2025 Marine threat status and protection level results

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.