South Africa
South Africa has 1,580 protected areas covering 102,060 km2 of the land and 224,640 km2 of the ocean (UNEP-WCMC & IUCN, 2019s). In October 2018, South Africa’s cabinet approved the declaration of 18 new protected areas, thus increasing the network of protected areas. There are nine provincial conservation authorities and the South African National Parks Agency who manage protected areas and implement conservation of plant diversity outside of reserves.
Protected and conserved areas designated as global sites of importance |
|
Global designation |
Number of sites |
UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves |
10 |
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (Natural or Mixed) |
5 |
Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar sites) |
23 |
Source ((Ramsar, 2019; UNESCO, 2019a, 2019b)
Priority areas for conservation |
|
Designation |
Number of sites |
Alliance for Zero Extinction sites |
10 |
Important Bird & Biodiversity Areas |
99 |
Key Biodiversity Areas |
76 |
(AZE Secretariat, 2019; BirdLife International, 2019c, 2019a)