The Gauteng Conservation Plan: Planning for biodiversity in a rapidly urbanising province

Abstract

Background: Gauteng, the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces, is rich in biodiversity; yet it is also the most densely populated province and thus faces significant development pressures.Objective: A project was therefore initiated in 2001 to identify areas of biodiversity importance in the province, using the systematic spatial biodiversity planning approach that has been adopted in South Africa. This article reports on the final version of the provincial conservation plan as completed in 2011.Method: Vegetation types and quaternary catchments constituted the coarse filter biodiversity features, while rare and threatened taxa constituted the fine filter features. Ecological processes were captured by a range of landscape features, while planning for climate change primarily involved the design of a corridor network. Planning was undertaken within the ArcView linked C-plan decision support system, where a cost surface preferentially directed the selection of available sites towards low-cost areas.Results: Forty-four per cent of the province is required to achieve targets. Only 8% of features are close to having their targets met or are adequately conserved in the current protected area network of 23 protected areas covering 2.4% of the province, while 73% of features are absent or poorly represented.Conclusion: The existing protected area network is inadequate for the conservation of biodiversity in Gauteng. The Gauteng Conservation Plan identifies a set of areas that are required to achieve conservation targets. It is important that identified areas currently not in the protected area network are protected either formally or through legislated land use management processes.

An Exploratory Case-Study Approach to Understand Multifunctionality in Urban Green Infrastructure Planning in a South African Context

“…The Global South is characterized by a much higher native biodiversity than the Global North and therefore urban planning in the Gobal South needs to be more vigilant to protect sensitive ecosystems and populations of species (Shackleton et al, 2021, p. 15). Many South African municipalities fail to plan for fragmented natural areas, but others have included these spaces given their location in biodiversity hot spots (Durban) (Boon et al, 2016;McLean et al, 2016) or as part of systematic conservation plans (Johannesburg and Pretoria) (Pfab et al, 2017).…”

A Decision Support Tool for Green Infrastructure Planning in the Face of Rapid Urbanization

“…Tshwane metropolitan area (Figure 1) encapsulates the city of Pretoria, which is the administrative headquarters of the Republic of South Africa. It is located in the northern part of Gauteng province, the most densely populated province [43], and the largest single municipality in the country, covering an area of 629,618 ha. Administratively, it is divided into seven regions and 104 districts called "wards".…”

“…The first, the Gauteng C-Plan, is a biodiversity assessment mapping tool which provides information on assessed critical biodiversity areas. The C-Plan is used by local and regional planning departments to determine where nature reserves should be proclaimed, and whether proposed developments fall within Critical Biodiversity Areas (core habitats abbreviated as CBA), or Ecological Support Areas (ESAs) [43]. CBAs are determined by assessing the relative quality and intactness of habitat remnants, the presence of red-listed species, and the extent that the vegetation type remains in its natural state at national scale.…”

“…Irreplaceable Area, or (3.) Acknowledging if it is already a formally Protected Area [43]. The other existing green-infrastructure relevant decision support tool is the City of Tshwane Climate Risk & Vulnerability Assessment (CRVA).…”