South Africa reaches halfway point to biodiversity targets to conserve 30% of its lands, waters and seas by 2030

South Africa is halfway to its goal of conserving at least 30% of its land, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030 — Goal 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The idea is to increase protected areas globally to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.

Despite progress made towards achieving the “30×30” target, South Africa still faces challenges in managing these protected areas, including human-wildlife conflict, invasive alien species, poaching and illegal wildlife trade, and climate change.

Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa said South Australia’s current coverage of protected areas was 16.75% — 20.4 million hectares, including designated protected areas and nature reserves.

South Africa is considered the third most diverse country in the world, home to species and ecosystems found nowhere else.

To increase protected areas, South Africa has adopted the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy. This strategy provides an informed, systematic approach to protecting area expansion, with an annual growth rate of 0.5%.

Mbelengwa said: “South Africa will achieve 28% for its land area and 10% for its sea area by 2036; with the ultimate goal of conserving up to 36% of the representation of all biomes in the country.”

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Report on the State of Protected and Conservation Areas in Southern and Eastern Africa concludes that South Africa is on track to achieve this.

Vhalinavho Khavhagali, IUCN South Africa Representative, said: “We see that South Africa is doing well in terms of conservation and we would like to see more biodiversity value for communities – value for ecotourism, biodiversity value for youth and women’s empowerment.”

Khavhagali said that if you look at both formal and informal protected areas, South Africa would have already achieved its 30×30 target. “We have enough protected areas that, in my opinion, can easily contribute to that provision of 30% of biodiversity in the country.”

According to Khavhagali, it is important that protected areas are managed effectively to enhance biodiversity and address regional problems.

“Ultimately, we need to bring the economic value and also the human value into these protected areas.

“There is a wide range of benefits that such ecosystems and the biodiversity sector provide. But when the pressure increases, we see the shrinking of resources – safe drinking water, food security, water security issues and human health. These are some of the issues, as well as the socio-economic values ​​of this particular biodiversity,” Khavhagali said.

Protected and Conservation Areas of South Africa

According to the latest IUCN report, South Africa has 1,669 protected areas covering 113,601 km2.2 of land (77,290 km2 with assessments of management effectiveness) and 239,050 km2 of oceans.

Since the first IUCN report Four years ago South Africa added many locations including:

• Three protected marine areas;
• 47 nature reserves;
• One national park (Meerkat in the Northern Cape);
• Eight protected environments;
• Four forest nature reserves;
• One game reserve;
• One protected area;
• Three Ramsar sites (Dassen Island Nature Reserve, Dyer Island Provincial Nature Reserve and Geyser Island);
• One World Heritage Site;
• One provincial nature reserve;
• One mountain reserve; and
• Seven botanical gardens and 10 buffer and transition zones of UNESCO man and biosphere reserves.

Since 82% of South Africa’s land is privately or communally owned, the establishment and declaration of protected areas is voluntary.

Read more: South Africa must maintain an equivalent of Kruger Park every year to meet UN targets

Of the 2.4 million hectares of new protected areas added since 2020, Mbelengwa said 73% was achieved through the biodiversity management programme – agreements with private and communal landowners to protect and manage land in priority biodiversity areas, under the leadership of conservation authorities.

The programme recognises landowners as custodians of biodiversity on their land and illustrates why it is important for surrounding communities to be involved and an integral part of the conservation decision-making process.

To achieve the 30×30 target and move from a baseline of 16.65% (20 million hectares) to 30%, the country needs an additional 16 million hectares of protected natural area. This amounts to 2.2 million hectares per year by 2030.

Mbelengwa said they had identified a number of approaches to contribute to achieving the target through formal proclamations.

Community Involvement

Khavhagali said: “If you create a protected area in the middle of Mpumalanga, you know that there are people living in Mpumalanga and they need to have access to resources like water, wood – all those basic necessities that they depend on.

“So by putting up a fence, you are just saying it is a no-go area. Then you create a conflict between people who need resources and protected areas, which they may not even have access to because of various issues,” he said.

According to Khavhagali, involving communities in the project is crucial, not only for expanding protected areas, but also for improving biodiversity management and co-ownership.

“They become the custodians of these natural resources. They have been for a long time, so they know how to manage this without even using a textbook or a manual. So we can really learn from them in terms of indigenous knowledge and sustainability,” Khavhagali said.

Communities in protected areas also benefited economically from tourism.

Read more: With nature and biodiversity under threat everywhere, bold ideas for conservation funding are needed

The marine environment

In the marine environment, the expansion of protected areas has increased by 5.4% (57,900 km2)2) to 30% in 2030 means an increase of 4.38% (67,293 km) is needed2) per year for six years.

The marine environment is a complex space with conflicting and competing uses. To achieve the targets, Mbelengwa said, areas with competing uses must be avoided.

“The process of identifying potential protection areas is informed by scientific data collection and monitoring (physical, chemical, biological and biodiversity measurements) by conducting routine measurements in both shallow and deep ocean waters within exclusive economic zones of the sea.

“This process is followed by extensive stakeholder consultations, which in most cases delays the proclamation of marine protected areas,” he said.

This was the experience during the proclamation of the Prince Edward Island Marine Protected Area, which took more than 10 years.

More potential marine conservation areas have been identified. Mbelengwa said preliminary stakeholder engagement had been conducted and would continue until the proclamation of these areas.

However, challenges remain, not only in expanding protected and conservation areas, but also in ensuring that these areas function properly.

Mbelengwa said: “Government expenditure is the largest contributor to financing the conservation mandate and over the years the financial scope has become more limited because conservation is not only a scientific management function but also labour intensive.”

According to the IUCN report, in South Africa, it is agriculture that is putting the greatest pressure on the country’s protected and conservation areas, followed by invasive species and finally residential and commercial developments. DM