North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report Final Draft For Comments (10th March 2009) Philip Desmet, Ray Schaller & Andrew Skowno Photo Anuschka Barac Report Title: North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report Date: 28 November 2008 Authors & contact details: Dr Phillip Desmet Independent contractor – Pretoria; Cell: 082 352 2955; Email: [email protected] Ray Schaller North West Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Environment – Mafikeng; Cell: 082 375 9934; Email: [email protected] Andrew Skowno ECOSOL GIS – Port Elizabeth; Cell: 082 774 4613; Email: [email protected] Client: North West Province Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Environment Principle funding agent: Province Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Environment (NW-DACE) Citation: Desmet, P., Schaller, R. and Skowno, A. (2008) North West Province Conservation Assessment Technical Report. North West Province Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Environment. Mafikeng. October 2008 (Unless otherwise quoted, intellectual property rights for the conceptual content of this report reside with the above authors) North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report 1 Acknowledgements The completion of this project would not have been possible without the help and support form numerous people. In particular we would like to thank: Tarina Boshoff, Adriaan van Straaten, Tammy Smith and Mikko Jokinen for their support on the project oversight committee. As well as the following for inputs and comments, and sometimes very hard work: Vincent Curruthers, Marissa Coetzee, Ernest Mokwa, Dries Bloem, Constant van Deventer, Erina Otto, Daan Buijs, Anuschka Barac, Gerhard van Dyk, Pieter Nel, Peter Leitner, Richard Newbery, Willen Boshoff, Renier Terblanche, Sarel Cilliers and Henk Bouwman The NW Province North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report 2 Table of Contents 5.7 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LAND-USE PLANNING................................... 58 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................2 6 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TAKING THE CONSERVATION TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................1 ASSESSMENT FORWARD................................................................... 61 1 SUMMARY....................................................................................5 6.1 PROVINCIAL BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN ....................... 61 2 BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION ...................................................8 6.2 BIODIVERSITY SECTOR PLAN ......................................................... 61 6.3 PROVINCIAL PROTECTED AREA DEVELOPMENT PLAN............................. 62 2.1 BACKGROUND ............................................................................. 8 6.4 DEVELOPMENT OF PROVINCIAL BIODIVERSITY INVENTORY AND INFORMATION 2.2 RELEVANT BIODIVERSITY ASSESSMENTS AND PROJECTS .......................... 8 MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ............................................................................. 62 2.3 BIODIVERSITY FEATURES ............................................................... 9 6.5 FINE-SCALE PLANS...................................................................... 63 2.3.1 Vegetation Types ................................................................. 9 6.6 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH AGRICULTURE ................................... 63 2.3.2 Expert Mapped Biodiversity Features...................................... 9 6.7 NW PROVINCIAL CONSERVATION ASSESSMENT V2 .............................. 63 2.3.3 Aquatic Features .................................................................16 2.3.3.1 Wetlands and Pans ................................................................ 16 7 REFERENCES ............................................................................. 64 2.3.3.2 Sub-Catchments .................................................................... 16 2.4 LAND COVER .............................................................................19 8 APPENDIX 1: GIS METHODS AND TECHNICAL NOTES.............. 66 2.5 LAND COVER CHANGE 1994-2006 ..................................................20 8.1 GENERAL ................................................................................. 66 2.6 TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM STATUS ...................................................25 8.2 VEGETATION............................................................................. 66 2.7 RIVER ECOSYSTEM STATUS............................................................26 8.3 LAND COVER ............................................................................. 66 2.8 THREATENED ECOSYSTEMS ............................................................32 8.4 HILL AND RIDGES....................................................................... 66 2.8.1 Why list ecosystems?...........................................................33 8.5 CORRIDORS.............................................................................. 66 2.8.2 How were listed ecosystems identified? .................................33 8.6 COST LAYERS............................................................................ 67 2.8.3 What are the implications of listing an ecosystem? .................34 8.6.1 National-Level Cost Surfaces................................................ 67 3 PROVINCIAL PROTECTED AREA NETWORK GAP ANALYSIS .... 35 8.6.2 Landscape Ecosystem Status (LES) and Critical Biodiversity Corridor Linkages ........................................................................... 70 3.1 PROTECTION LEVEL .....................................................................36 8.7 AQUATIC FEATURES .................................................................... 74 4 DRIVERS OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS ........................................... 38 8.7.1 Wetlands ........................................................................... 74 8.7.2 Pans.................................................................................. 74 5 CRITICAL BIODIVERSITY AREAS (CBAS)................................. 42 8.7.3 Priority sub catchments....................................................... 74 5.1 WHAT ARE CBA’S?......................................................................42 8.7.4 Wetland CBAs .................................................................... 75 5.2 WHAT IS ON THE CBA MAP?..........................................................47 8.8 ECOSYSTEM STATUS.................................................................... 75 5.3 PUTTING THE CBA MAP TOGETHER ..................................................48 8.9 PROTECTION LEVEL .................................................................... 75 5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE CBA MAP .......................................................49 8.10 SYSTEMATIC CONSERVATION ASSESSMENTS AND THE PROVINCIAL 5.5 DESCRIPTION OF CBA’S FOR THE NW PROVINCE .................................50 CLUZ/MARXAN OR IRREPLACEABILITY ASSESSMENT ...................................... 75 5.6 SUMMARY OF GIS SHAPEFILES ........................................................54 8.10.1 Systematic Conservation Planning Overview...................... 76 North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report 1 8.10.2 Systematic assessment goals............................................78 8.10.3 Planning Domain .............................................................78 8.10.4 Planning Units.................................................................79 8.10.5 Biodiversity Features and Targets .....................................80 8.10.6 Software.........................................................................81 8.10.7 Planning Unit Cost ...........................................................83 8.10.8 Calculating the Boundary Length Modifier ..........................84 9 APPENDIX 2: SUMMARY OF VEGETATION STATUS .................. 91 10 APPENDIX 3: THREATS WORKSHOP LIST OF PARTICIPANTS . 94 11 APPENDIX 4: SUMMARY OF NW PROVINCE LAND COVER STATISTICS ...................................................................................... 95 North West Province Biodiversity Conservation Assessment Technical Report 2 List of Tables coverage. Layers highlighted in pink were excluded from the final CBA map. Layers highlighted in yellow where kept as separate Table 4: A list of biodiversity experts initially identified as part of the layers and not included in the final CBA shapefile......................54 NW Province expert mapping process.......................................10 Table 14: A matrix of recommended land-use activities in relations to Table 1: The area covered by higher-level land cover classes in the NW the different CBA categegories for the NW Ptovince (adapted from Province. ................................................................................19 Ferrar & Lotter 2007). .............................................................59 Table 2: A summary of the proportional change in land cover Table 15: Thresholds in % of landscape transformed surrounding a site categories for the NW Province between 1994 and 2006. ..........20 used to classify the landscape ecosystem status (LES) of points in Table 3: A summary of the proportion of total provincial change in land the landscape. ........................................................................71 cover categories broken down per local municipality in the NW Table 16: Radii and area