Benthic and Coastal Ecosystem Protection Levels. As per National Biodiversity Assessment Benthic and coastal Habitats with an extra field "PALevel" and refer to tech doc for derivation.

Terrestrial Ecosystem Protection Level NBA 2011

Pelagic Ecosystem Protection Levels. As per NBA Pelagic Habitat but with an with an extra field "PALevel" and refer to tech doc for derivation.

First version of an integrated coast map including coastal ecosystem types from the terrestrial, marine, and estuarine realms

This layer includes the threat status and protection level of the Marine Ecosystems 2018 assessed for the National Biodiversity Assessment 2018

Collation of available estuary submerged macrophyte distribution shapefiles. Presently 97 estuaries (listed in the appendix) are captured, and new maps will be added periodically as produced. The maps collated range in date from 2004-2018. Estuaries have been mapped as per the Estuary Health Index to determine Present Ecological Status. Some estuaries were mapped as Nelson Mandela University student theses. Shapefiles were also obtained from SANParks (Swartvlei and Wilderness estuaries). Currently nine data capturers were responsible for the development of GIS estuary maps. Macrophyte habitat descriptions may have been altered from the original published maps so as to standardize macrophyte habitat types. Distribution maps differ in extent, scale and accuracy as they were produced for differing outcomes. The shapefile is formatted in accordance with SANBI specifications. More recent maps produced are delineated according to the Estuarine Functional Zone (EFZ) which is considered the 5 m topographical contour (van Niekerk and Turpie 2012).

An extraction of the zone terrestrial land mass of South Africa until the ecologically determined dune base line from the first version of an integrated coast map including coastal ecosystem types from the terrestrial, marine, and estuarine realms

NBA2018_Terrestrial Ecosystem Threat Status and Protection level remaining extent layer is associated with the NBA2018_Terrestrial Ecosystem Threat Status and Protection level. While the a NBA2018_Terrestrial Ecosystem Threat Status and Protection level remaining extent provides the data for Protection level and threat status for the historical (pre 1750AD) extent of the terrestrial ecosystems, this layer shows the protection level and threat status of the current remaining extent of terrestrial ecosystems. More detail can be found in NBA 2018 Technical Report Volume 1: Terrestrial Realm, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12143/6370

An extraction of the zone from the dune base line to the edge of South Africa’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from the first version of an integrated coast map including coastal ecosystem types from the terrestrial, marine, and estuarine realms

The NBA relies on two headline indicators that can be applied to both ecosystems and species, namely threat status and protection level. Threat status is based on the IUCN risk assessment framework for species and ecosystems. Protection level was developed in South Africa for national reporting and addresses the extent to which ecosystems and where feasible, species are protected. These headline indicators provide a way of comparing results meaningfully across the different realms and provides a standardised framework that links with policy and legislation in South Africa, thus facilitating the interface between science and policy. This spatial file contains the polygons of each marine ecosystem type name, threat status and protection level. The 2025 threat status assessment of South Africa’s 163 marine ecosystem types was conducted using the 2024 Guidelines for the application of IUCN Red List of Ecosystems Categories and Criteria and drawing from previous NBA assessments. The IUCN Criteria A-D were applied using pressure and condition maps from the 2018 assessment. Both the extent and severity of ecosystem degradation were considered by calculating the extent of ecosystem types in each of the four ecosystem condition categories. Condition assessments were based on an ecosystem pressure matrix that is used to weight the impact of each pressure on each ecosystem type. The 2025 ecosystem protection level assessment for marine ecosystems applied a 30% protection target for all ecosystem types to align with the Global Biodiversity Forum target. When calculating the percentage of area within an MPA, the area contributions were scaled by condition. The protection contribution was scaled in alignment with the IUCN RLE criteria C and D thresholds of modification. Further, in order for a marine ecosystem type to qualify for the Well Protected category, at least 30% of the ecosystem type (i.e. the ecosystem target) needs to be in a natural or near natural ecological condition. If this rule was not met, the ecosystem was categorised as Moderately Protected. For further details, see the relevant ecosystem threat status and protection level pages.