Browsing by Author "von Staden, Lize"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 24
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Between a fence and a hard place: What does it mean to conserve a mammal species?
    (2019-01) Child, Matthew; Page-Nicholson, Samantha; Variawa, Tasneem; von Staden, Lize; Raimondo, Domitilla; Roxburgh, Lizanne
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Building a Multidimensional Biodiversity Index: South Africa Country Report
    (2024-10-01) von Staden , Lize; Khatieb, Sediqa; Skowno, Andrew
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    CREW News, Volume 6
    (2010-03) Ebrahim, Ismail; Johnson, Isabel; Parbhoo, Suvarna; Johnson, Sally; McGibbon, Lorraine; Turpin, Barbara; von Staden, Lize; Swan, Sue; Young, Alison; Grant, Christeen; Mathias, Ruth; Logie, Caryl; Naude, Janet; McMaster, Cameron; Flora, Cameron; Fraser, Patric; Kahle, Margeret; Marias, Karen; Preston, Helene; Klassens, Koos; Koelle, Bettina; Estholene, Moses; Kotze, Donna; Lalla, Reshnee; Turner, Di; Raimondo, Domitilla
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    CREW News, Volume 9
    (2013-04) Parbhoo, Suvarna; Ebrahim, Ismail; von Staden, Lize; Abubakar, Bello; Zikishe, Vatiswa; Raimondo, Domitilla; Johnson, Isabel; Marsh, Alex; Reshnee, Lella; Kotze, Donna; Moses, Estholene; Koelle, Bettina; Claasens, Koos; Preston, Heleen; Stummer, Hedi; Wolmarans, Cecilia; Crous, Hildegard; Turner, Di; Logie, Caryl; McMaster, Cameron; Louw, Merika; Abbott, Andrea; Young, Alison; Braby, Julie; Rennie, Anne; Clulow, David; Scutte, Vic; Lotter, Mervyn; Burrows, John; Egan, Bronwyn; Rabaney, Ziatoon
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Including species data in a land use screening tool
    (2017-06-22)
    The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is currently developing an online screening tool to support the decision-making process for general land-use change applications. DEA has requested that SANBI develop the biodiversity spatial layers and linked protocols to ensure that sensitive biodiversity is appropriately flagged in both the application as well as the decision making phase. The layer of Critical Biodiversity Area’s and Ecological Support Areas available at national level (a composite from all the nine provinces) do not uniformly include the areas required to support populations of threatened species. This is due to the varying age of spatial biodiversity plans conducted by the provinces, good species data have only been available since 2015. SANBI’s Threatened Species Programme is thus developing taxon specific layers to be used in the screening tool. This presentation will present the different tiers of sensitivity for species being recommended for the tool and the suggested linked protocol requirements.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Including species data in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Tool
    (2018-06-20)
    The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is currently developing an online screening tool to support the decision-making process for general land-use change applications. DEA has requested that SANBI develop the biodiversity spatial layers and linked protocols to ensure that sensitive biodiversity is appropriately flagged in both the application as well as the decision making phase. The layer of Critical Biodiversity Area’s and Ecological Support Areas available at national level (a composite from all the nine provinces) do not uniformly include the areas required to support populations of threatened species. This is due to the varying age of spatial biodiversity plans conducted by the provinces, good species data have only been available since 2015. SANBI’s Threatened Species Programme is thus developing taxon specific layers to be used in the screening tool. This presentation will present the different tiers of sensitivity for species being recommended for the tool and the suggested linked protocol requirements.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Key Biodiversity Areas of South Africa - Infosheets per KBA
    (2025-03-05) Von Staden, Lize; Streicher, Jarryd; Botts, Emily
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Make global biodiversity information useful to national decision-makers
    (2023-10-06) Buschke, Falko; Capitani, Claudia; Sow, El Hadji; Khaemba, Yvonne; Kaplin, Beth; Chiawo, David; Hirsch, Tom; Ellwood, Elizabeth; Clements, Hayley; Huber, Patrick; Hagenimana, Thacien; Killion, Alexander; Mindje, Mapendo; Kudzai, Shaun Mpakairi; Raymond, Melianie; Matlombe, Domingas; Mbeya, Dickson; von Hase, Amrei
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Making the mammal protection level indicator meaningful for planning and policy
    (2018-06-21) Page-Nicholson, Samantha; Roxburgh, Lizanne
    Protected areas remain the cornerstone of conservation. Evaluating whether they effectively perform their function has received much attention in the scientific literature and is implicit in the Aichi 2020 targets and global biodiversity indicators, but measurement lacks quantifiable and consistent metrics. Here we describe the first attempt at populating the headline indicator of mammal protection level in South Africa for the forthcoming National Biodiversity Assessment and discuss the issues surrounding data availability and quality, monitoring frameworks, target setting, spatial context and links to international policy tools and indicator development. We compare various approaches of calculating the indicator through sensitivity analysis and expert opinion. We argue that the indicator can become greatly more informative for planning if it incorporates species-specific targets and the spatial orientation and connectivity between populations (scaled by each species’ population structure). While this may appear to be a data-intensive and timeconsuming process, it can be easily achieved by compiling existing data and information from across the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s (SANBI) network of partners and by keeping the database periodically updated. This is in line with SANBI’s mandate as a national biodiversity informatics hub.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mapping biodiversity priorities: A practical approach to spatial biodiversity assessment and prioritisation to inform national policy, planning, decisions and action
    (2024) Botts, Emily; Driver, Amanda; Holness, Stephen; Arnell, Andy; Bezeng, Simeon; Dayaram, Anisha; Desmet, Philip; Grantham, Hedley; Ling, Matthew; Monyeki, Maphale; Pence, Genevieve; Poole, Carol; Raimondo, Domitilla; Skowno, Andrew; Sink, Kerry; Tayleur, John; von Staden, Lize; Valderrábano, Marcos
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Measuring species conservation success: The Red List Index
    (2013-04-01) von Staden, Lize
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    National biodiversity and ecosystem assessments for conservation impact: Uptake and lessons learnt from the South African experience
    (2025-11-19) da Silva, Jessica; Seymour, Colleen; Harris, Linda; van Niekerk, Lara; Dayaram, Anisha; Driver, Amanda; Kgomo, Thapelo; Khatieb, Sediqa; Msweli, Samukelisiwe; Sink, Kerry; Tshidada, Ntakadzeni; von Staden, Lize; Poole, Carol; Skowno, Andrew
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    National Biodiversity Assessment 2025: The status of South Africa’s biodiversity. Summary of Findings and Key Messages.
    (2025-11-12) Skowno, Andrew; Poole, Carol; Besseling, Natasha; Currie, Jock; Da Silva, Jessica; Dayaram, Anisha; Harris, Linda; Job, Nancy; Monyeki, Maphale; Mtshali, Hlengiwe; Sink, Kerry; Van der Bank, Megan; Van der Colff, Dewidine; van Niekerk, Lara; von Staden, Lize
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Progress on developing a method to evaluate protection level for species
    (2017-06-22) Rouget, Mathieu
    The two most important biodiversity indicators reported on in South Africa’s National Biodiversity Assessment are threat status and protection level for ecosystems and species. While there is a strong tradition of species’ threat assessments using IUCN Red List categories and criteria, protection level has not yet been assessed due to a lack of a rigorous method applicable across taxon groups. Measuring protection level requires the setting of a conservation target that would ensure the long-term persistence of a species, and evaluating how much progress has been made towards reaching that target. Extinction theory indicates that conservation of a minimum viable population is needed to ensure the long-termpersistence of species. In practice, due to a lack of population data for most species, conservation targets are oftenset simplistically as a proportion of species’ distribution ranges or as a fixed number of occupied planning units. I tested and compared various target setting methods using Protea Atlas data, and conclude that methods not considering population density consistently underestimate protection level, thereby negatively impacting the perception of the effectiveness of our protected area network in conserving species. As a way forward, I present further ideas on using relative abundance in setting species conservation targets in the absence of population data.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Quantifying species protection level: A new indicator for the National Biodiversity Assessment
    (2018-06-21) Kirkman, Silvia; Measey, John
    Monitoring the level of species protection at the national level can help countries identify both the best places for protected area expansion to take place, as well as identify areas where current management of existing protected areas is not supporting the conservation of species. Here we propose a new practical method, developed for South Africa’s National Biodiversity Assessment, for tracking progress towards a habitat conservation target for species. This provides an indicator at the country level for the effectiveness of a country’s protected area network for the conservation of different taxonomic groups. This indicator can be disaggregated down to each protected area unit to determine effectiveness of current management interventions for species occurring within a protected area. The protection level indicator we have prepared has two components. The first component measures how well represented a species is within a country’s protected area network. This component alone can guide parties as to which species require further protection, where distribution data for species not represented or poorly represented within protected area networks can guide decision makers as to where protected area expansion is needed. The second component includes a measure of management effectiveness within each protected area and when combined with protected area representation provides an overall effective protection level measure for each species. Results for applying this new method to mammals, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and birds will be presented.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    South Africa's data for identifying Key Biodiversity Areas
    (2017-06-20) Marnewick, Daniel
    Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute to the global persistence of biodiversity, including vital habitat for threatened plant and animal species in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. The Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (IUCN 2016) sets out globally agreed criteria for the identification of KBAs worldwide. SANBI is currently evaluating this new global tool for prioritising sites for biodiversity conservation. South Africa is in a unique situation globally in that we have a comprehensive coverage of systematic biodiversity plans that have been taken up into environmental regulations and plans at all levels of government. In this presentation, the authors will address how Key Biodiversity Areas relate to Critical Biodiversity Areas (CBAs) and Ecological Support Areas (ESAs) – the key outputs of systematic biodiversity plans; and suggest a possible way of moving forward with both spatial prioritisation tools. In addition, we will explore the different data available for KBA identification in South Africa and present some initial analyses using threatened plant data that show the implications of applying the global KBA criteria in a megadiverse country.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Species data for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Tool
    (Mariel Bessinger, 2018-06-19) von Staden, Lize; Raimondo, Domitilla; Ebrahim, Ismail; Daniels, Fahiema