Table of Contents - SRK Consulting

Limpopo West Mine: Biodiversity and Impact Assessment2.3. Faunal AssessmentDetailed faunal investigations to be undertaken within identified habitats. Themethodology includes:Desktop review of available information;Desktop review of applicable legislation;Establishment of sampling plots within the various habitat type. Recordingfaunal species within these sampling plots to include:o Trapping: Trap sites will be laid using array traps, pitfall traps andmammal (Sherman) traps;o Visual observations. This is performed by walking the area and notinghabitat types and the visual presence of animals or evidence of animals inthe form of faeces, pellets, spoor, nests, burrows, feathers etc;o Sweep netting with hand nets, for sampling invertebrates, throughout thestudy area;o Night investigations to record nocturnal animals such as frogs, bats,snakes, nocturnal birds and mammals etc.Identification of Areas of Concern based on species found that are ofconservation importance (in terms of national and provincial biodiversitypriorities) and that are ecologically sensitive; andIdentification, for the region, areas of sensitive or conservation worthybiodiversity that might be affected indirectly by the project.2.4. Wetland AssessmentWetland delineations and functional assessments were to be undertaken foridentified wetlands within the footprints of the proposed LWM. The methodologyincludes:Desktop review of available information; Desktop review of applicable legislation; Identification of wetlands prior to any field work (utilising 1: 50 000topographical maps and Google Earth TM images); Assessment of wetlands in terms of their ecosystem service (WET-EcoServices, Kotze et al., 2009). Should any floodplain or channeled valleybottom wetlands be present, the Wetland Index for determining habitatintegrity will also be used;The riparian vegetation associated with any wetlands identified to bedescribed in terms of structure, dominant plant composition and condition;Delineation of the riparian/wetland zone according to “DWAF, 2005a: Apractical field procedure for the identification and delineation of Wetland andRiparian areas”;On Site Pegging of the wetland and buffer have been excluded from thisproject; andWetlands identified to be mapped utilising the most recent Google Earth TMimagery and ArcGis v. 9.3 and in the projection required by the client.4