The document discusses threats to biodiversity in the Pondoland/Wild Coast region of South Africa, including invasive alien plants, unsustainable resource use, and proposed developments. It notes the region's importance as a center of plant endemism but that less than 3% is formally protected. While community protected areas could help, there is currently little government support for their establishment and management. Immediate actions are needed to stop biodiversity loss alongside long-term protected area solutions and rural development initiatives that support resource management and conservation.

1. Not so wild on the Wild Coast:
Landscape changes and threats to biodiversity :
are community PA’s a viable solution ?
Dr. Derek Berliner
Contemporary conservation practice conference
22-26 October 2012, Midmar dam KZN

2.  Importance of Pondoland/Wild Coast
 Threats
 Landscape change : forest, mangroves, grasslands,
woodlands, cultivated lands
 Can community protected areas make a difference ?
 Conclusions

3.  Pondoland Centre of Endemism
 Globally recognized by its inclusion within Conservation
International’s Maputo-Pondoland- Albany hotspot
 More than 2 253 plant species have been recorded, of which
10 % endemic, most occurring with a 15 km coastal belt.
 PCE one of smallest and most threatened
 80 % of South Africa’s remaining forests fall within this
hotspot. With more than 600 tree species, have the highest
tree diversity of any of the world’s temperate forests

4. Pondoland centre

5. CEPF priority
site
Pondoland
recognized as
‘priority
corridor region ‘

6. “ Plants, animals and landscapes are profoundly reflected in Xhosa
language , stories, poetry, rituals and healing practices that define
Xhosa culture…… in our modernizing world cultural diversity is
threatened by the loss of natural diversity and finding ways of
protecting the regions biodiversity and cultural diversity is of vital
importance “
Dold & Cocks (2012) Voices from the forest

7.  Low, with less than 3 % of the
Wild Coast project area falling
within formal protected areas.
 Existing reserves are poorly
managed, and mostly subjected to
same threats occurring outside of
reserves

8.  Despite low human infrastructural footprint, many
areas are currently suffering ongoing degradation.
 This threatens not only irreplaceable biodiversity , but
also the ‘livelihoods-safety net’ , and ‘cultural integrity ‘
of those reliant on the ecosystem services and
resources of the Wild Coast.
 The ‘myth of rural development ‘

9. Dune mining N2 toll road
Proposed dune mining Proposed N2 toll rd
areaarea
Others : timber plantations, maize and other biofuel crops,) damming of estuarine rivers

11. The Wild Coast SDF proposes five 1st order and fifteen 2nd
order development nodes , most fall within CBA’s !!

12. Direct causes of biodiversity loss
• Invasive alien plants
• Slash and burn land clearing
• Non sustainable harvesting of subsistence resource
• Illegal logging and bark harvesting , hunting
•Overgrazing/over burning

13. Socio-economic drivers of biodiversity loss and landscape change
• Population pressures and poverty
• Lack of implementation of any coherent environmental management
policies by Eastern Cape government
• Fragmented and multiple land management authorities
• Brake down in traditional farming and resource use control measures
• Erosion of traditional conservation ethics
• Conservation is perceived to be a ‘colonial construct’ used to control
resources.

14. •Lantana
•Chromoleana
•Inkberry
•Mauritius thorn
•Peanut butter cassia
About 10-30 %
cover
On exponential
increase (no IAP
plants recorded
25 years ago)

15. Alien plant landscapes: Nstubane

16. Loss Degradation Key causes
10-20% 25-30 % •Slash and burn
farming
•Invasive aliens
Invasive alien
plants rapidly
colonize fallow
cleared lands.
These areas
provide a foot-
hold for invasive
plants to spread
into surrounding
grasslands and
forest

21. All state forests :Pagela ,Mpame, Manubi forest all show heavy
degradation from invasive plants
(> 20 % Mauritius thorn)
Mpame forest: red lines are degradation from IAP, and
logging

22. Light green
patches, are
IAP, mostly
Mauritius
thorn

23. • No invasive alien plants in
1984 (today plots are covered
in IAP)
•About 60 % loss of forest
since 1939
• Most forest loss occurred
since 1984
•IAP on exponential increase

24. Changes in McKenzie plots since 1937 with most of the loss
occurring since 1982.

27. Shifting dune sands

29. Drivers of dune degradation Alien Plants Goats
(synergistic interactions)
Climate
change

30. 17 estuaries with
mangroves, three have
lost all mangroves and 5
have had significant loss
Prime causes : mangrove
flooding (climate change ,
change in flow regime)
and over harvesting

31. 2005 2012

34.  Hoare (2006) has shown that
Pondoland-Ugu Sandstone
Coastal Sourveld is 44 %
transformed
 Rather than 29%, derived
from the NLC (and used in
the SANBI, 2004
classification).
 This pushes it into the
endangered vegetation
category
 Significant with regard to N2
road toll EIA

35. O'Conner (1999) found between 17 and 35 % woody cover
increase between 1937 and 1986 for some commercial farms of
Eastern Cape (most occurred after 1962)
Similar trends observed for communal areas of Wild Coast

36. Landscape changes south of Manubi forest 1942 -1995
1942 1962
1995
Increase in woodland (since
1962), decrease in cultivated
land (since 1942) and some
forest expansion , occurring
between 1942 and 1995

37. The hills in the background were open grasslands in 1962. These areas have become invade by Acacia
karoo (south of Manubi forest)

38. Much of the Wild Coast is a dynamic balance between a mosaic of
grasslands , forest and woodlands. In the past this relationship
was stable and mediated by fires, rainfall and some land clearing.
Today, expanded populations, increased land abandonment ,
spread of invasive plants, excessive use of fires , and most
likely , climate change have disrupted this balance

41.  Manubi
 Pagela state forest (near coffee bay)
 Silaka expansion (Mt Thesinger , Mngazana corridor)
 Mkambati expansion (Tracor land, Mtentu , Lambasie)
 If proclaimed would meet targets of >10 % of area
under formal protection

42.  Currently a long time lag in getting PA proclaimed (+3 yrs)
 The chances of the successful establishment and ongoing
management of ‘community-based’ protected areas are
severely limited without strong support from of
government
 Currently, there is a near absence of active government
support and involvement for developing community
protected areas (at least in the Wild Coast).
 Lack of any government institute dedicated to the
development and support of CBNRM and co-management
structures. These are essential to the establishment
community based PA’s.

43. Concluding remarks
 Protected areas are a long term solutions, more immediate actions are needed to
stop biodiversity loss: landscape wide resource management linked to rural
development initiatives .
 Rural development should be more than just ‘ power lines and roads’, but needs
to include extension services that support improved resource management, eco-
farming and conservation.
 Communities should derive value from the conservation of biodiversity and from
protected areas.
 Protected areas can provide development opportunities for communities. In
many cases, some forms of commercial resource use may be compatible with the
goals of protected areas

44.  Making the case that the conservation of cultural
diversity is linked to bio - diversity
 Promote a bigger picture vision of conservation and
rural development by linking a network of small
community PA’s into a Wild Coast botanical and
cultural World Heritage Site
 It is not too late to “ save the Wild Coast” but time is
running out …..the shadows are getting long !

45. Thank you