Decision Making Climate Change and Biodiversity in South African Protected Areas

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Decision Making Climate Change and Biodiversity
in South African Protected Areas

• AIACC Regional Workshop Dakar

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Strategic Decision Making On A Broad Regional
ScaleThe Trend Towards Landscape Connectivity
Through Partnerships

• Protected areas urged to break with the island
  mentality
• Linkages in the landscape ecological, political,
  cultural, economic
• Landscape connectivity achieved through
  connectivity between stakeholders
• Breaking barriers and creating partnerships

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The impact of the trend towards connectivity
through partnerships

• Connectivity through partnerships is an
  appropriate strategy to
• Resolve conflict and mobilize political will
• Counteract biodiversity losses through habitat
  destruction and fragmentation
• Counteract biodiversity losses through climate
  change.

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Connectivity through partnerships, some important
developments

• New legislation in South Africa on protected
  areas and biodiversity conservation
• Replaces old fragmented legislation
• Facilitates cooperative governance between South
  Africas diverse array of conservation agencies
• Strengthens the possibility of partnerships to
  develop biodiversity-friendly land uses.

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Connectivity through partnerships, some important
developments

• Transboundary conservation areas promote new
  partnerships and landscape connectivity over
  large areas
• Ai-Ais Richtersveld (Namibia-South Africa)
• Kgalagadi (Botswana-South Africa)
• Great Limpopo (Mozambique-South Africa-Zimbabwe)
• Limpopo-Shashe (Botswana-South Africa-Zimbabwe)
• Maloti-Drakensberg (Lesotho-South Africa)
• Lubombo (Mozambique-South Africa)

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Decision Making On A Local ScaleDecisions on
individual protected areas, particular taxa

• Traditional mindset maintain species
  assemblages that were preset in historical times,
  eradicate invasive aliens.
• New mindset species that were historically
  perceived to be alien may need to be permitted,
  or even actively aided, to colonize.

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Difficult Decisions

• Many confounding factors on a local scale, the
  effects of climate change often difficult to
  distinguish from other factors.
• For example
• What is the cause of a population decline,
  habitat fragmentation through land use change,
  or climate change?
• What differentiates an alien invasion from a
  climate- induced range shift?
• The correct management response will seldom be
  unequivocal.

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Further difficulties

• Variable record of success in establishing
  populations in new habitat, problems being the
  small population problem and poor assessment of
  habitat suitability.
• Climate change threatens to reformulate species
  communities, making habitat suitability
  difficult to predict.

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Resolving dilemmas

• Requirement predictive understanding of
  responses of plants and animals to a changing
  climate.
• Research that clearly demonstrates the impact of
  climate change as distinct from other factors
  will be of great value.