Renosterveld Priorities Clusters for the Cape Agulhas, De Hoop Management Area, Overstrand, Drakenstein Municipality, Swartland, Swellendam and Theewaterskloof Municipalities. Layer designating renosterveld conservation priority clusters and the area surrounding the natural vegetation up to 500m (a 500m buffer). The patches of remaining lowland habitat within priority clusters were identified by the Cape Lowlands Renosterveld Project as critical for conserving biodiversity pattern and ecological processes of lowland renosterveld.

Layer of wetland areas (including rivers) prepared for the C.A.P.E. fine scale biodiversity plan for the Overberg District Municipality.

Distribution of wetlands (subset to municipality for Municipal Biodiversity Summary Project)

Critical Biodiversity Areas in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality

Base habitat map of terrestrial habitats created from a combination of existing finescale vegetation maps with interpolation and refinement of the national vegetation map based on landscape characteristics; With Ecosystem Staus and Protection Levels As calculated by Skowno et al 2010. Clipped to the core planning domain consisting of West Coast District Management Area and northern Matzikama LM.

This was derived from the grid version of the KZN 2011 Land-cover Version 1 as produced by GeoTerraImage. This is a binary ArcView grid indicating areas transformed and untransformed (natural). The categories selected for modified/unmodified are listed in the “How the 2011 V1 LC was reclassified” text file.

Conservation Status of each vegetation type for the Gouritz Inititive area. The conservation status of each of the vegetation types within the GI Domain was calculated using the vegetation targets set within C.A.P.E. and SKEP. The method for calculating Conservtion targets developed in STEP was used. Conservation status is the classification of vegetation types into four groups, depending on how much land within the type is still untransformed, and how much of the original extent is required to meet targets. It has nothing to do with the percentage of the vegetation type that is currently protected.

The original extent of vegetation types mapped for the Fine-Scale Biodiversity Planning Domains: Saldanha Peninsula, North West Sandveld and Bokkeveld patched into the South African Vegetation Map, clipped to the Cederberg Local Municipality. This layer represents the integrated layer of the detailed vegetation map of the Saldanha Peninsula, North West Sandveld and Bokkeveld planning domain in the Western Cape, the South African Vegetation map (NSBA 2004), Nieuwoudtville Conservation Farming Project Vegetation Map and extracts from Barry Low’s Dune Ecosystem Layer. Vegetation categories were based on the South African vegetation types of Mucina & Rutherford (2006), but it was necessary to describe a several new, previously unrecognised vegetation types in the Fine-Scale Planning Domains. Certain vegetation boundaries were substantially redrawn from those presented in Mucina & Rutherford (2006).

These data represent aquatic sites identified as Critical Biodiversity Areas through the systematic assessment conducted by the C.A.P.E. Fine-Scale Biodiversity Planning (FSP) project. They include both the aquatic feature itself as well as the required buffer area surrounding the aquatic feature. Taken as a whole (aquatic plus terrestrial CBAs), these represent the sites required to meet biodiversity pattern targets and ecological process objectives. The loss of a single site would therefore compromise the meeting of targets and objectives. Thus it is recommended that the sites be managed in a manner compatible with biodiversity conservation, and ultimately remain in, or be restored to, a natural state. Ecological composition, structure, and function must be preserved. For more information about how CBAs (Critical Biodiversity Areas), CESAs (Critical Ecological Support Areas), and OESAs (Other Ecological Support Areas) were selected see: • Pence, Genevieve Q.K. 2008 (in prep). C.A.P.E. Fine-Scale Systematic Conservation Planning Assessment: Technical Report. Produced for CapeNature. Cape Town, South Africa. For more information about the freshwater component of FSP see: • Job, N., Snaddon, K., Day, L., Nel, J. and Smith-Adoa, L. 2008 (in prep). C.A.P.E. Fine-scale Biodiversity Planning Project: Freshwater Ecosystems of the North-west Sandveld and Saldanha Peninsula planning domain. Produced for CapeNature. Cape Town, South Africa.

Identified ‘Critical Biodiversity Areas’(CBAs) and ‘Ecological Support Areas’ (ESAs) from the Western Cape Biodiversity Framework (Kirkwood et al., 2010), updated in 2014 (Pence) to more accurately reflect conditions relevant to land-use decision making. The Western Cape Biodiversity Framework (WCBF) provides an edge-matched, wall-to-wall coverage of all standard CBA categories to inform land-use decision making. Areas have either been formally assessed as part of a recognised Systematic Biodiversity Plan or only have ‘known’ CBA and ESA features indicated. DMA01 was divided into two on the basis of where fine scale planning was and was not done. Please see CBA_terrestrial_DMA01_1.shp and CBA_aquatic_and_ESA_DMA01_1.shp for the remainder of DMA01 CBAs and ESAs