Technical Report for the Mpumalanga Biodiversity Sector Plan – MBSP 2015
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Technical Report for the Mpumalanga Biodiversity Sector Plan – MBSP 2015 June 2015 Authored by: Mervyn C. Lötter Mpumalanga Tourism &Parks Agency Private bag X1088 Lydenburg, 1120 1 Citation: This document should be cited as: Lötter, M.C. 2015. Technical Report for the Mpumalanga Biodiversity Sector Plan – MBSP. Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency, Mbombela (Nelspruit). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many individuals and organisations that contributed towards the success of the MBSP. In particular we gratefully acknowledge the ArcGIS software grant from the ESRI Conservation Program. In addition the WWF-SA and SANBIs Grasslands Programme played an important role in supporting the development and financing parts of the MBSP. The development of the MBSP spatial priorities took a few years to complete with inputs from many different people and organisations. Some of these include: MTPA scientists, Amanda Driver, Byron Grant, Jeff Manuel, Mathieu Rouget, Jeanne Nel, Stephen Holness, Phil Desmet, Boyd Escott, Charles Hopkins, Tony de Castro, Domitilla Raimondo, Lize Von Staden, Warren McCleland, Duncan McKenzie, Natural Scientific Services (NSS), South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Strategic Environmental Focus (SESFA),Birdlife SA, Endangered Wildlife Trust, Graham Henning, Michael Samways, John Simaika, Gerhard Diedericks, Warwick Tarboton, Jeremy Dobson, Ian Engelbrecht, Geoff Lockwood, John Burrows, Barbara Turpin, Sharron Berruti, Craig Whittington-Jones, Willem Froneman, Peta Hardy, Ursula Franke, Louise Fourie, Avian Demography Unit, and GeoTerraImage Mandy Cadman and Richard Lechmere-Oertel are thanked for their thorough editorial support. 2 ABBREVIATIONS BGIS – Biodiversity-GIS website (http://bgis.sanbi.org/) BLM – Boundary Length Modifier CBA – Critical Biodiversity Area CR - Critically Endangered COGTA – Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs DARDLEA –Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs DEDET – Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism, now DARDLEA EN - Endangered ESA – Ecological Support Area EWT- Endangered Wildlife Trust FEPA – Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Area (identified through SBP) IAIA - International Association for Impact Assessment in South Africa MBCP – Mpumalanga Biodiversity Conservation Plan (completed in 2006) MBSP – Mpumalanga Biodiversity Sector Plan (completed in 2014) MTPA- Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency NBA – National Biodiversity Assessment 2011 NFEPA – National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas project NT - Near Threatened NSBA – National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (2004) PU – Planning Unit SBP – Systematic Biodiversity Planning SCP – Systematic Conservation Planning (generally called Systematic Biodiversity Planning within SA) SWSA – Strategic Water Source Area VU - Vulnerable WWF-SA – World Wide Fund for Nature – South Africa 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................................. 2 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Report overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Stakeholder engagement process ........................................................................................................................ 11 Climate change and connectivity .......................................................................................................................... 12 Climate change adaptation corridors ............................................................................................................... 13 Stepwise Development of Landscape- and Local-scale Corridors .................................................................... 14 THE MPUMALANGA BIODIVERSITY SECTOR PLAN TERRESTRIAL ASSESSMENT ................................................... 17 Step 1: Stated goals of the MBSP ......................................................................................................................... 18 Step 2: Data Collation ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Planning Domain .............................................................................................................................................. 18 Planning Units (PU) .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Land cover ........................................................................................................................................................ 20 Protected area coverage .................................................................................................................................. 21 Developing a cost surface ................................................................................................................................ 22 Developing a freshwater biodiversity cost surface ...................................................................................... 22 Developing the Climate Change Adaptation Cost Surface ........................................................................... 23 Competing land-uses ................................................................................................................................... 28 Integration into final competing land-use layer .......................................................................................... 32 Integration of three strategic cost rasters ................................................................................................... 32 Boundary length modifier values (as another cost that Marxan considers) .................................................... 33 Step 3: Determining coverage and BIODIVERSITY targets for all features INCLUDED WITHIN MARXAN ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................................................................................. 34 Biodiversity Pattern features ........................................................................................................................... 36 Vegetation types .......................................................................................................................................... 36 Wetlands ...................................................................................................................................................... 42 Species distributions .................................................................................................................................... 44 Modelled distributions ................................................................................................................................. 45 Animal species ............................................................................................................................................. 45 Plant species ................................................................................................................................................ 45 Ecological Process features .............................................................................................................................. 46 Ecological infrastructure features .................................................................................................................... 49 Climate Change Adaptation Features ............................................................................................................... 51 1. Areas important for landscape facet representation .............................................................................. 51 2. Climate Change Refugia ........................................................................................................................... 52 3. Climate Change Adaptation Features ...................................................................................................... 52 Step 4: Assessment of terrestrial biodiversity priority using Marxan................................................................... 54 Calibration of Marxan settings ......................................................................................................................... 55 Species Penalty Factors ................................................................................................................................ 55 Cost surface values ...................................................................................................................................... 55 Selecting a Boundary Length Modifier (BLM) Value .................................................................................... 55 Final Marxan settings ................................................................................................................................... 57 STEP 5: TRANSLATING the MARXAN OUTPUT INTO MAP CATEGORIES ............................................................... 57 Terminology ................................................................................................................................................