Southern Africa has 10% of all plant species in the world. We are therefore responsible for caring for a sizeable proportion of the Earth's plant wealth, even though this land surface is less than 1% of that of the globe. South Africa is also the only country to totally contain one of the world's six Floral Kingdoms - the Cape Floral Kingdom. One third of South Africa's plant species occurs in this Kingdom!

Our responsibilities towards conserving this rich diversity are thus immense. It is our duty to document and conserve our biological diversity. But 24 000 plant taxa are too many to cope with - the data simply do not exist. We need to simplify the task somewhat so that we can appraise how effectively we are looking after our biological diversity and what we still need to do to conserve it.

What then is conservation? Conservation is the wise use of our resources so that they will remain available for our use and enjoyment in the future. Conservation thus embraces any progress and development which increases human betterment, provided that we do not destroy our environment. We thus need to carefully ensure that urbanisation, agriculture and other land-uses do not lead to irreversible losses of our rich diversity. As a major consumer society, we place high demands on our natural landscapes for water. But few people realize that a demand for water exceeds far beyond a few dams: pipelines, filtration plants and huge water catchment areas (not to mention the sewage systems) are part of the environmental cost of turning on a tap. Similarly, flicking a switch has far more of an affect on our environment than a mere coal mine: water is needed for cooling, ash and smoke must be disposed of, thousands of kilometres of power lines and wires are needed. It is these hidden costs which insidiously destroy our environment. It is the undeniable right of any South African to have water, food and electricity! But it is also the undeniable responsibility of every South African to ensure that s/he uses these resources wisely. Therefore, the sources of our water, food and electricity must be carefully managed, in a way that equable access as well as distribution is achieved for the foreseeable future.

What are our natural resources?

For any intelligent tinkering, the first and most important step is to note what all the pieces are. When we know what we are working with and how it is put together, we can start figuring out how it works and how much we can use it before it breaks.

The "Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland" is part of the first step: a broad overview of our natural plant resources. We have chosen vegetation types - those units having similar vegetation structure, sharing important plant species, and having similar ecological processes. This means that we are looking at our biological resources from a perspective of wise management and potential use. It therefore differs from the older, and much used, Acocks' Veld Types, which were designed to look at our resources from a purely agricultural perspective. It will also differ from units defined by geologists, soil scientists, land-use planners and other interest groups, who may define vegetation units in terms of other criteria.

A brief summary of our biodiversity resources is provided in Table 1. Note that these are not evenly distributed throughout the region. Thus, Eastern Cape has the most biomes and vegetation types, Western Cape has the most plant species, Northern Province has the most mammal, reptile and bird species, and KwaZulu-Natal has the most amphibian species. However, even though it is important that all provinces manage their resources, a national and sub-regional (southern African) perspective and goals must also be determined. Thus if a particular vegetation type occurring in both the Free State and Lesotho is adequately conserved in the latter, then Free State can concentrate its conservation efforts in another of its vegetation types.

What do we need to conserve our biodiversity?

Conservation of our larger natural areas in South Africa is both a national (National Parks) and provincial (Nature Reserves) function. The map of the vegetation of the region coupled with this book provides us with the basic information on the "where" and "what" of each vegetation type - essential for each conservation agency in the country. This information is summarized in Table 2.

The Rio Convention proposes that we set aside at least 10% of each vegetation type for pristine or near-pristine use. The only pristine uses we have in South Africa are the nature reserves and conservation areas. It is important to note that many other uses are as good as "pristine". Thus game farming and cattle ranching in the Savannas and Grasslands can be sustainable as an agricultural enterprise and still conserve our plant

Table 1. Biodiversity values for the different provinces in South Africa. (Source DEA&T, Pretoria)

species. However, cattle ranching is not sustainable or compatible with conservation in the Cape Flora, and Fynbos Nature Reserves which try to sustain large mammals will destroy the plants. Conservation areas are thus not the entire picture of conservation in South Africa, but they give us a good window on which vegetation types require urgent action. More importantly, they tell us how far we are towards the target of making sure that we have good examples of each vegetation type set aside. This setting aside does not mean that the resource is unavailable. Some harvesting, recreation, tourism and enterprises are perfectly compatible with "pure" conservation. The problem is that when an entire vegetation type is converted to wheat, maize or sugarcane, we cannot some day recover what we once had, such as when these crops are no longer in demand and land is deserted or converted to other uses. We may, for example, want to restore land used for pine plantations because the natural vegetation gives better water yields for our cities. We will only do this if the water yielded will give a better profit than the timber grown or if greater yield is more socially expedient. In First World countries much land is being "returned to nature" as people move to the cities and agricultural improvements allow much higher yields from smaller pieces of land. The next major step is to find out how much of each vegetation type has been transformed. This includes land which has been degraded by overgrazing, or totally converted to some other use such as houses or sugarcane. We have summarized some available data in the accounts, but these are woefully incomplete. There is little point in setting aside more of a vegetation type with vast expanses in pristine condition, while ignoring the last patches of a type which is not yet conserved. Only when we know the threats to our biodiversity, can we prioritize our needs to look after it.

Finally, our formula for conservation in South Africa must ensure that natural areas become more accessible and useful to all South Africans, and that a policy of multiple, yet sustainable use, is followed. These sentiments are strongly endorsed in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (ANC, 1994).