Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan Handbook - bgis-sanbi

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FIGURE 4.2: Subcatchments required for meeting aquatic biodiversity targets. Figure 4.2 identifies the most efficient portfolio of planning units able to meet all the aquatic biodiversity targets. These planning units represent the most healthy subcatchments possible to meet aquatic targets. For sustainable water production as well as biodiversity conservation, it is critical that measures are taken to prevent degradation and where possible protect and restore these important catchments. By comparison, the Aquatic Biodiversity Assessment image, (as displayed on the MBCP Map [Lötter & Ferrar, 2006]) identifies the ‘irreplaceability value’ of each subcatchment. This refers to the likelihood of any subcatchment being required to meet M P U M A L A N G A aquatic biodiversity targets and indicates the options for meeting these targets. The most valuable catchments will always be Biodiversity required and this map serves to help prioritise conservation actions. CHAPTER 4 - BIODIVERSITY SPATIAL ASSESSMENT CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK 27 SPATIAL ASSESSMENT
MPUMALANGA BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK 28 Wild Dog Lycaon pictus Also known as the Cape hunting dog, this animal is both the most successful hunting carnivore and the most endangered carnivore in Africa. Only about 5 600 are estimated to survive in the wild. Most of these live in Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, northern Botswana and eastern Namibia. A few are still found in Zambia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Kruger Park. TERRESTRIAL ANALYSIS The terrestrial approach incorporates: Use of fine-scale planning units able to be used at provincial and local municipal scales; Selection of a wide range of species and ecosystem features to define biodiversity; Use of cost surfaces to create bias for meeting terrestrial biodiversity targets within important aquatic planning units (subcatchments); Avoiding areas of conflict or threats from other priority land uses. This combination of fine scale, large data sets, use of intelligent clumping of planning units and the integration of aquatic and terrestrial assessments, is also novel. PLANNING UNITS The accuracy and fine-scale mapping of biodiversity data has enabled the use of planning units that are small enough to be useful at the provincial and local municipal levels. A total of 65 000 hexagons were used as planning units, each 118 ha in size. Hexagons were chosen as they are well suited to Marxan’s ability to cluster planning units and to produce ecologically sensible patterns of related units. PROTECTED AREAS The protected area network layer was updated and mapped to show current levels of protection for terrestrial biodiversity features. These protected areas are discussed in more detail in Chapter 5 where both formal and informal protected areas are assessed. Only the formal protected areas, those managed and/or formally proclaimed as nature reserves, are included in the terrestrial analysis. Conservancies and Natural Heritage Sites are legally and administratively weak at present and were not considered as providing effective long-term protection due to their uncertain future. See Appendix 3 for an extended list of all protected areas in the Province. BIODIVERSITY FEATURES Terrestrial biodiversity data, or surrogates for biodiversity features, were captured in GIS and allocated to planning units. Data sources included the MTPA’s threatened species databases, expert biologists, NGOs (e.g. Highland Crane Working Group), and museum databases. Species were selected based on their conservation importance. This generally included all Red Data Listed or threatened taxa for which sufficiently precise locality data were available. Priority was given to local endemics and the MTPA responsibility for protecting these endemics is reflected in the biodiversity targets for these species. A complete list of species and their individual biodiversity targets is provided in the MBCP Technical Report. Table 4.2 lists the broad types and numbers of terrestrial biodiversity features used. All 340 terrestrial biodiversity features are also listed on the main MBCP Map. BIODIVERSITY TARGETS As previously mentioned, systematic biodiversity planning requires the setting of a target (e.g. a population size or area of habitat) for each biodiversity feature (e.g. species, ecosystem, community or process). The target indicates how much of the feature is needed for it to be conserved in the long term. The MBCP used the NSBA targets for vegetation types, except for forests. The NSBA targets M P U M A L A N G A are based on the species diversity within each vegetation type: higher species diversity Biodiversity corresponds to a higher target. For the vegetation types that occur in Mpumalanga, targets range from 19% to 28% of the original area of each vegetation type. Targets for forests are taken from the DWAF national systematic conservation plan for forests. These targets range from 59.5% to 71.7%. Species targets vary widely, up to 100% for Critically Endangered species localities. The terrestrial biodiversity features used in the analysis are summarised in Table 4.2. CONSERVATION PLAN HANDBOOK
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Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan Handbook - bgis-sanbi

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