Biodiversity Stewardship and adaptation to climate change
Background
Within the South African landscape, an environment needs to be created that will allow biodiversity features to adapt to a changing climate. The project aims to achieve this by securing core conservation areas, using the Biodiversity Stewardship mechanism and improving the conservation management of these sites. The Stewardship tool allows for landowners to maintain ownership of the land, provides landowners with much needed assistance in managing their land and creates sustainable livelihoods, while protecting the country's unique biodiversity against the threat of climate change.
Biodiversity Stewardship is an innovative conservation programme used to approach landowners who own or utilize land that is of critical importance for conservation. For years conservationists have struggled to find a balance between protecting threatened habitats/species and not negatively affecting landowners' ability to derive an income from their land. Stewardship is conservation's win-win solution that satisfies both the landowners' needs and that of the environment - maintaining ownership of the land, providing landowners with assistance in managing their land and creating sustainable livelihoods, while protecting the country's unique biodiversity.
This project is working with six sites throughout KwaZulu-Natal within the Maputaland Pondoland Biodiversity Hotspot. In these areas the Biodiversity Stewardship mechanism is being used to proclaim these sites as nature reserves, identify the specific management interventions required to improve their management and then support these initiatives (e.g. alien plan clearing, fire management, etc.). The sites currently being supported through the DG Murrat Trust funding and CAP include the Dalton Private Reserve, Red Desert Nature Reserve, Umgano Project, Somkhanda Game Reserve, Usuthu Gorge, Mweni (Upper Thukela) community project.
Biodiversity stewardship and climate change
The KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa is fortunate in having a rich diversity of plant and animal life. It is located in a region that has been identified as an important biodiversity hotspot by Conservation International. Many of these areas need to be protected if we are to meet our obligations of maintaining a representative sample of the diversity of life in our province, and to sustain the ecosystem functions that supplies critical ecosystem services to the people of the province. We can only do this by encouraging and ensuring wise use and management of the environment, by integrating these wise use principles into production sectors such as agriculture and other landuses to ensure that ecosystem services are maintained, and by mobilising and empowering land users, landowners and officials to become effective stewards of biodiversity.
Landowners of all types in these areas can play an important role in the conservation of our natural heritage, as it is a recognised fact that 80% of the land that has important biodiversity on it does not lie within formally protected areas, but is privately or communally owned land. A programme was therefore needed to secure these areas under some form of long-term biodiversity conservation management, whilst keeping people on the land in living, productive landscapes.
With its long history of conservation action in the province, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) has therefore launched a dedicated Biodiversity Stewardship Programme to assist landowners in the protection of natural land by offering a range of conservation options.
As the threat of climate change looms, the task of recovering South Africa's hotspots increasingly means preparing the way for species to adapt to changing conditions, i.e. the higher temperatures, drier conditions and more extreme weather events that are predicted for our country. The creation of a system of protected areas, networked through the landscape through corridors and linkages (often simply using appropriate management) will improve the ability of species to adapt, allowing long-term mitigation measures to take effect.
CAP stewardship initiatives
Funding from the D G Murray Trust through the Climate Action Partnership supports the piloting of 6 Stewardship initiatives that are (1) community based initiatives and (2) have the potential to provide significant Climate Change ADAPTATION value.
Key activities
In addition to securing these biodiversity stewardship corridors through relevant legislative frameworks, the programme develops and provides financial support for the implementation of a Management Plan for each initiative. Field rangers of these community-based initiatives are mentored by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife staff and additional experienced people employed for the task and are also trained to ensure improved biodiversity monitoring and patrolling in order to assist in understanding the role these areas play in climate change adaptation. Other key activites include alien plant clearing plans on each of the sites and the management of fire and livestock grazing to support improved grassland management on these sites.
Some of the aforemention sites include the:
1. Dalton Private Reserve - This property is 2400ha in extent,
situated upstream of Wagendrift dam on the Bushman's River in the KZN midlands. The value of the property in assisting species and habitats to adapt to climate change is in its location along an extensive altitudinal corridor identified by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, extending from the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park (World Heritage Site) situated at 3000m above sea level, through the foothills of the escarpment to the bushveld areas surrounding Weenen Game Reserve at around 800m above sea level.
2. Umgano Nature Reserve - This area is located at the interface of
two internationally recognized biodiversity hotspots (Drakensberg Alpine and the Maputaland-Pondoland Centres), which are characterized by high levels of species-richness and endemism. The Umgano Project is an initiative of the Mabandla Traditional Authority (MTA), for the furtherance of its business interests, to benefit the Mabandla people in terms of local employment and business opportunities. A significant area of their land is being proclaimed as the Umgano Nature Reserve, with improved management, which will significantly contribute to the achievement of a corridor between Nsikeni and Coleford Nature Reserves.
3. Red Desert Nature Reserve - This is a 200ha property of pristine
coastal grassland, situated in the Pondoland Centre of Plant Endemism of the Maputoland-Pondoland region on the KZN south coast. The KwaZulu-Natal coastline has unfortunately been extensively degraded through residential development, with the remaining areas forming islands of critically threatened biodiversity. The site is one of the last remaining corridors of natural grassland to the sea, while providing an important linkage to Umtanvuna Nature Reserve. In order to improve the long-term value of this property, an extensive alien plant eradication programme is required, again in combination with appropriate fire management.
4. Zululand Rhino Reserve - The Zululand Rhino Reserve covers more
than 20 000 hectares of Zululand Lowveld vegetation made up of 19 neighbouring properties whose owners have recently removed their internal fences in order to create a significant, barrier-free haven for endangered species, but particularly Black Rhino. As a result of this, 21 Black Rhino were released onto this property as part of a Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife / WWF-SA Black Rhino Expansion programme, placing populations of this species in private land in order to ensure that Black Rhino numbers increase as fast as possible in order to reduce the threat of extinction from possibilities such as increased poaching, drought, flood and disease. Therefore, the extensive nature of the Zululand Rhino Reserve has significant value in its contribution to the survival of a critically threat species such as the Black Rhino.
Research for adaptation
Although corridors are often described as the most obvious means to allow for adaptation of conservation worthy biota to climate change, little research has been designed to verify if this is the case. Further, although many biodiversity plans have incorporated notional corridors, these are often at inappropriate scales for action or not explicitly designed with climate change in mind. This research encompasses interrogating the layout of proposed corridors at different scales, basic monitoring of these corridors, and future directions for land management to allow for adaptation of biodiversity to climate change.
(See section 3.2 Research for more information on the Adaptation Assessment verifying the creation of these corridors or follow link below).
Download brochure on the Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife's Biodiversity Stewardship Programme
For more information contact:
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Biodiversity Stewardship Programme manager:
Kevin McCann
Tel: 033 – 845 1805
Email: mccannk@kznwildlife.com
