NFEPA Atlas 5.3_20111025_FINAL.indd - Biodiversity GIS - SANBI

1.6 Biodiversity planning at different scalesBiodiversity planning can be done at a range of spatial scales from broad globalassessments, to regional, national, catchment and sub-catchment assessments (Figure1.5). The most appropriate scale depends on the types of questions that need to beaddressed and how the resulting maps are to be used. The spatial scale at which planningis undertaken should determine the resolution of the input data, such as the detail of theriver network used and the resolution of the data used to classify freshwater ecosystemsand their ecological condition. The finer the scale of interest, the finer the resolution ofdata required. Importantly, finer scale planning is not necessarily required across theentire landscape; with limited resources it makes sense to focus fine-scale planninginitiatives on priority areas that have been identified in a broader scale systematicbiodiversity plan such as NFEPA. This results in a nested system of broad-scale and finescaleplans.NFEPA provides a national assessmentthat is at a fine enough scale to be usedmeaningfully in Water Management Areasand provinces, identifying priorities at subquaternarycatchment scale.FEPAs have been identified at the sub-quaternary catchment scale (Figure 1.6).Sub-quaternary catchments are watersheds that are approximately nested in theDepartment of Water Affairs quaternary catchments (Midgley et al. 1994). Thewatershed of a sub-quaternary catchment is delineated around each river reach,where a river reach is defined as the portion of river between river confluences onthe Department of Water Affairs 1:500 000 river network GIS layer. The maps of FEPAs(Part 2 of this atlas) are at a resolution suitable for planning at the level of a WaterManagement Area, for processes such as catchment visioning, water use scenarioplanning and water resource classification.Each FEPA needs a management plan that identifies the key wetland and river habitatsfor which it was selected, delineates management buffers around these, and addressesspecific pressures that may impact on its conservation. In some instances it may besensible to develop management plans for groups of FEPAs, Fish Support Areas andUpstream Management Areas. A look-up table is provided on the accompanying DVDthat lists the ecosystem types, species, biophysical processes and special featuresrecorded within each river FEPA and Fish Support Area, according to unique subquaternarycatchment codes as shown in Part 2 of this atlas.FEPAs have also been summarised to a coarser level of resolution, providing mapsof the density of Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas per Water ManagementArea (Section 3.1) and sub-Water Management Area (Section 3.2). These maps areintended to initiate a dialogue on policy mechanisms that are needed to support theimplementation of national freshwater ecosystem goals, recognising that responsibilityfor achieving these is spread unevenly across the country.Figure 1.5: Planning for freshwater ecosystem conservation and managementshould take place at a hierarchy of spatial scales. Broad-scaleplans inform the focus of finer levels of biodiversity planning andmanagement, from identifying the relative importance of large primarycatchments all the way through to managing priority river reaches andtheir component priority habitats such as pools and riffles.Wilma StrydomAt a finer scale of planning, FEPAs and Fish Support Areas can be used as the basis foridentifying Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecological Support Areas used in provincialbiodiversity plans and bioregional plans. These plans integrate priority areas for freshwaterecosystems with those for terrestrial ecosystems. Critical Biodiversity Areas are similar toFEPAs and need to remain in a natural or near-natural condition to conserve biodiversityand ecological functioning. Ecological Support Areas are similar to Fish Support Areas andUpstream Management Areas, and need to be managed to prevent degradation of CriticalBiodiversity Areas. Using FEPA maps as a basis for identifying Critical Biodiversity Areas andEcological Support Areas requires, at a minimum, setting a rule for generating variablewidthbuffers around FEPAs, and assigning Ecological Support Areas to the smaller streamnetwork within sub-quaternary catchments containing river FEPAs (using the 1:50 000 riverGIS layer). For recommendations on how to accomplish this, the reader is referred to theNFEPA technical report available on the NFEPA DVD or on SANBI’s Biodiversity GIS website(http://bgis.sanbi.org).Provincial biodiversity plans and district-levelbioregional plans integrate priority areasfor freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.FEPA maps will feed into the identificationof Critical Biodiversity Areas and EcologicalSupport Areas in these plans.Figure 1.6: Quaternary catchments of South Africa were split into subquaternarycatchments using the Water Affairs 1:500 000 rivernetwork. Sub-quaternary catchments are on average six timessmaller than quaternary catchments.Introduction - 10 -