Huge financial support is needed to help save hundreds of animal and plant species from extinction, local biodiversity stakeholders heard on Tuesday at a South African species congress.
Almost a third of all local freshwater fish are in urgent need of conservation intervention, along with a troubling proportion of other flora and fauna, according to data presented at the online meeting hosted by the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Sanbi).
“There are 35 freshwater fish that are in urgent need of recovery action — that is a very scary 30% of all the freshwater fish we have in South Africa,” Sanbi's Domitilla Raimondo said in the opening address. “So far only 11 out of those have got conservation interventions under way, so there is a lot of work that still needs to be done for freshwater fish.”
A cost analysis of resources required to protect all 35 threatened species showed a ninefold budgetary increase was needed, said Raimondo.
Halting human-induced extinctions is one of South Africa's 22 biodiversity targets in terms of the Global Biodiversity Framework, signed in December 2022. However, competing spending priorities — not least of which could be the enormous annual cost of National Health Insurance — limits funding available to underpin targeted conservation programmes for most endangered species.
“We have the knowledge and the people, we just need the financing,” Raimondo said. “We set targets for every type of ecosystem. Thousands of species' information goes into the way we plan and use our land and seascape,” she said.
Biodiversity stakeholders had also devised special maps to guide planning decisions and prevent inappropriate development, Raimondo said. Climate change, invasive aliens and urban development are just three factors threatening biodiversity across land and sea amid government budget shortfalls. On the plus side South Africa is a global leader in citizen science programmes, with impressive public participation in monitoring species' diversity via multiple organisations.
But despite multiple programmes in place, South Africa still faces glaring gaps in the capacity to address its endangered species list. Critically endangered species receiving attention are in the minority compared with species needing resources. The number of critically endangered species needing urgent conservation attention include:
- 35 freshwater fish;
- 11 amphibians;
- 14 mammals;
- 16 birds; and
- 109 plant species.
Analysis conducted on the various fauna and flora categories shows that in most cases at least a tenfold increase in resource allocation is needed to plug the gaps in conservation programmes, Raimondo said.
Tuesday’s gathering was a pre-congress event to Wednesday’s first World Species Congress, a 24-hour online event held under the banner of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Sanbi's latest species scorecard coincides with news of a possible decline in the number of insect species and two migratory birds of prey — the Lesser Kestrel and Amur Falcon.
“Counts conducted across South Africa by Endangered Wildlife Trust field officers, particularly in the Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal in January and February 2024 range from thousands of falcons and kestrels in the Hanover area on January 20 to only a few hundred at a roost in Standerton, Klerksdorp, in Underberg, Victoria West and Beaufort West areas,” said EWT.
“While insect declines may be a contributing factor, it may also be attributed to the fact that there was exceptional rainfall further north in East Africa resulting in migratory birds remaining in areas of abundant resources instead of travelling further south for food, to South Africa, for example.”
A recent example of an endangered species facing an uphill battle against extinction is the Western Leopard Toad, which only lives in two known habitats, one of which is due to be affected by a new road in Noordhoek, Cape Town.
Conservation officials hope “red data list” maps will help mitigate against developments that might damage efforts to protect biodiversity.
