RED DATA BOOK SPECIES IN THE CAPE FLORISTIC REGION: THREATS, PRIORITIES AND TARGET SPECIES

SUMMARY

The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) contains a disproportionate number of southern Africa's Red Data Book plants (70%), freshwater flsh (57%), amphibians (43%), butterflies (38%), and reptiles (35%), relative to the small area (4%) of the subcontinent which it occupies. With the exception of reptiles, the vast majority of these species are endemic to the CFR, occurring mainly in mountain and lowland fynbos vegetation. Among the threats to the continued survival of these species, agriculture and alien invasive plants rank highest overall, although many scavenging birds and large mammals have been hunted and poisoned to extinction within the CFR. An active reintroduction of these large mammals from outside the CFR has been the dominant strategy of local conservation agencies. The focus on large mammals as target species for conservation strategies has been to the detriment of floral preservation. The geographical distribution of threatened species is not related to the extent to which vegetation types have been transformed. Thus renoster shrubland, which has been reduced to 6 per cent of its original lowland extent, contains few Red Data Book taxa relative to fynbos. By far the largest concentration of Red Data Book species of plants, butterflies, reptiles and amphibians occurs in the greater Cape Town metropolitan area. With 15.1 Red Data Book plant species per km², this area ranks as one of the most urgent conservation priorities in the world.