Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan Handbook - bgis-sanbi

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subcatchment planning units. This allows for specific consideration of water conservation issues in strategic planning. The MBCP provides a basis for better informed decisions in establishing and managing both existing and future protected areas. It presents clear priorities for locating as well as for scheduling conservation efforts. This is especially important for irreplaceable sites that are under pressure from potentially destructive development. For the first time it empowers biodiversity decision makers to be proactive rather than reactive, as they have had to be in the past. It also provides land-use and development planners with the same proactive capability. LAND-USE GUIDELINES The MBCP is accompanied by land-use planning guidelines to guide planning and development within each of the biodiversity conservation categories throughout the Province. In each category there are different landuse and development consequences. In time the guidelines need to be formalised as distinct ‘Codes of Best Practice’ and eventually as regulations to achieve sustainable development. The guidelines are arranged to address terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity issues, with the aquatic ones being split into those relating to rivers and to wetlands. As summarised in Table 6.1, the MBCP identifies 24.2% of the Province, outside of protected areas, that must be managed using biodiversity friendly forms of land use to ensure ‘living landscapes’ into the future. Protected areas account for a further 14.8%, including the southern Kruger NP at 10.4%. The remaining 61% of the Province allows for considerable freedom of choice for development, provided EIA procedures guide all development proposals. The MBCP suggests that ‘Irreplaceable’, ‘Highly Significant’ and ‘Important and Necessary’ areas should remain unaltered and be managed for biodiversity by various means. Other categories incorporate increasing options for different types of land use that should be decided by the application of EIA procedures and negotiation between stakeholders. A land-use suitability matrix presents these relationships at a glance in Table 6.2. The guidelines relate to 15 different types of land uses, ranked according to their impact on biodiversity: Rural land uses that are more or less biodiversity friendly 1. Conservation management 2. Extensive game farming 3. Extensive livestock production 4. Rural recreational development Rural land uses that have moderate to high impact on biodiversity 5. Rural (communal) settlement 6. Dryland crop cultivation 7. Intensive animal farming 8. Irrigated crop cultivation 9. Timber production Urban and industrial land uses that are not only destructive of biodiversity but export their negative impacts to rural areas 10. Urban & business development 11. Major development projects 12. Linear engineering structures 13. Water projects & transfers 14. Underground mining 15. Surface mining, dumping, dredging M P U M A L A N G A Biodiversity CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ix EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
MPUMALANGA BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK xxii The guidelines suggest restricting permissible land uses within each biodiversity conservation category as follows: Protected Areas Land use types 1 and 2 only permitted, type 3 allowed under restriction; Irreplaceable Areas Land use types 1 to 3 permitted, unavoidable developments require strict controls ; Highly Significant Areas Land use types 1 to 3 permitted, type 4 and unavoidable developments, as above; Important and Necessary Areas Land use types 1 to 3 recommended, types 4 and 5 allowed under restriction; Ecological Corridors Land use types 1 to 3 recommended, all other land uses permitted only under restriction; timber production (9) and urban development (10) not permitted in corridors; Areas of Least Concern All land uses permitted, although several require restrictions (see Table 6.2). The MBCP also identifies the 35.8% of the Province that has ‘No natural habitat remaining’ and which has very little biodiversity value. The general mechanism of applying these guidelines will rely substantially on reinforcing the use of EIA procedures and regulations by means of specialist biodiversity surveys by locally knowledgeable experts. M P U M A L A N G A Biodiversity CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK
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Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan Handbook - bgis-sanbi

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