Figure 1 - uploaded by Adriaan Grobler
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The location of the Cape Floristic Region biodiversity hotspot along the south-west and south coast of South Africa (Mittermeier et al. 2004).
Source publication
A recent conservation assessment of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) identified the Baakens River Valley as a priority site for conservation implementation. Despite the success of previous conservation planning initiatives in identifying conservation priorities at the bioregional and municipal level, they lack the fine-scale information r...
Citations
... Urbanisation and ineffective management have hindered positive conservation outcomes. Significant habitat transformation of both sites is attributed to: ineffective land use management in terms of inappropriate and illegal land uses, pollution, unsustainable (and illegal) harvesting and alien infestation; inadequate maintenance of old infrastructure, which has also been used beyond its original designed capacity; and increased impervious surfaces associated with urbanisation pressures (Collier, 2018;Griffiths, 2014;Grobler, 2012;Stewart et al., 2004). The lack of political and financial support reflects a limited understanding of the value of the ecosystem services provided by the natural open space system, in terms of city-wide benefits for present and future generations. ...
Systematic conservation planning is a scientific method of prioritising scarce resources to minimise the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. The approach aims to consider social, economic and political imperatives, and may be used by municipalities to designate their (predominantly) natural open space systems, in the form of a conservation plan. However, the multidimensional outcomes of implementing these conservation plans — in terms of both positive and negative ecological, social, and institutional dimensions — are rarely critically evaluated. We present a practical approach to assess the outcomes of implementing natural open space plans in urban areas, especially for the local (municipal) level where resource challenges may hinder assessment. The approach, drawn from comparisons of existing conservation assessment frameworks, considers the following outcome categories: ecological/natural; social/human; financial (institutional); and management (institutional). The approach is tested on a South African case study, and factors (challenges and opportunities) affecting the outcomes of implementing natural open space plans are identified. The results underscore how ecological outcomes are negatively affected by habitat transformation attributed to urbanisation and inappropriate land use management; and transgressions such as illegal, exploitive land uses. In respect of the social/human outcomes, collaborative partnerships with civil society, and the involvement of champions, are pivotal to implementation success. We found that financial and management institutional constraints contribute to inadequate investment in natural open space planning exacerbated by budget alignment to short and medium-term socio-economic and political priorities. The inter-dependence of the different outcomes emphasises the complexity of social-ecological systems and the need for a holistic assessment. Understanding the factors affecting the outcomes of implementing natural open space plans allows local government to respond to the emerging knowledge of changing ecological and socio-economic conditions, facilitating the institutionalisation of adaptive management approaches, which appreciate the intertwined nature of social-ecological systems. This can, in turn, enhance decision-making processes, and advance conservation outcomes, ecosystem resilience and resulting flows of ecosystem services provided by nature, which are essential for human well-being.
