Freshwater ecosystems provide a valuable natural resource, with economic, aesthetic, spiritual, cultural and recreational value. Yet the integrity of freshwater ecosystems in South Africa is declining.

This crisis is largely a consequence of a variety of challenges that are practical (managing vast areas of land to maintain connectivity between freshwater ecosystems), socio-economic (competition between stakeholders for utilisation) and institutional (building appropriate governance and co-management mechanisms).

In 2004 the first National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA) provided the first national assessment of the status of terrestrial, river, marine and estuarine ecosystems.

Broad priority areas for biodiversity conservation were identified for terrestrial ecosystems but not for freshwater ecosystems as some critical datasets were unavailable. However, the NSBA (2004) highlighted the dire state of river ecosystems in South Africa – much worse than the state of terrestrial ecosystems.

In 2006, a process was initiated to develop cross-sector policy objectives for conserving South Africa’s inland water biodiversity. This process led to the definition of a national goal for freshwater conservation policy in South Africa: “to conserve a sample of the full diversity of species and the inland water ecosystems in which they occur, as well as the processes which generate and maintain diversity”.

Five policy objectives, each with a set of recommendations, were identified in order to achieve this goal:
• Set and entrench quantitative targets
• Plan for the representation of inland water biodiversity
• Maintain the processes which encourage the evolution and persistence of an ecosystem
• Establish a network of inland water conservation areas
• Enable effective implementation

National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas (NFEPA)  takes forward these objectives in the development of a portfolio of freshwater conservation areas and the mechanisms for its implementation

As a next step, the draft maps of priority areas will be reviewed and refined during a two-day national NFEPA workshop.  This workshop which will be held on 27 and 28 July 2010 in Pretoria, at the Herbarium Lecture Hall at SANBI.

The workshop is divided into two sessions which cover the following regions:

1) Session 1 (27 July): Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Arid Regions

2) Session 2 (28 July): Highveld, Lowveld, KwaZulu Natal.

Enquiries: Liesl Hill ( tel: 012 841 2639 / cell: 083 261 4414