1.0

The identification and demarcation of Protected areas was undertaken as part of the development of the National Protected Area Expansion Strategy 2008 (NPAES). A Protected Areas layer is critical to identify what the current protection levels of habitat biodiversity are, which helps identify where future conservation efforts should be focused.

Capture Source: Consolidated at SANParks, from provincial agencies

Assembly of the dataset was a joint venture between SANParks and SANBI. An earlier national protected areas layer, prepared for the NSBA project was used as the starting point, and was updated to reflect the current state of protected

areas in South Africa. This included the addition of new reserves, changes to protected areas, and correction of identified errors. Data for formal protected areas was updated based on data received from SANParks, and the following provinces:

Northwest, Northern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

Previously used categories of protected areas were reduced (see Appendix 1, Table 3), and the new categories recorded in the <Spec_Type> field. Protected Areas are also categorized into Formal_A and Formal_B categories in the

<PA_Categ> field (see Table 1), as part of the National Protected Areas Expansion Conservation Assessment, depending on the level of protection they enjoy.

Note that the dataset can be considered fairly reliable for the formal protected area system, but is known to contain significant errors and omissions in the Informal Conservation Area system data.

SANS 1878

FGDC-STD-001-1998