On the 6 April 2005 the Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, launched the results and recommendations of South Africa 's first National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment (NSBA). The NSBA is the first ever comprehensive assessment of biodiversity throughout the country. It has four components, dealing with the terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine and marine environments.
The NSBA should inform the policies, plans and day-to-day activities of a wide range of sectors, both public and private. It is hoped that the spatial products presented in the report will be widely used and built upon. The challenge that lies ahead is to translate the biodiversity priorities identified here into conservation action on the ground. This will involve mainstreaming biodiversity priorities in the policies, plans and actions of a wide range of stakeholders whose core business is not biodiversity, but whose day-to-day decisions will ultimately determine whether our development path is a sustainable one.
The executive summary of this publication forms part of the SANBI Strelitzia series and can be bought from our book shop.
The NSBA 2004 is now also available on CD. The CD contains the NSBA 2004 Report and associated figures, the four NSBA technical volumes (terrestrial, river, estuary and marine), and the available GIS layers for each of these components. The CD is available from the SANBI bookshop (Pretoria) at R30.00 (excluding postage) per CD. Please contact the bookshop on 012 8435001 or bookshop@sanbi.org to order a copy.
Download Files (.pdf format)
 NSBA Summary Report Cover |
NSBA 2004 Report (Summary Report) (5.94 M)
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