LIMPOPO – The pressing issue of biodiversity conservation took centre stage on Wednesday, April 2, as the Phalaborwa Natural Heritage Foundation (PNHF), in partnership with SA Hunters and Game Conservation Association (SAHGCA) Mopani, hosted an informative conservation evening under the theme ‘Conservation on Your Watch.’

The event featured a keynote address by SAHGCA conservation manager, Lizanne Nel, who highlighted the current state of South Africa’s natural environment and the collective responsibility required to safeguard it.

“South Africa is the third most biodiverse country and the world. We should not only cherish this unique biodiversity as part of our heritage, but we should also conserve this natural capital, as it provides clean water for people, supports food security and livelihoods for people, serve as a basis for wildlife-based tourism, fuels the economy and provides a place to connect with nature,” said Nel.

During her presentation, Nel emphasised that despite having a network of protected areas, these alone are not sufficient to halt biodiversity loss, especially as government resources for conservation continue to dwindle and many state-protected areas are poorly managed. According to the national biodiversity assessment conducted by the government every few years, the threats to biodiversity are very real, and our freshwater ecosystems and species are under significant threat with low levels of protection.

She added that agriculture has a major impact on various species as a result of, amongst others, habitat modification, whilst invasive alien species also have a significant negative impacts on natural habitats.

“However, other drivers also impact our biodiversity, such as population growth and competition for land, as well as high levels of poverty, resulting in often unregulated harvesting of wildlife resources such as wood for fuel and game meat and fish for protein. In the case of the critically endangered cycads, three species went extinct in the wild in the last ten years in South Africa as a result of affluent people harvesting wild plants to plant in their urban gardens.”

Nel further highlighted that protected areas alone are insufficient and that with the huge socioeconomic difficulties that the government must solve, money for conservation is running out.

Moreover, many state-protected areas are not managed optimally. “With significant pressures on our biodiversity, we need innovative ways to secure biodiversity for our own survival and that of future generations. Conservation cannot be funded solely by the government, nor can wildlife be protected by a hands-off policy,” she said.

“Conservation is a land use issue. If conservation compatible land uses cannot compete with other forms of land use that generate benefits to people, we will see land use change to other competitive land uses with concomitant negative implications for securing wildlife habitats and the associated species,” she continued.

Nel also stated that the private sector has found ways to fund conservation through responsible wildlife use, and they have proclaimed more protected areas than the state in recent years. They also make a significant contribution to the conservation of wildlife habitats, more than twice the size of formal state protected areas, through an array of wildlife-based enterprises that include hunting, photographic tourism, live sales and other wildlife products that all form part of their viable business models.

“Biodiversity usage impacts nature through harvesting animals, water consumption, clearing vegetation for infrastructure, emission generation, and waste generation. It is crucial to consider the full impact of daily activities. By adopting an integrated approach and consistently assessing economic efficiency, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability, we can contribute to conservation and contribute to a more sustainable future,” she concluded.