Aiming for 30% land and sea conservation by 2030

Economies and livelihoods depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Biodiversity and ecosystem services include our freshwater supply, the air we breathe, the food we produce, the quality of our soil, the insects that pollinate our fruit, vegetables and flowers, diverse plant and animal species, our landscapes and oceans that are essential for food security and livelihoods; and natural systems that produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide to help regulate the climate. These are just a few examples.

In South Africa and globally, biodiversity and ecosystem services are under significant threat from several factors such as unsustainable development, climate change, and biodiversity degradation.

To address this, an international agreement (the Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD]) was signed in 1992 by 150 government leaders worldwide, including South Africa.

A key focus of the CBD is the ’30 x 30′ target: to have 30% of the world’s marine, freshwater, and terrestrial spaces be well protected and conserved by 2030 through a network of formally proclaimed Protected Areas and legally recognised Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs).

According to BirdLife South Africa’s Steve McKean, each signatory country is expected to proactively strive to achieve 30 x 30.

“South Africa has a growing footprint of formally Protected Areas proclaimed and regulated under the Protected Areas Act, 57 of 2003, including national parks, nature reserves, and protected environments,” says McKean, who is managing a new three-year WWF Nedbank Green Trust-funded project aimed at extending the OECM footprint throughout South Africa.

Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs)

OECMs do not require the same formal level of commitment of Protected Areas and encourage broader participation in conservation.

“OECMs like Protected Areas, focus on areas with biodiversity conservation value, even if conservation is not their core function. These can include government-owned land, community-owned land, privately-owned land, and marine environments. Examples include agricultural land, timber plantations, housing estates with significant natural areas, traditional sacred sites, and penguin island enclosures,” says McKean.

“OECMs also serve as a stepping stone for landowners who may later commit to applying for Protected Area status,” adds Ernst Retief, BirdLife South Africa‘s Landscape Conservation Programme Manager.

Expanding protected areas 

According to Poovi Pillay, Executive Head of Nedbank’s Corporate Social Impact Unit the importance of increasing South Africa’s Protected Areas and OECMs and aiming for the 30 x 30 target is critical for our country.

“If South Africa fails to meet its commitments under the CBD, it could face a range of negative consequences, including ecosystem collapse, disruption of vital services like clean water, pollination, and climate regulation, and severe damage to our environment, economy, and international standing,” says Pillay.

Retief says that Protected Areas expansion will soon be complemented by OECMs. A previous WWF Nedbank Green Trust-funded project piloted the OECM model in the Western Cape.

“This project applied the OECM screening and assessment criteria to 20 areas, including estuaries, forests, heritage sites, military land, biosphere reserves, municipal zonation, conservancies, conservation easements, business and industry initiatives, and tourism and wildlife ranching areas.’

A total of 8 areas, including the Nuwejaars Wetland Special Management Area in the Overberg region and the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden, met all the criteria and are ready to be reported as OECMs once the norms and standards guiding their recognition and reporting are in place with the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).

Once formal recognition is in place, it will drive an increased willingness from landowners who value the recognition for their conservation efforts. OECM recognition could also help protect areas facing unsustainable development or activities that threaten water sources and biodiversity.

Assessing OECMs in South Africa

The Western Cape pilot project was managed by BirdLife South Africa and Conservation Outcomes, in collaboration with CapeNature and the DFFE, as part of a broader national initiative to assess and report on OECMs countrywide.

BirdLife South Africa was nominated to lead the new WWF Nedbank Green Trust project, which aims to identify, assess, and report OECMs and provide training in six additional provinces.

The goal is to assess and prepare at least five OECMs recognition and reporting per province, and at least one marine OECM in each of the four coastal provinces.

“We will be visiting all six provinces to hold workshops and train relevant municipal and provincial authorities and NGOs. They will work with us to formally assess and recognise OECMs, which will then be submitted to the national DFFE for reporting to the Convention on Biological Diversity,” says McKean.

To qualify as an OECM, an area must not already be declared a Protected Area and must support at least one of the following biodiversity values:

• Species and/or ecosystems that are regionally or globally listed as threatened.
• Natural ecosystems under-represented in protected area networks.
• High level of ecological integrity or intactness.
• At least 1% of the global population of range-restricted species or ecosystems.
• Important species aggregations, such as spawning, breeding, or feeding areas.
• Importance for ecological connectivity within a landscape or seascape network.
• Significant ecosystem service values.

For example, a globally threatened species like Botha’s Lark occurs in our threatened high-altitude grasslands. These areas would benefit from OECM status. In this case, Botha’s Lark is a flagship species for a threatened landscape. There are many other examples of birds, animals, and plants that serve as flagship species across our provinces.

Additional qualifying criteria include whether the area falls within a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA), Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA), Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA), Estuarine Functional Zone, or Strategic Water Source Area (SWSA).

“Marine OECMs are tricky, as they often lack clear boundaries. We’ll be working with provincial authorities to assess at least one marine area in each coastal province for recognition and reporting,” says McKean.

These areas have not yet been decided, but we’ll be guided by WWF’s recently published Marine OECM roadmap titled Securing ocean biodiversity in South Africa: A roadmap for how marine OECMs can contribute to 30×30.

“A key challenge for all the OECMs is determining who will support, monitor, and manage them, given the limited capacity of provincial conservation agencies and the DFFE,’ says McKean. No doubt the NGO sector will need to support government entities in this function, and we’ll be addressing this in the coming months.”

Image: Biodiversity in the Richtersveld National Park that WhyAfrica recently visited on our 2025 WhyAfrica Road Trip. Image credit: Leon Louw for WhyAfrica.

Aiming for 30% land and sea conservation by 2030