Incorporating land cover information into regional biodiversity assessments in South Africa

Anthropogenic natural habitat transformation presents the single most impor tant threat to global biodiversity. Land cover data, based on Landsat Thema tic Mapper (TM) imagery, were used to derive land use information for the G auteng, Mpumalanga and Northern provinces of South Africa. The assessment i ntegrated land use data with species presence data (15 x 15 minute grid cel l resolution) for butterflies, mammals, birds and endemic vascular plants. The objectives of the present study were: (1) to identify areas at a region al scale where there is a possible conflict between biodiversity conservati on interests and current land uses; (2) to investigate the influence of inc orporating a land use constraint (LUC) into a conservation area selection a lgorithm, while taking cognizance of the existing reserve system; (3) to in vestigate the circumstances of species recorded within these conflict areas . Many grid cells identified as species richness hotspots, rarity hotspots or as part of the complementary network selected by the unconstrained algor ithm were in reality largely transformed or modified. These areas should th us be avoided when striving to identify a viable conservation network. Alth ough the LUC algorithm selected more grid cells to represent all species, i t succeeded in increasing the percentage of natural vegetation within the s elected conservation network and highlighted areas where potential conflict s should be thoroughly investigated at a local scale.