Harnessing ecological infrastructure

and adapting to risk

Anthea Stephens, SANBI

Agri-Food Chain: Vulnerability & Adaptation
NBI Side Event, COP 17
1 December 2011
 Overview

• An ecological infrastructure tour

• Tools for optimising decisions &
reducing risk
• Opportunities in agriculture
 Extraordinary ecosystem services

• Resilient ecosystems:

- deliver goods and services to society

- buffer us from disasters

- help society adapt to climate change.

 What is ecological infrastructure?

• Infrastructure, a dictionary definition: “The substructure

or underlying foundation... on which the continuance or
growth of a community or state depends.”

• Green infrastructure: broadly, any infrastructure that is

good for the environment and sustainable development

• Ecological infrastructure: “strategically planned and

managed networks of natural lands, working landscapes
and other open spaces that conserve ecosystem values
and functions and provide associated benefits to society”
 Ecosystem goods and services - a landscape tour

•climate adaptation
•water provision
•bioprospecting

•erosion control •genetic resources •carbon storage

for agriculture

•crop pest control

•soil •pollination
fertility
•disaster risk reduction •grazing

•carbon storage •flow regulation

•fish nursery
Ecological infrastructure…
 …reduces risk

Climate change
adaptation
 Ecological infrastructure

• Harness ecological infrastructure offers multiple

benefits:

Restore
Rural jobs and
Ecological Maintain improved
infrastructure livelihoods
Enhance
Water security & job creation
 Biodiversity
information and tools

for

optimal development

in a green economy
 Systematic biodiversity planning

Representative sample
WHAT? of biodiversity pattern

Required space for

Ecological processes

HOW MUCH?

WHERE?
National Biodiversity Assessment
South Africa’s ecological infrastructure
and information resources

Wetlands River condition Groundwater recharge

Wetland condition Free-flowing rivers Water yield (MAR)

Municipal biodiversity plans
Freshwater Prioritisation
Incorporating a conservation
vision into
catchment management
Biodiversity priority areas
 Our information portal:
SANBI Biodiversity GIS (BGIS)
• http://bgis.sanbi.org
• Interactive mapping and decision making tools
• 153 compiled maps
• 28 separate biodiversity plans
• 67 associated reports
• 396 individual GIS layers
• Google Earth imagery
 Guidelines for land use management

• Ecosystem guidelines
– Fynbos
– Grasslands
• Biodiversity friendly grazing guidelines
• Grasslands management in plantations
• Mining & biodiversity guidelines
 Tools for conserving & offsetting

• Biodiversity stewardship

• Biodiversity offsets
 Working with agriculture

• A tool box for adaptation and improving resilience in

the agricultural supply chain
– planning & land management
– market
• Biodiversity compatible best management practices
– Stewardship
– Guidelines
– A market standard
Optimal development futures
 Thank you!
a.stephens@sanbi.org.za
www.grasslands.org.za