The Succulent Karoo Ecosystem Programme (SKEP) is the result of a one-year planning process which combined a rigorous scientific process with broad land-user participation to identify and generate broad consensus around an ultimate vision and set of conservation targets for the Succulent Karoo.
This process was initiated in September 2001 and completed in 2002. It was facilitated by Conservation International’s (CI) Southern Africa Hotspots Programme. This formed part of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund’s (CEPF) preparation to expand its investment to the hot-spot. The team included scientific advisors and four co-ordinating organisations from the region. As a result of this process an ecosystem profile has been produced for the CEPF that identifies key areas for investment in this region.
Strategy
The SKEP 20-year strategy is derived directly from the people living in the Succulent Karoo, confirmed and augmented by the scientific community, national and regional-level stakeholders through the SKEP process.
The strategy consists of a comprehensive set of actions, that will achieve conservation targets by addressing constraints and maximizing opportunities that are most relevant for each sub-region. Within these focal areas, those recommendations that were common to all four sub-regional strategies are summarised as priority activities.
Finally, specific approaches for undertaking the activities that arose from the workshops are summarised as the strategy. Though far-reaching and widely supported, it is recognized that SKEP is a living strategy and these priority actions and strategic emphasis will evolve over time.
Succulent Karoo Background
The Succulent Karoo biome, shown in Figure 1, extends from the south-west through the north-western areas of South Africa and into southern Namibia. This regions' levels of plant diversity and endemism rival those of rain forests, making the Succulent Karoo an extraordinary exception to the low diversity typical of arid areas, and the only arid ecosystem to be recognised as a global biodiversity hotspot. Nearly one third of the plant species of the region are endemic and the region boasts the richest variety of succulent flora in the world (just under a third of the Succulent Karoo’s flora are succulents). In addition to its floral diversity, the biome is a centre of diversity for reptiles and many groups of invertebrates.
The rich biodiversity of the Succulent Karoo is due to an extensive and complex array of habitat types derived from topographical and climatic diversity in the regions' rugged mountains, semi-arid shrublands, and coastal dunes. The hallmark of the Succulent Karoo is its exceptionally diverse and endemic-rich flora, especially succulents and bulbs. The 116 000 km2 biome is home to 6356 plant species, 40% of which are endemic and 936 (17%) of which are Red Data Listed. This biodiversity is due to massive speciation of an arid-adapted biota in response to unique climatic conditions and high environmental heterogeneity. The high regional plant richness is the result of high compositional change of species-rich communities along these environmental and geographical gradients. Many species are extreme habitat specialists, mainly related to soil-type, of limited range size. Local endemism (i.e. the restriction of species to extremely small ranges of less than 50 km2) is most
pronounced among succulents, especially Mesembryanthemaceae, and bulbs. Similar patterns of compositional change along gradients have been observed for certain groups of invertebrates. In addition to invertebrates, faunal diversity and endemism is high for reptiles, amphibians and some mammal taxa.
In spite of low population densities, the Succulent Karoo’s biodiversity is under extreme pressure from human impacts, especially mining, crop agriculture, ostrich farming, overgrazing, illegal collection of fauna and flora and anthropogenic climate change.
However, irreversible land transformation in the Succulent Karoo is not extensive. Although a substantial portion of the biome is at risk from overgrazing, only 5% has been irreversibly transformed. Pervasive aridity, low irrigation potential and inaccessible mountain areas have limited the expansion of agriculture, invasive species, and urban development pressures that have transformed so much of the adjacent Cape Floristic Kingdom. In fact, as a result of the demise of the historical herds of springbok that once grazed the area, livestock grazing, a land-use that dominates 90% of the Succulent Karoo, is compatible with biodiversity conservation if managed properly. Well-managed livestock-grazing regimes can help maintain niches for plant diversity.
Low levels of irreversible habitat transformation, opportunities for biodiversity-friendly forms of land use in many areas, together with low population density and low opportunity costs of conservation in most of the region, mean that there are still many options for conserving the Succulent Karoo’s biodiversity in and off protected areas.
