PREFACE
Lever 8: Lever 8: Effective urban governance: Cities and towns that have the necessary institutional, fiscal and planning
3. SPATIAL ANALYSIS
3.2. BIOPHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
3.2.4. VEGETATION TYPES
3.2.5.1. NATIONAL FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM PRIORITY AREAS
P a g e - 96 - | 414 the wetland and the less protected they are, the more
severe this effect will be.
Where development (e.g. hardened surfaces, infilling and drainage) in a wetland is unavoidable then the resulting impacts must be mitigated. In many cases, off-site mitigation may be the only means of achieving satisfactory mitigation. The cumulative loss of wetlands in South Africa is already very high (see Section 1.1) and the continued net loss of wetlands needs to be prevented. Invasion of a wetland by alien plants may considerably reduce the integrity of a wetland.
Where any disturbance of the soil takes place in a wetland, clear alien plants which establish and follow up for at least 2 years thereafter. Disturbance of a wetland favours the establishment of alien plants, which require long-term control.
Where the infiltration rate of a wetland’s catchment is naturally high and the wetland is maintained predominantly by groundwater input, at least 60% of the wetland’s catchment should remain as permeable surfaces in a residential area and preferably at least 30% in an industrial/commercial area. Where the level of development is very high, reduced surface runoff can be promoted through mechanisms such as porous pavements (The inclusion of these mechanisms in areas dominated by hardened surfaces is generally sound catchment management practice and should be encouraged widely).
Failure to maintain groundwater input to a predominantly groundwater-fed wetland will considerably alter the hydrological regime of the wetland, thereby compromising
its integrity.
The onus is on the developer to identify and delineate all wetlands in the project area at a finer scale depending on the proposed development. Mapping at a minimum scale of 1: 10 000 is generally require .in order to account for the impact of a development adjacent to a wetland, it is essential that the boundary of the wetland be mapped. Any wetlands identified on the ground should be delineated and mapped by the municipality on an ongoing basis.
Any development must comply with the requirements of the National Water Act. Through the concept of the “ecological reserve”, this act makes provision for ensuring water of acceptable quantity and quality for maintaining the ecological functioning of wetlands and river systems. While wetlands assist in enhancing water quality, they should not be relied upon as an easy substitute for addressing pollution at source, as this may lead to serious impacts to the wetland systems.
Access to wetlands by off-road vehicles, man and livestock, should be as far as possible prevented.
Development within the floodline or within 32m of a river or stream should be avoided and vegetation in this zone should be conserved.
3.2.5.1. NATIONAL FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM PRIORITY
P a g e - 97 - | 414 Department of Water Affairs (DWA), the Water Research
Commission (WRC), WWF South Africa, as well as expertise from South African National Parks (SANParks), the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) and DEAT.
The National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas (NFEPA) project was a partnership and collaborative process led by the CSIR with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Department of Water Affairs (DWA), the Water Research Commission (WRC), WWF South Africa, as well as expertise from South African National Parks (SANParks), the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) and DEAT. The project was originally conceived in 2006 and the project proposal was submitted to the WRC in July 2007. An inception meeting took place in August 2008 to introduce the aims of the project to relevant stakeholders from the freshwater science, governance and management sectors.
The NFEPA project aimed to identify a national network of freshwater conservation areas and to explore institutional mechanisms for their implementation.
Freshwater ecosystems provide a valuable natural resource, with economic, aesthetic, spiritual, cultural and recreational value. Yet the integrity of freshwater ecosystems in South Africa is declining at an alarming rate largely as a consequence of a variety of challenges that are practical (managing vast areas of land to maintain connectivity between freshwater ecosystems), socio-economic (competition between stakeholders for utilization) and institutional (building appropriate governance and co-management mechanisms).
The first National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA) in 2004 provided a national assessment of the status of terrestrial, river, marine and estuarine ecosystems and identified broad priority areas for biodiversity conservation for terrestrial ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems were lacking as some critical datasets was unavailable.
However, the NSBA highlighted the dire state of river ecosystems in South Africa, which were far worse than the state of terrestrial ecosystems. In 2006, a process was initiated to develop cross- sector policy objectives for conserving South Africa’s inland water biodiversity, which led to the definition of a national goal for freshwater conservation policy in South Africa: “to conserve a sample of the full diversity of species and the inland water ecosystems in which they occur, as well as the processes which generate and maintain diversity”. Five policy objectives, each with a set of recommendations, were identified in order to achieve this goal:
Set and entrench quantitative targets
Plan for the representation of inland water biodiversity
Maintain the processes which encourage the evolution and persistence of ecosystems
Establish a network of inland water conservation areas and Enable effective implementation
NFEPA takes forward the implementation of the Cross-Sector Policy Objectives for Inland Water Conservation. It also builds on the river component of the National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA) 2004, and will feed directly into the NBA (National Biodiversity Assessment) 2010.15
15 Bgis.sanbi.org/nfepa/project.asp
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Map 9: Hydrology Source: Ezemvelo KZN
Wildlife
P a g e - 99 - | 414 3.2.6. THREATENED ECOSYSTEMS AND SPECIES
The above environmental analysis identifies a set of ecosystems that if not managed effectively could be adversely affected in terms of their biodiversity significance. National Threatened Ecosystems have been gazetted by the National Department of Environmental Affairs in terms of the National Environmental Management:
Biodiversity Act (Act 10 of 2004). The Act was necessary for the following reasons:
provide for the protection of ecosystems that are threatened or in need of protection to ensure the maintenance of their ecological integrity;
provide for the protection of species that are threatened or in need of protection to ensure their survival in the wild;
give effect to the Republic's obligations under international agreements regulating international trade in specimens of endangered species; and
ensure that the utilisation of biodiversity is managed in an ecologically sustainable way
(2) The following categories of ecosystems may be listed in terms of subsection (1):
critically endangered ecosystems, being ecosystems that have undergone severe degradation of ecological structure, function or composition as a result of human intervention and are subject to an extremely high risk of irreversible transformation;
endangered ecosystems, being ecosystems that have undergone degradation of ecological structure, function or
composition as a result of human intervention, although they are not critically endangered ecosystems;
vulnerable ecosystems, being ecosystems that have a high risk of undergoing significant degradation of ecological structure, function or composition as a result of human intervention, although they are not critically endangered ecosystems or endangered ecosystems; and
protected ecosystems, being ecosystems that are of high conservation value or of high national or provincial importance.16
The most threatened ecosystems in the Umzimkhulu Municipality are: