State of the Environment - South Africa:Terrestrial Ecosystems: State part 3


National State of the Environment Report - South Africa
Main Issues:	Climate	Terrestrial	Water	Marine	Social	Economic	Political	Home page

This part of the report contains the following sub-sections:
Overview	Introduction	Driving forces	Pressure	State	Impact	Response
Outcome	Linkages	Data issues	Conclusions	References	Indicators	Links

State of terrestrial ecosystems: # 3

The state of terrestrial ecosystems are described under the following headings:
Current land use	Current land condition	Pollution and waste	Current status of biodiversity

Current Status of Biodiversity:

Figure 2.12 Floristic hot spots

South Africa has an immensely rich vascular plant diversity. In particular, the southern and western Cape regions, which contain the Succulent Karoo and Fynbos "hotspots". A recent analysis has identified seven regional biodiversity "hotspots" in southern Africa see Figure 2.12. Areas of natural ecosystems conserved in reserves throughout the country are skewed towards savanna systems and montane regions (Table 2.2, Macdonald 1989 and Figure 2.13). Apart from the poor conservation status of the Succulent Karoo and Lowland Fynbos vegetation types (less than 3% conserved (Rebelo 1997, Cowling & Hilton-Taylor 1994)), a high proportion of the terrestrial vertebrate fauna and the flora of South Africa is preserved in nature reserves in the form of breeding populations (Table 2.3, Siegfried 1989). There are 582 protected areas in South Africa (160 private reserves and 422 areas under national, provincial or local authorities). The 422 formally protected areas constitute some 6% of the land surface area. Although the extent to which viable populations are conserved in such areas is not known, about 74% of plant, 92% of amphibian and reptile, 97% of bird, and 93% of mammal species of South Africa are estimated to be represented. This is surprising, given that the national reserve network has developed without this achievement as an objective. In some instances public reserves were created by displacing human communities. This has alienated many South African citizens from the concept of conservation, and continues to threaten the credibility of the conservation effort.

Table 2.2 Conserved area and number of Red data book taxa in southern African hot-spots. From Cowling & Hilton-Taylor (1994).

Red data book taxa Hot-spot	Area conserved (%)	Extinct	Other
Wolkberg	13.3	0	32
Maputaland	10.0	?	?
Eastern Mountain	5.5	0	27
Pondoland	7.0	0	33
Albany	6.5	1	51
Succulent Karoo	2.0	18	978
Cape: lowlands mountains	3.0 50.0	29	1406
Kaokoveld (Namibia)	7.0	?	?

For the Cape hot-spot, the numbers of Red data book taxa given are for the whole region; separate figures for the lowlands and for the mountains are not available.
Sources: Davis & Heywood (1994); Everard (1988); Matthews et al. (1993); C. Hilton-Taylor (unpublished data).

Table 2.3 The percentage number and area of 582 public and privately owned nature reserves in relation to biomes in southern Africa. From Siegfried (1989).

Biome	Percentage no of reserves	Southern African area reserved (%)	Biome area (ha)	Biome area reserved (%)
Fynbos	22,85	24,24	6 987 500	26,26
Forest	4,81	3,29	309 000	77,36
Nama-Karoo	4,64	3,96	34 610 700	0,83
Succulent Karoo	1,89	0,89	8 190 800	0,79
Grassland	24,40	9,57	34 536 100	2,00
Moist Savanna	24,05	8,69	12 669 100	4,99
Arid Savanna	17,35	49,36	29 617 700	12,11
Total	100,00	100,00	126 942 800

The percentages of endemic and threatened species in South Africa, are given in the Table 2.4 below.

Table 2.4. Numbers of threatened and endemic species in South Africa.

Taxon	Total number of species in South Africa	% which are threatened	% which are endemic
Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Freshwater fish Invertebrates	247 790 299 95 94 23 000	10.12 2.03 12.04 16.84 36.17 4.14	10.93 0.89 27.09 37.89 - -

Source:
World Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1994. Biodiversity Data Source book.
WCMC Biodiversity Series No. 1. World Conservation Press, Cambridge, UK.

Table 2.5 Actual and Potential Plant Biodiversity Loss

Numbers of Threatened Taxa	1980	1995
Extinct	39	56
Endangered	104	241
Vulnerable	165	422
Rare	521	1322
Indeterminate	259	378
Insufficiently known	805	849
Total threatened taxa	1893	3268

Source: C. Hilton-Taylor 1996.

It should be noted that the statistics on extinction are likely to be under-estimates and the extinction rates are orders of magnitude higher than expected background rates.

Currently there are 62 South African plant taxa that have become globally extinct. Ten can be attributed to ploughing for crops, three to grazing, two to afforestation and at least 18 to urban expansion. Some 48 taxa are classed as Indeterminate, their extinction status being currently uncertain or unverified.

> Terrestrial Ecosystems: Impacts #1

There is also information about Terrestrial Ecosystems in the following reports:
Metropolitan reports:
	Cape Metropolitan Council (1998 edition)	Durban Pilot Study
	Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (1999 edition)	Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council (1999 edition)