Abstract
Systematic conservation planning is intended to inform spatially explicit decision making. Doing so requires that it be integrated into complex regulatory and governance processes, and there are limited instances where this has been achieved effectively. South Africa is a global leader in the application of conservation plans, the outputs of which are widely used for spatial planning and decision making in many spheres of government. We aimed to determine how conservation planning in the country progressed from theory to implementation, and to identify practical actions that enabled this transition, by assessing temporal trends in the characteristics of conservation plans (1990–2017, n = 94). Since 2010 conservation planning has entered an operational period characterized by government leadership of plans, administrative rather than ecological planning domains, decreasing size of planning units, increasing emphasis on end-user products, and scheduled revision of plans. Key actions that enabled this progression include transitioning leadership of plans from scientists to practitioners, building capacity within implementing agencies, creating opportunities to integrate plans in legislative processes, establishing a strong community of practice, adopting implementation-focused methods, and balancing standardization with innovation. Learning from this model will allow other countries, particularly those with a similar megadiverse, developing context, to operationalize conservation planning into spatial planning and decision making.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1235-1246 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Conservation Biology |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 26 Mar 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Funding
We thank the community of practice for conservation planning in South Africa, on whose work over the last 3 decades this paper is based. We especially thank the pioneers of conservation planning in South Africa, including R. Cowling, P. Goodman, A. Lombard, R. Pressey, and T. Rebelo. Funding to support the preparation of this paper was provided by SANBI. E.A.B. was compensated by SANBI for writing and coordinating this paper. We thank 2 anonymous reviewers who provided helpful comments on the manuscript.
Keywords
- biodiversity mainstreaming
- community of practice
- decision making
- implementación
- implementation
- integración de la biodiversidad
- interfaz ciencia-política
- omunidad de práctica
- planeación espacial
- planeación sistemática de la conservación
- science-policy interface
- South Africa
- spatial planning
- Sudáfrica
- systematic conservation planning
- toma de decisiones
