Potential land transformation threats to the distribution range of the Cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus, in South Africa
Date
2011-05-09
Authors
Sibanda, Mxolisi
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Abstract
Various conservation landscape strategies such as hotspots and ecoregions are
directed at ensuring the persistence of a range of species or biodiversity. However
some individual species require special attention because of specific threats. The
IUCN Red List system has ensured the ensuring the inclusion of a variety of threats in
the Red listings and consequently conservation planning. This study evaluated present
and future threats on the globally Vulnerable (VU C2a.1) Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus,
Shreber, 1775) in South Africa. The following threats were integrated to assess the
overall threat to Cheetah in its regional extent of occurrence (EOO) in South Africa;
fragmentation, agricultural land use, forestry and human population density. The
analysis showed favourable and unfavourable land fractions for cheetah persistence
across the EOO. Forestry and agriculture were the major transformation threats in the
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) region. Human population threat was greatest at the edges of
the protected areas and in the KZN. This may indicate increased threat for the future
with more demand for land by people. This highlights the challenge of integrating
cheetah conservation into the land use planning process as a legitimate land use. This
can be achieved through community based conservation in the EOO. Such initiatives
should also involve other stakeholders such as commercial wildlife farmers, cheetah
conservation entities like De Wildt and the Parks Authorities. Fragmentation was
measured using the software FRAGSTATS and did not raise any major concern.
Using this newly derived information does not seem to alter the placement of the
species in the Vulnerable (VU) IUCN Red List category because fragmentation is not
a threat.