South Africa’s Red List of Terrestrial Ecosystems (RLEs)

Skowno, Andrew; Monyeki, Maphale Stella

doi:10.3390/land10101048

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…More broadly, planning instruments that identify critical biodiversity areas, including those that make irreplaceable contributions to conservation targets for red‐listed ecosystems beyond the formal protected area network, have proven effective in reducing risks of loss through irreversible land‐use changes (von Staden et al., 2022). Many of these planning activities leverage ecosystem spatial data used in red‐list assessments (Table 1), which are continually updated and improved since the first national assessment in 2004 (Skowno & Monyeki, 2021).…”

Section: Systematic Rle Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2019, a 3‐year process to reassess ecosystems across all realms was completed (Botts et al., 2020; Skowno et al, 2019). The methods of assessment generally followed the RLE framework, but full alignment was only achieved for the terrestrial realm (Figure 4) (Skowno & Monyeki, 2021). Almost half of the 1021 ecosystem types assessed across terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine realms were categorized as threatened (Skowno et al., 2019).…”

Section: Systematic Rle Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributions of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to risk‐based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Keith,

Ghoraba,

Kaly

et al. 2024

Conservation Biology

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Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs) are key ecosystem management tools for conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services and social co‐benefits. As countries adopt a 30% target for protection of land and sea under the Global Biodiversity Framework of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a critical question emerging is, “which 30%?”. One approach to an answer is risk‐based: we should protect the 30% that returns the greatest reductions in risks of species extinction and ecosystem collapse. IUCN Red List protocols provide practical methods for assessing these risks. All species, including humans, depend on the integrity of ecosystems for their well‐being and survival. Africa is strategically important for ecosystem management due to convergence of high ecosystem diversity, intense pressures and high levels of human dependency on nature. We reviewed the outcomes of a symposium at the inaugural African Protected Areas Congress convened to discuss applications of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to the design and management of PCAs. We found significant recent progress in red listing, with 920 ecosystem types assessed across 21 countries. While these span a diversity of environments across the continent, the greatest thematic gaps are in freshwater, marine and subterranean realms and large geographic gaps exist in north Africa and parts of west and east Africa. The projects are implemented by a diverse community of government agencies, NGOs and researchers. Already, they are having impact on policy and management, informing extensions to, and management of formal Protected Area networks, supporting decision making for sustainable development and informing ecosystem conservation and threat abatement, both within boundaries of PCAs and in surrounding landscapes and seascapes. We recommend further integration of risk assessments into environmental policy and enhanced investment in ecosystem red listing to fill current gaps.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

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Section: Systematic Rle Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Systematic Rle Assessmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to risk‐based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Keith,

Ghoraba,

Kaly

et al. 2024

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In 2019 a three-year process to reassess ecosystems across all realms was completed (Skowno et al, 2019;Botts et al 2020). The methods of assessment generally followed the RLE framework but full alignment was only achieved for the terrestrial realm (Skowno & Monyeki 2021). Almost half of the 1021 ecosystem types assessed across terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine realms, were categorised as threatened (Skowno et al 2019).…”

Section: South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More broadly, planning instruments that identify Critical Biodiversity Areas, including those that make irreplaceable contributions conservation targets for Red-listed ecosystems beyond the formal Protected Area network, have proven effective in reducing risks of loss through irreversible land use changes (von Staden et al 2022). Many of these planning activities leverage ecosystem spatial data used in Red List assessments, which are continually updated and improved since the first national assessment in 2004 (Skowno & Monyeki 2021).…”

Section: South Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions of Red Lists of Ecosystems to risk-based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Keith¹,

Ghoraba²,

Kaly³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs) are key ecosystem management tools for conserving biodiversity and sustaining ecosystem services and social co-benefits. As countries converge on a 30% target for protection of land and sea under the post-2020 framework of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, a critical question emerging is, “which 30%?”. One approach to an answer is risk-based: we should protect the 30% that returns the greatest reductions in risks of species extinction and ecosystem collapse. IUCN Red List protocols provide practical methods for assessing these risks. All species, including humans, depend on the integrity of ecosystems for their well-being and survival. Africa is strategically important for ecosystem management due to convergence of high ecosystem diversity, intense pressures and high levels of human dependency on nature. We reviewed the outcomes of a symposium at the inaugural African Protected Areas Congress convened to discuss applications of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to the design and management of PCAs. We found significant recent progress in red listing, with c. 1000 ecosystem types assessed across 21 countries. While these span a diversity of environments across the continent, the greatest thematic gaps are in freshwater, marine and subterranean realms and large geographic gaps exist in north Africa and parts of west and east Africa. The projects are implemented by a diverse community of government agencies, NGOs and researchers. Already, they are having impact on policy and management, informing extensions to formal Protected Area networks, supporting decision making for sustainable development and informing ecosystem conservation and threat abatement, both within boundaries of PCAs and in surrounding landscapes and seascapes. We recommend further integration of risk assessments into environmental policy and enhanced investment in ecosystem red listing to fill current gaps.

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“…The National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) of South Africa is an iterative body of work that collates and summarizes biodiversity information for both national and global reporting requirements, and informs local to national policies that influence, or are influenced by, biodiversity considerations (Reyers and McGeoch, 2007;Skowno et al, 2019). Many of the components of the NBA are used in systematic conservation planning, which has a clear statutory influence on land and sea use decision making and strategic planning in South Africa Botts et al, 2020;Skowno and Monyeki, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Taking state of biodiversity reporting into the information age – A South African perspective

Poole

Skowno²,

Currie³

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

Self Cite

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South Africa’s National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) is the primary tool for monitoring and reporting on the state of biodiversity, with a focus on spatial information and key indicators. The NBA distills information that informs policies and strategies, meets national and international reporting requirements, and helps prioritize limited resources for managing and conserving biodiversity. The three previous versions of the NBA (2004, 2011 and 2018) are in the form of detailed thematic technical reports and a synthesis report, served on a simple, static web page. Selected spatial products from the report are available via a dedicated web platform (http://nba.sanbi.org.za/). While all methods and data are clearly described in the technical reports, most of the underlying analyses are inaccessible, lacking reproducibility and transparency. This makes iterative updates to indicators or metrics challenging and inefficient, complicates version control, and exacerbates the risk of capacity, knowledge and data loss during staff turnover. To move the assessment process into the information age we aim to develop well documented and reproducible workflows, and to serve the indicators and their accompanying synthesis on an interactive web platform that facilitates uptake. Achieving these aims will deliver efficiency, greater transparency and trust in future NBA products and will strengthen communication and engagement with the content by the many different users of those products. While these visions will not be realized overnight, the skills and systems required to achieve them can be adaptively built towards an improved NBA that better serves the needs of our society.

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South Africa’s Red List of Terrestrial Ecosystems (RLEs)

Cited by 8 publications

References 19 publications

Contributions of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to risk‐based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Contributions of the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems to risk‐based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Contributions of Red Lists of Ecosystems to risk-based design and management of protected and conserved areas in Africa

Taking state of biodiversity reporting into the information age – A South African perspective

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