107 countries.
The other biosphere reserves are:
- Kogelberg Reserve
- Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve
- Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve
- Waterberg Biosphere Reserve
- Kruger-to-Canyons Biosphere Reserve.
- Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve
|
Wetlands
Wetlands include a wide range of inland and coastal habitats – from mountain bogs, fens and midland marshes to swamp forests and estuaries, linked by green corridors of streambank wetlands.
By February 2010, about 115 000 wetlands covering over four million ha comprising close to 4% of the country’s total surface area were mapped in South Africa. These wetlands are part of the natural infrastructure for gathering, managing and delivering water for human use.
The Working for Wetlands Programme focuses on wetland restoration, while maximising employment creation, support for small, medium and micro-enterprises and skills transfer.
Many wetland plants have medicinal value. In South Africa, traditional medicine is the preferred primary healthcare choice for about 70% of the people. Wetlands provide some of the 19 500 tons of medicinal plant material, which are used by some 28 million South Africans every year.
Sanbi manages the Working for Wetlands Programme, with its offices based at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden. The National Inventory Project, the first systematic assessment of the extent of South Africa’s wetland resources, maps a total of 121 642 individual wetlands, which accounts for 7% of the country’s surface area. Working for Wetlands rehabilitated 91 wetlands, employed 1 710 people and provided 28 547 training days during the year.
|
Botanical gardens
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi) manages eight national botanical gardens in five of South Africa’s nine provinces. The gardens collectively attract over 1,25 million visitors a year, are signatories to the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation and founding members of the African Botanic Gardens Network.
The largest garden is Kirstenbosch, situated on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town.
The Pretoria National Botanical Garden houses the National Herbarium of South Africa, the largest in the southern hemisphere.
|
Marine protected areas
The MPAs are modelled on the success of the Isimangaliso Wetland Park– with strict zoning of both marine and coastal protected areas. The four MPAs are: Aliwal Shoal on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, the coastal and marine environment next to Pondoland in the Eastern Cape, Bird Island at Algoa Bay and the Cape Peninsula in the Western Cape.
Some of the protection measures implemented in the MPAs are restrictions for people who want to fish, as well as restrictions for stowing fishing gear when fishing from a vessel.
|