Conservation planning in the Maputaland centre of endemism

Conservation land-use planning

This project aims to produce a conservation planning system for the Maputaland centre of endemism that incorporates data on landcover, species distributions, ecological processes, risk of transformation, risk of over-harvesting, land-use and land-ownership.

In addition, groups of stakeholders and other experts will develop abundance targets for each species, landcover type and ecosystem process to ensure that the conservation landscape is sufficient for the long-term protection of the region's biodiversity. This information will then be analysed using the CLUZ and Marxan conservation planning programs to identify different land-use options that would allow these targets to be met.

The system will be used to produce a broad conservation plan for the whole of Maputaland, allowing the identification of important sites and providing information on the general extent of the required conservation landscape. This plan will then be updated as new conservation and agricultural areas are developed and as data on the distribution of biodiversity in the region are improved and updated.

This system will also be used to investigate more fine-scale planning scenarios to inform individual conservation projects. These analyses will incorporate a range of socio-economic and social data but will also include the biodiversity targets that have been set for the whole region.

An initial guide for conservation planning

A new map has been produced that shows the preliminary results of a conservation planning exercise for the South African section of Maputaland. The analysis was based on conserving important vegetation types and maintaining connectivity between existing protected areas (PAs).

Local communities and private landowners are interested in developing eco-tourism and sustainable harvesting projects in the region and these initiatives could play an important role in further protecting biodiversity and linking the existing PAs. Areas shown in red and yellow were identified as the most important for conservation, making them the preferred locations for new biodiversity-friendly projects.

The final planning exercise will focus on the entire centre of endemism and will include more information on the biodiversity and people of the region.

Click here to download a copy of this map

NEW - Map used to conserve important habitats in South Africa

The preliminary conservation planning map described above was used by Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife to inform a process to identify locations for proposed Eucalyptus plantations in the north-east section of Maputaland, South Africa. Planting eucalyptus trees dries out neighbouring wetlands and pastures and damages important habitats. The information in the planning map identified key areas for conservation where new plantations would not be suitable.

Click here to download the press release that describes these results in more detail