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Freshwater fishes of the Cape FoldEcoregion and Climate Change

Volume 2: Policy Uptake Strategy

Bragg, CJ; Paxton, BR; Shelton, JM; Bovim L& Dallas, HF

October 2017

Bragg, CJ; Paxton, BR; Shelton, JM; Bovim, LA and Dallas HF. 2017. Freshwater Fishes of the Cape Fold Ecoregion and Climate Change: Volume 2: Policy Uptake Strategy. Prepared on behalf of the Table

Mountain Fund by the Freshwater Research Centre. Pp. 14.

C l i m a t e C h a n g e a n d F r e s h w a t e r F i s h

1 | P o l i c y U p t a k e S t r a t e g y

1. INTRODUCTION

A multi-disciplinary collaborative study undertaken by

the Freshwater Research Centre (FRC) and the South

African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)

“Assessing the effect of climate change on native and non-

native freshwater fishes of the Cape Fold Ecoregion, South

Africa” (Dallas et al. 2017) provided key insights into

the potential impacts of climate change on the native

and non-native freshwater fish species of the Cape Fold

Ecoregion of South Africa (CFE).

Volume 1 in this series synthesises the research findings

from this study. This report (Volume 2) presents the

outcomes of the second phase of the study which was to

develop recommendations for specific interventions for

use by decision-makers, government authorities and

conservation organisations mandated with devising

strategies to prevent species extinctions, protect water

resources and conserve freshwater ecosystems. The

objective of this report is therefore to present the

outcomes of a stakeholder engagement workshop and

review process which aimed to explore ways of

incorporating the findings of the research into future

conservation plans, water resources management and

catchment management strategies. This preliminary

review of the policy and planning landscape is

necessary for developing a high-impact strategy that

will mainstream the research outputs and encourage

uptake at policy and planning levels. Strategies,

objectives, targets and outputs are outlined and a suite

of customized high-impact interventions, or toolkits to

facilitate uptake are proposed – referred to the Uptake

Strategy.

The report is the culmination of several parallel

processes including the FRC’s Climate Change and

Freshwater Fish study, a stakeholder awareness and

dissemination workshop and a policy review. It should be

pointed that while the Uptake Strategy described here

is focussed on freshwater fishes in the CFE, the processes

and principles are applicable to policy uptake across a

broad front of conservation and water resource related

issues.

2. PROCESSES

2.1 Stakeholder Workshop

The ‘CFE Fish and Climate Change’ workshop was held at

the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)

Research Centre, Cape Town on the 27th July 2017.

During this workshop, relevant stakeholder groups

including the Department of Environment and

Development Planning (DEADP), the Department of

Water and Sanitation (DWS), the Department of

Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), CapeNature

and the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA)

identified and explored ways to incorporate the

findings of the climate change study into conservation,

management, policy and decision-making and to build

the resilience of freshwater ecosystems of the CFE.

Research groups in attendance included the FRC, SAIAB

and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research

(CSIR), as well as a range of broader interest groups

from civil society. During the course of the workshop,

participants were given an opportunity to share and

discuss concerns and ideas through a participatory

group session. Researchers, practitioners and those

involved in policy separated into groups to focus on two

specific questions:

1. What are the main knowledge requirements

for more effective conservation action in

freshwater ecosystems?

2. How do we raise the profile of climate change

impacts on freshwater fishes and ecosystems at

a Provincial and National level?

The discussion was not constrained to these questions

and scope was given to discuss additional concerns

and suggestions.

2.2 Outcomes: challenges and needs in the conservation

and policy environment

Workshop participants expressed deep concern about

the funding and capacity crisis prevailing in the

freshwater conservation and water resource

management sectors today, which act as a severe

constraint on the application of effective adaptation

measures. In summary, workshop participants felt that

the priorities for protecting freshwater fish species were

to:

1. Address priority threats, including over-

abstraction of water and alien invasive

species;

2. Identify and fill knowledge gaps that are

constraining effective conservation and

management interventions;

3. Format the research outputs and

recommendations into policy-friendly

toolkits;

4. Enhance the capacity and efficiency of

conservation, compliance and regulatory

authorities;



5. Improve awareness and communication

amongst all society sectors about the

impacts and ramifications of climate

change on freshwater biodiversity.

The participants also provided suggestions for improving

the status quo, and these were integrated into

overarching approaches and actions and included:

• Prioritize catchments, species and ecosystems.

Suggestions for improving prioritization

processes for researchers and practitioners

were detailed, including establishing long-

term monitoring of population trends of

priority species and environmental variables

such as river flow, and engaging citizen

scientists in monitoring and advocacy.

• Improve planning. Develop integrated

management plans at a catchment scale and

research and develop Thresholds of Potential

Concern (TPCs). Align TPCs with water

quality and environmental flow (Ecological

Reserve) targets.

• Improve enforcement. Develop a database

on environmental compliance containing a list

of contacts and processes within the

organizations responsible for compliance

and enforcement at a municipal to national

level (this was considered a high priority).

• Improve communication. Develop a

communication strategy to promote the

awareness of climate change threats and link

these to national priorities.

3. MAINSTREAMING THE PROJECT RESULTS

INTO POLICY AND PROCESSES: AN UPTAKE

STRATEGY

Based on the feedback from stakeholders, it became

evident that there was a rich opportunity to collaborate

with the public sector to customize the scientific outcomes

of the research into a user-friendly format for

government uptake and to inform decision-making. The

Uptake Strategy presented in this document forms part

of the outcome of that resolution. The benefits of this

approach are not only applicable for mainstreaming

freshwater fish and climate change actions but, due to

the replicability of the proposed Uptake Strategy, this

approach can be adopted by a broad group of

stakeholders in the environmental sector, as well as

researchers, to help streamline their policy

recommendations and ensure that they are incorporated

into relevant government departments and decision-

making process.

3.1 Uptake Strategy: the approach

The following steps outline the protocol for developing

the Uptake Strategy, including specific examples and a

preliminary policy leverage analysis.

3.1.1 Policy-relevant outputs

From the outset the key policy-applicable data outputs

and recommendations generated by the research

findings should be identified. The first step is to clarify

the relevance of the data for policy and decision-

makers. These distilled data outputs, when used by

public and private sector decision-makers, should be of

a kind that will contribute meaningfully to conserving

freshwater fishes and ecosystems under a range climate

change scenarios. Based on the study team and

workshop discussions, the following datasets from the

climate change study were considered relevant and

would help create change if taken up by policy-makers,

planners and decision-makers:

• Freshwater fish species distribution,

vulnerability and conservation status in the

CFE;

• native fish species tolerances to flow, water

quality and temperature thresholds and

• geographical location of native fish species’

climate change refugia based on Species

Distribution Models (SDMs).

Although the results generated by the project are far

more extensive, these generally refer to the justification

and science behind the outputs, and are therefore useful

for policymakers from a metadata perspective and as

verification for the inclusion of these policy-relevant

outputs into their decision-making processes.

The next step is to determine the threats facing

freshwater fish which will allow a policy task team to

identify the appropriate sectors and institutions which

are mandated to address some of those threats. The

research has shown – and there was also broad

consensus – that current or future climate change impacts

are overshadowed by existing degradation of

freshwater ecosystems. This presents both a challenge

and an opportunity – a challenge in the sense that

current impacts need to be urgently halted or reversed,

and an opportunity in that short-term remedial actions

can provide a way of building long-term resilience.

Bearing this in mind, the report and workshop discussions

highlighted that some of the most critical threats for

freshwater fish persistence are as follows:

• Presence of non-native fish;



• over-abstraction of water from rivers

containing high fish biodiversity or listed

species;

• water quality impairment (pollution);

• lack of suitably protected climate refugia;

• lack of awareness in the public and private

sphere of the pervasive threats to freshwater

fishes and ecosystems;

• lack of political will to affect changes.

Sustainable Natural Resource Management (NRM) and

the implementation of the Ecological Reserve are the

platforms upon which the majority of these threats can

be resolved, but for the purposes of this document, we

discuss the means and methods to strategically integrate

the research findings into policy so that, across the

board, organizational mandates and resources are

directed towards improving the current status quo.

As the threats listed are clearly not only under the

mandate and control of conservation authorities, (for

example, water resource management is a DWS

mandate), we included the policies and processes of the

Environment, Conservation, Climate Change and Water

sectors in this first preliminary review.

3.1.2 Policy, planning and processes review

The next step in the Uptake Strategy is to undertake an

opportunity and gap analysis of current policies and

decision-making processes which are applicable to

freshwater fish conservation and sustainable water

planning. This requires sourcing the most up to date

policies and reviewing them to determine if there is

adequate or proactive climate change adaptation

objectives for protecting freshwater fish species and

ecosystems in the CFE.

Through the identification of current gaps in policies,

planning and processes, it is possible to define the

targets and key intervention points to include in the

strategy to mainstream the research outputs and

encourage uptake in policy development and planning.

The policy environment exists at multiple levels; from

global treaties, to government white papers, to

national, provincial and municipal legislation, to civil

society strategies. A preliminary birds’ eye view of the

policy and public planning landscape enabled the

study team to qualitatively assess and pinpoint those

specific sectors and processes which would result in

maximum gain for the effort of integrating the data

and recommendations arising from the freshwater fish

and climate change study.

Accordingly the relative value of leverage points for

catalysing fish conservation or resource management

was assessed at several levels and scales. Appendix A

Table 1 presents the results of the preliminary policy

and planning scoping review indicating where the

potential leverage points are at which interventions to

integrate project results will have high impact for low

effort. This preliminary assessment reviews a few

example policies and strategies at each scale –

national, provincial, NPO, local municipality and

international (treaties and conventions to which SA is

signatory) and examples of policies for the different

departments and sectors are provided. The Alignment,

Gaps and Impact Columns assess the alignment with the

project data, whether there are gaps in strategy which

the project could lobby for, and finally whether making

those changes would give high impact for

mainstreaming the project findings. For example,

policies at the national level are by necessity

overarching and usually fairly good at capturing

climate change adaption strategies but even when

there might be gaps, the effort to reward ratio is very

low – to change these policies at this level are far too

onerous for the impact gained. At provincial level there

are far more implementable policies where the Uptake

Strategy could have scalable impacts. If the Uptake

Strategy were to be implemented for the climate

change and fish project, as second review process

would be necessary to include some missing policies

from provincial authorities.

3.1.3 Targets: which policies, which decision-makers in

which departments?

The foundation of any policy intervention rests firstly in

the demonstration of its clear alignment with

government’s existing mandates, strategies and policy

directions. At a national scale, it is clear that there are

already adequate directives pertaining to freshwater

biodiversity conservation and climate change

adaptation principles contained in the various policies

and legislation of the Department of Environmental

Affairs (DEA) and the Department of Water and

Sanitation (DWS), but due to their scale, these policies’

objectives are of necessity broad and non-specific.

However, the overarching justification for conserving

freshwater biodiversity and protecting water resources

provides a framework within which to pursue more

specific interventions at a localized scale, such as the

use of the data in planning processes undertaken by

municipalities, provincial authorities, civil society and

parastatals.

Thus, with this in mind, the scope of the Uptake Strategy

can then be refined to identify leverage points within

the geographic boundary defining the scope of the

project – in this case, the CFE. As the national policies



adequately capture the broader principles, the next

step is to assess the policies and processes applicable

at a provincial or municipal level within the project

boundaries. For example, only local municipalities

would be targeted where the geographic overlay of

the municipality planning domain coincided with a

priority climate refuge.

This allows further refinement of the key strategic

points to target and thus saves on time and resources

required for the implementation of the strategy.

Using the first preliminary qualitative analysis (Table 1),

the following target policies, planning processes and

decision-making structures would facilitate the

mainstreaming of the CFE Climate Change and Fish

study results into sustainable development planning and

conservation actions. Note that the following is a guide

and not a conclusive list which would require further

prioritization during the implementation of the Uptake

Strategy:

• Conservation planning processes in the CFE that

include the Western, Northern and Eastern

Provincial conservation authorities. This includes

CBA map reviews, stewardship planning,

updating existing biodiversity distribution

databases, Red List Assessments and

Biodiversity Management Plans for Species.

• Conservation planning processes at relevant

parastatals. The distribution data of freshwater

fish and the climate refugia should be

integrated into reviews of National Freshwater

Ecosystem Priority Areas and the Strategic

Water Source Areas, and into National

Protected Areas Expansion Strategy reviews.

The data should be readily available for use

by all practitioners, including EIA specialists, on

SANBI’s BGIS website.

• Water use planning and decision-making

processes in the regional offices of the DWS.

Data would have high value in informing

Water Use Licence Applications (WULA) in

priority catchments. Recommendations

regarding maintenance of the Ecological

Reserve would be of high value in Strategic

Water Plans.

• Development planning processes in provincial

and local municipalities. Processes to integrate

project data would include reviews of Spatial

Development Frameworks (SDFs) and

Integrated Development Plans (IDPs).

• Overarching guidelines. The integration of the

recommendations should be included in

guidelines for sustainable development

planning, such as the Guidelines for

Biodiversity & Mining, and the Fynbos Forum

guidelines, which are widely used by

developers, Environmental Assessment

Practitioners, Environmental Impact Assessment

specialists, authorities and civil society.

3.1.4 Integrating ecosystem or overarching

recommendations into policy and planning:

The CFE Climate Change and Fish study provided broad

overarching recommendations to guide the mitigation of

threats to freshwater fish and ecosystems. Some of these

included:

• Encouraging the monitoring and implementation

of the Ecological Reserve in high-priority

catchments;

• Promoting tools such as the River Maintenance

Plans (RMPs) which encourage ecosystem-based

management and rehabilitation of river

systems;

• Clearing priority tributaries from alien invasive

fish species and reclaiming native fish habitat.

In order to integrate these broad recommendations into

policy, two approaches can be employed:

• Undertake a second more refined assessment

of the policies to identify those with relevance

in addressing the threats facing freshwater fish,

and capturing these policies in a policy-gap

database. The database would include key

information on when these policies are up for

review (most policies are reviewed on regular

intervals) and who the key contact person is to

approach. The onus would then be on the policy

task team to establish contact, contribute to

public participation process or stakeholder

input meetings and motivate for strategic

objectives to be included.

• Raising awareness of the necessity for these

ecosystem approaches within the water and

conservation sector. This would involve collating

the results and recommendations in a strategic

format to promote on various platforms and

through various media channels. There are

many government platforms to undertake this

such as stakeholder engagement meetings

during new policy formulation (e.g. provincial

climate change strategising), planning fora

(SANBI’s Biodiversity Information & Planning

Forum), the Northern Cape: Department of

Environment and Nature Conservation,

Kimberley Biodiversity Symposium, Department

of Environment and Development Planning

environmental-focused Committee meetings,



CapeNature’s Freshwater Forum, and the

Western Cape Wetlands Forum. There are also

many civil society channels within which this

information can be shared with key

stakeholders, such as conservation NGOs.

Target audiences associated with the necessary

interventions should be identified and a

package of talks or awareness materials

customised in the language or strategies of the

audience developed.

3.1.5 Action plan for developing freshwater & climate

change policy toolkits:

After identification of the leverage points, the data

needs to be packaged in a way that is useful and

accessible for uptake for each decision-maker or

planner. Thus an action plan for implementing the

strategy would involve:

I. Establish the leverage points for maximum

impact when using the project outputs. Some of

the key leverage points – CapeNature, DENC

and regional offices of the DWS – would

prove catalytic in integrating the data as their

objectives include using valid scientific data for

biodiversity or water-use decision making and

planning support systems (the Eastern Cape

Parks and Toursim Agency strategic objectives

document is an example1).

II. Identify the relevant representatives of the

decision-makers or policy-review points from

each department for the key leverage points,

and contact them. Develop and maintain a

database of key policy contacts for use by the

policy task team.

III. Develop a questionnaire for policy planners

and decision-makers about their specific data

formatting needs, the processes through which

their decisions are made, and how they

integrate data into decisions. Establish contact

with the relevant personnel and work through

the questionnaire to identify their requirements

on the format they would prefer the data in,

how it can be used to maximum effect, where it

can be stored for easy access, etc. Establish

whether there are any particular training

needs, for example, some stakeholders who

participated in the CFE Fish and Climate

Change workshop indicated an interest in

training on using the spatial data on the BGIS

website. Training could also include a

description of the ways in which this data could

add value to their decisions and policies and

furthermore align with broader government

strategic objectives.

IV. Based on the above criteria, develop a

concise, user-friendly and department-

customized manual or toolkit for

policymakers and decision-makers on how to

use the data, what its limitations are, what the

strategic alignment is required for the relevant

department from both a national and

departmental perspective. Importantly, a

mechanism through which the departmental

representative could inform the project team

each time they used the data in a

departmental process would need to be

developed. This would allow the team to assess

the impacts of the policy tool kit approach.

V. Develop appropriate short training modules,

which can easily be converted into a “Train the

Trainer” model. Through this approach,

representatives could take the training and

train other officials in their department.

VI. Disseminate and encourage adoption of the

toolkits through outscaling.

3.1.6 Toolkit formats and options:

• The toolkit itself would include the two datasets

(freshwater fish distribution and climate

refugia) in a format that policymakers and

decision-makers could easily integrate into their

planning, and would also be tailored to

provide maximum value for the targeted

user. For example, the climate refugia would

be formatted into shapefiles for easy spatial

overlay with other priority spatial data.

Depending on the needs of the department or

policy, there are many ways in which the

dataset could be presented, and various

analyses could be developed upon request, to

include in the toolkit. Examples of such would

be: Providing SANBI with an overlay of the

NFEPA layer and the two project datasets to

strengthen the case for protecting NFEPAs. (In

addition the CFE Climate Change and Fish

study data could be fed into the next NFEPA

review process.)

• Evaluating the risks of non-native fish to

existing populations of indigenous fish species

by overlaying these two datasets and

prioritising the hotspots of threat. These

hotspots could be used to inform the

prioritization process of selecting rivers for

alien fish removal (a strategic objective for

CapeNature) or implementing the Ecological

1 http://www.visiteasterncape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Strategic-Objective-Statements-Reference-Volume.pdf



Reserve (a DWS policy objective).

• Stewardship planning processes (NGO and

Provincial authority-driven) and Protected Area

Expansion Strategies (SANBI-driven) should

include an overlay of the protected areas and

the climate refugia, which would provide

information on gaps in the network not

adequately covered by protected areas. The

project data could also be used to inform the

placement of climate corridors designed in

biodiversity stewardship approaches and/or

further validate existing corridors where there

is overlap.

• Another potential spatial analysis, of use to civil

society or conservation NGOs, would be to

overlay critical fish areas or refugia with

distribution of existing conservation or

community projects in the landscape (e.g., Berg

River Improvement Plan, WWF project areas,

Endangered Wildlife Trust project areas). This

would then allow an opportunity to integrate

listed fish species’ requirements into the existing

projects. For example, by participating in the

‘CFE Fish and Climate Change’ workshop, the

Overberg Renosterveld Conservation Trust

realized that some of the fish species occurred

in their area of operation and they are now

starting a study on these species distributions as

it aligns well with their current strategy of

restoring riparian ecosystems.

• The DWS officials should be provided with a

unique dataset integrating the catchments, fish

species location data, climate refugia locations

(thus identifying rivers of special concern) and

include those rivers where the Ecological

Reserve has been determined. This information

should be used to inform decisions about water

use in catchments (such as in WULA for dams or

water abstractions) that might impact fish

species, or the integrity of priority aquatic

ecosystems and climate change refugia.

3.1.7 Reactive Interventions

A strategy for reactive interventions, for example, when

permit conditions for water use or biodiversity use are

not being met, or in cases of unauthorized water use

which is negatively impacting freshwater habitat should

be developed. In these reactive situations, it is necessary

to engage with compliance officials and the

development of a stakeholder database to guide both

the project team and the public would be extremely

useful. Some of the most frequent questions raised by

stakeholders in the freshwater sector include: “To whom

does one report unauthorized water use?”, “Where can

we find a pending WULA?” “To whom do we report a

pollution event?” (Appendix B Table 2).

3.1.8 Capacity-Gap Interventions

Finally, to address threats beyond the scope of decision-

makers and policies, for example, in situations where

organisational capacity is low, the Uptake Strategy

needs to be more proactive and start the process of

building co-operative governance approaches. This

might mean initiating projects that build and capacitate

multi-stakeholder platforms for integrated water

governance. This aspect is likely to become critical given

that there are currently major shortcomings in the water

sector including inter alia; staff- and skills-shortages,

ineffectual regulatory control, poorly resourced and

aging monitoring infrastructure and a lack of familiarity

with and interpretation of EWRs (Pollard and Du Toit

2011; Pitman 2011; de Villiers et al. 2012, from Annex

C). Alternatively, other leverage points could be

targeted to make the case for integrating water and

biodiversity, such as at Steering Committees set up

specifically by the state to encourage inter-

governmental planning.

The opportunities for public-private partnerships is also

an avenue worth exploring, given the success that the

Endangered Wildlife Trust’s and Freshwater Research

Centre’s Cape Critical Rivers project has had in building

two Ecological Reserve demonstration sites in areas of

high fish biodiversity.

In order to fully explore these innovations, a strategic

lessons-learning water symposium for freshwater

management and conservation roleplayers would be a

valuable to assess the costs and benefits of adopting co-

operative approaches, and would facilitate interactions

with other projects and could be instrumental in

developing a new suite of tools to encourage uptake

and mainstreaming.

4. CONCLUSIONS AND THE CASE FOR

MONITORING

The outcomes of the research results generated by the

study, “Assessing the effect of climate change on native

and non-native freshwater fishes of the Cape Fold

Ecoregion, South Africa” and the feedback from the

stakeholder workshop demonstrate an urgent need to

encourage the uptake of the recommendations and data

into policies, decision-making processes and conservation

planning. Through a preliminary review and analysis of

the policy and planning landscape, a high-impact

strategy to mainstream the outputs of the research and

encourage uptake at the policy and strategic planning

level was developed. This proposed strategy’s



objectives, targets and outputs are outlined and includes

the proposed production of a suite of customized high-

impact interventions or toolkits to facilitate uptake.

The potential impacts of the implementation of the

Uptake Strategy are significant and can be catalysed

at multiple scales. The way forward would be to source

funding for the adoption of the strategy and

development of the toolkits and policy outreach. As the

preliminary analysis revealed, time and resources can

be saved by focusing on high-impact key leverage

points, and these can be further refined in the next

phase.

Furthermore, these toolkits can be integrated with other

critical biodiversity data currently not being adequately

used in decision-making processes, which would thus

smooth the path for multiple environmental impacts. This

Uptake Strategy has ramifications beyond the species

approach and can facilitate streamlined policy decisions

and planning at local, provincial and national scales for

freshwater ecosystems as a whole.

However a caveat for all environmental datasets and

particular freshwater systems in the advent of climate

change, is the need to maintain long-term monitoring

sites in ecosystems, not only for understanding the

thresholds of change, but for evaluating the effects of

conservation interventions and assessing the

requirements for effective adaptation measures for

aquatic ecosystems.

REFERENCES

Dallas HF, Shelton JM, Paxton BR, Weyl OLF,

Reizenberg J, Bloy L & Rivers-Moore N. In Press.

Assessing the effect of climate change on native and non-

native freshwater fishes of the Cape Fold Ecoregion, South

Africa. Water Research Commission Report for Project

K5/2337. Water Research Commission, Pretoria, South

Africa.



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N

3 Lo

bby

for

proj

ect a

s a

dem

onst

ratio

n

show

case

for

DEA

Natu

ral R

esou

rce

Man

agem

ent

Proc

esse

s: P

rior

itiza

tion

for

Wor

king

for

Wet

land

s/W

ater

H

Y 4

Lobb

ying

for

proj

ect r

ecom

men

datio

ns w

rt

prio

ritie

s du

ring

rev

iew

DWS

Wat

er R

esou

rce

Man

agem

ent

Natio

nal W

ater

Res

ourc

e St

rate

gy

H

N

4

Broa

d ob

ject

ives

alig

n w

ell w

ith p

roje

ct

reco

mm

enda

tions

(eg

“The

NW

RS w

ill g

ive

guid

ance

rel

atin

g to

the

prot

ectio

n, u

se,

deve

lopm

ent,

cons

erva

tion,

man

agem

ent

and

cont

rol o

f wat

er r

esou

rces

. The

NW

RS

mus

t: pr

ovid

e fo

r at

leas

t the

req

uire

men

ts

of th

e re

serv

e.”)

Wor

k w

ith p

artn

ers

to lo

bby

for

impl

emen

ting

DWS

dire

ctiv

es w

ith a

lign

with



Table

1 (

cont’d).

Polic

y a

nd p

lann

ing s

copin

g r

evi

ew

.

Leve

l De

part

men

t Fi

eld

Exam

ples

Al

ignm

ent

Gaps

Im

pact

Ac

tion

or O

ppor

tuni

ties

Prov

inci

al

Cons

erva

tion:

Wes

tern

Cap

e

Polic

ies

Polic

ies

inac

cess

ible

but

the

“Con

serv

atio

n, tr

ansp

ort &

util

isat

ion

of

fres

hwat

er fi

sh in

the

Wes

tern

Cap

e) c

an

have

som

e ob

ject

ives

add

ed w

rt p

rote

ctin

g

fish

from

clim

ate

chan

ge to

o

M

Y 4

Lobb

ying

for

proj

ect r

ecom

men

datio

ns

duri

ng r

evie

w. L

obby

ing

for

fish

cons

erva

tion

stra

tegy

for

W C

ape

Deci

sion

-mak

ers

EIA/

per

mit

revi

ewer

s H

Y

4 Da

ta to

olki

t & r

atio

nale

/str

ateg

y al

ignm

ent

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Cons

erva

tion

Plan

ning

CBA

map

s, c

orri

dor

plan

ning

, ste

war

dshi

p

plan

ning

, Wes

tern

Cap

e Bi

odiv

ersi

ty

Spat

ial P

lan

(WCB

SP) (

Fig.

1), B

MP

for

spec

ies

H

Y 4

Data

tool

kit f

or c

onse

rvat

ion

plan

ners

. At

next

rev

iew

inte

grat

e da

ta in

to W

CBSP

(Fig

.1 )

Cons

erva

tion:

Nort

hern

Cap

e

Polic

ies

V fe

w p

olic

ies

M

Y 3

Lobb

ying

for

new

pol

icie

s w

rt fi

sh

cons

erva

tion

Deci

sion

-mak

ers

EIA/

per

mit

revi

ewer

s H

Y

4 Da

ta to

olki

t & r

atio

nale

/str

ateg

y al

ignm

ent

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Cons

erva

tion

Plan

ning

CBA

map

s, c

orri

dor

plan

ning

, ste

war

dshi

p

plan

ning

, Bio

dive

rsity

Man

agem

ent P

lan

for

spp

H

Y 4

Data

tool

kit f

or c

onse

rvat

ion

plan

ners

Cons

erva

tion:

East

ern

Cape

(Eas

tern

Cap

e Pa

rks

& To

uris

m A

genc

y)

Polic

ies

V fe

w p

olic

ies

– th

ere

is a

str

ateg

y L

Y 3

Lobb

ying

for

proj

ect r

ecom

men

datio

ns

duri

ng r

evie

w

Deci

sion

-mak

ers

EIA/

per

mit

revi

ewer

s H

Y

4 Da

ta to

olki

t & r

atio

nale

/str

ateg

y al

ignm

ent

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Cons

erva

tion

Plan

ning

CBA

map

s, c

orri

dor

plan

ning

, ste

war

dshi

p

plan

ning

H

Y

4 Da

ta to

olki

t for

con

serv

atio

n pl

anne

rs

Wat

er: W

este

rn C

ape

Regi

onal

Wat

er

reso

urce

Prio

ritiz

atio

n of

cat

chm

ents

– i.

e., i

n

catc

hmen

ts w

here

wat

er

refo

rm/a

lloca

tion/

ecol

ogic

al r

eser

ve

H

Y 4

Data

tool

kit &

rat

iona

le/s

trat

egy

alig

nmen

t

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers



Table

1 (

cont’d).

Polic

y a

nd p

lann

ing s

copin

g r

evi

ew

.

Leve

l De

part

men

t Fi

eld

Exam

ples

Al

ignm

ent

Gaps

Im

pact

Ac

tion

or O

ppor

tuni

ties

Wat

er: N

orth

ern

Cape

Regi

onal

Wat

er

reso

urce

man

agem

ent

Prio

ritiz

atio

n of

cat

chm

ents

– i.

e., i

n

catc

hmen

ts w

here

wat

er

refo

rm/a

lloca

tion/

ecol

ogic

al r

eser

ve

dete

rmin

atio

n or

ver

ifica

tion

proc

esse

s

are

happ

enin

g

H

Y 4

Data

tool

kit &

rat

iona

le/s

trat

egy

alig

nmen

t

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Wat

er u

se li

cenc

e ap

plic

atio

ns (W

ULA)

for

dam

s, w

ater

allo

catio

ns e

tc in

pri

ority

area

s

H

Y 4

Wat

er: E

aste

rn C

ape

Regi

onal

Wat

er

reso

urce

man

agem

ent

Prio

ritiz

atio

n of

cat

chm

ents

– i.

e., i

n

catc

hmen

ts w

here

wat

er

refo

rm/a

lloca

tion/

ecol

ogic

al r

eser

ve

dete

rmin

atio

n or

ver

ifica

tion

proc

esse

s

are

happ

enin

g

H

Y 4

Data

tool

kit &

rat

iona

le/s

trat

egy

alig

nmen

t

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Wes

tern

Cap

e:

Depa

rtm

ent o

f

Envi

ronm

ent a

nd

Deve

lopm

ent

Plan

ning

Envi

ronm

ent &

Plan

ning

at a

prov

inci

al s

cale

Stra

tegi

c Fi

ve-Y

ear

Plan

201

5-20

20: o

ne

obje

ctiv

e =

To le

vera

ge r

esou

rces

in

supp

ort o

f tou

rism

and

bio

dive

rsity

prio

ritie

s

Wes

tern

Cap

e Cl

imat

e Ch

ange

Res

pons

e

Stra

tegy

: “w

ell-

man

aged

nat

ural

sys

tem

s

that

red

uce

clim

ate

vuln

erab

ility

and

impr

ove

resi

lienc

e to

clim

ate

chan

ge

impa

cts;

”

H

Y 3

Data

tool

kit &

rat

iona

le/s

trat

egy

alig

nmen

t

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

Wes

tern

Cap

e’s

Prov

inci

al S

patia

l

Deve

lopm

ent F

ram

ewor

k H

Y

4 Da

ta to

olki

t & r

atio

nale

/str

ateg

y al

ignm

ent

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers

De

part

men

t:

Econ

omic

Deve

lopm

ent,

Envi

ronm

enta

l Aff

airs

and

Tour

ism

: Eas

tern

Envi

ronm

ent &

Plan

ning

at a

prov

inci

al s

cale

:

mai

nstr

eam

sust

aina

bilit

y an

d

East

ern

Cape

’s P

rovi

ncia

l Spa

tial

Deve

lopm

ent F

ram

ewor

k H

Y

3 Da

ta to

olki

t & r

atio

nale

/str

ateg

y al

ignm

ent

for

deci

sion

-mak

ers



Table

1 (

cont’d).

Polic

y a

nd p

lann

ing s

copin

g r

evi

ew

.

Leve

l De

part

men

t Fi

eld

Exam

ples

Al

ignm

ent

Gaps

Im

pact

Ac

tion

or O

ppor

tuni

ties

Dist

rict

&

Loca

l

Mun

icip

aliti

es

Plan

ning

& E

IAs

Plan

ning

and

deve

lopm

ent a

t a

loca

l sca

le

SDFs

/IDF

s H

Y

4

Afte

r id

entif

ying

the

key

mun

icip

aliti

es,

whe

n th

ey r

evie

w th

ese

fram

ewor

ks,

incl

ude

the

data

, pro

ject

pri

ority

are

as

duri

ng th

e PP

P.

Usin

g da

ta in

EIA

rev

iew

s

Civi

l Soc

iety

(NGO

s)

Cons

erva

tion/

Wat

er

/Clim

ate

Chan

ge

Stra

tegi

c

inte

rven

tions

WW

F po

licie

s ar

ound

sus

tain

able

wat

er u

se

M

Y 3

Rais

e aw

aren

ess

with

in o

rgan

izat

ions

of

nece

ssity

to in

tegr

ate

findi

ngs

into

cons

erva

tion.

EW

T’s C

CR s

trat

egic

pla

nnin

g M

Y

3

Para

stat

als

SANB

I/CS

IR

BGIS

/ Cl

imat

e

Stra

tegi

c W

ater

Sou

rce

Area

s H

Y

4 In

tegr

ate

data

into

pla

nnin

g

Sign

ator

y to

Inte

rnat

iona

l

Conv

entio

ns

Envi

ronm

ent

Biod

iver

sity

/

Clim

ate

Chan

ge/S

usta

inab

le

Deve

lopm

ent

Conv

entio

n on

Bio

logi

cal D

iver

sity

the

Conv

entio

n on

Inte

rnat

iona

l Tra

de in

Enda

nger

ed S

peci

es o

f Wild

Fau

na a

nd

Flor

a; C

onve

ntio

n on

Wet

land

s; U

nite

d

Natio

ns F

ram

ewor

k Co

nven

tion

on C

limat

e

Chan

ge; S

usta

inab

le D

evel

opm

ent G

oals

and

the

Aich

i Bio

dive

rsity

Tar

gets

.

M

N

3 Us

e to

str

ateg

ical

ly a

lign

rele

vanc

e of

proj

ect f

indi

ngs



Fig

2. Th

e p

roce

ss t

hroug

h w

hich

data

is

inte

gra

ted int

o p

olic

ies

and

deci

sion

pro

cess

es

usin

g t

he c

ons

erv

ation

pla

nnin

g t

ools o

f C

apeN

atu

re. Sour

ced f

rom

Pool-

Sta

nvlie

t, R

.,

Duf

fell-

Canha

m, A

., Penc

e, G

. &

Sm

art

, R. 20

17

. The

West

ern

Cap

e B

iodiv

ers

ity S

pa

tial Pla

n H

and

book.

Ste

llenb

osc

h: C

ap

eN

atu

re.

Lim

itations

of

this

revie

w:

• N

ot a

ll p

olic

ies

were

revi

ew

ed w

ithi

n th

e s

cope o

f th

is s

tudy. If t

he u

pta

ke S

trate

gy w

ere

to b

e im

ple

ment

ed f

or

the c

limate

cha

nge a

nd f

ish

pro

ject

, a s

eco

nd r

evi

ew

pro

cess

woul

d b

e n

ece

ssary

to inc

lude s

om

e m

issi

ng p

olic

ies

from

DEN

C a

nd o

ther

depa

rtm

ent

s.

• M

any

polic

ies

and

legis

lation

are

very

diffi

cult t

o o

bta

in, eve

n on

gove

rnm

ent

al w

ebsi

tes,

or

onl

y t

he o

ld o

utdate

d o

nes

are

ava

ilable

. A

gove

rnm

ent

cont

act

s

da

tab

ase

woul

d b

e a

use

ful re

sour

ce in

futu

re, no

t onl

y f

or

harn

ess

ing p

olic

ies

but

also t

o f

ind t

he r

ight

pers

on

withi

n th

e d

epa

rtm

ent

to s

hare

the

data

with.

• Th

e a

ssess

ment

is

also b

ase

d o

n p

ers

ona

l experi

enc

e to a

larg

e d

egre

e; it m

ight

not b

e a

use

ful in

terv

ent

ion

to p

rom

ote

fish

cons

erv

ation

in a

sect

or

whe

re f

ish

cons

erv

ation

is n

ot cu

rrent

ly b

ein

g u

sed in

deci

sion-

makin

g. In

terv

ent

ions

at th

at

leve

l re

qui

re lobb

yin

g a

nd a

dvo

cacy

, w

hich

ca

n b

e t

ime-c

ons

um

ing a

nd it w

oul

d b

e

more

str

ate

gic

the

n to

work

in

part

ners

hip w

ith

oth

er

org

ani

zations

who

se m

and

ate

is

to d

o p

olic

y lobb

yin

g.



A

PPEN

DIX

B Table

2 Q

ualit

ative

ana

lysi

s of

mana

gem

ent

que

stio

ns, in

form

ation

requi

rem

ent

s a

nd p

ote

ntia

l

act

ions

by r

ese

arc

hers

and

pra

ctitio

ners

to a

dd

ress

the

se r

equi

rem

ent

s.

Man

agem

en

t

Cat

ego

ry

Info

rmat

ion

req

uir

eme

nts

A

ctio

ns

Re

sear

cher

s P

ract

itio

ner

s (a

ll le

vels

)

Wh

ere

bes

t to

spen

d y

ou

r

mo

ney

in o

rder

to

add

ress

th

reat

?

Pri

ori

ty

catc

hm

ents

(WM

As)

W

hat

mak

es c

atch

men

ts r

esili

ent

to

clim

ate

chan

ge?

C

om

mo

n d

atab

ases

an

d G

IS la

yers

.

F

low

an

d t

emp

erat

ure

dat

a ac

ross

catc

hm

ent,

par

ticu

larl

y in

smal

l/is

ola

ted

cat

chm

ents

.

A

sses

s in

flu

ence

of

rive

rin

e h

abit

at, w

etl

and

con

dit

ion

an

d c

atch

men

t st

ate

on

th

erm

al a

nd

flo

w r

egim

es in

riv

ers.

M

od

el t

he

resp

on

se o

f fl

ow

s to

ch

ange

s in

clim

ate,

lan

d u

se, h

abit

at in

tegr

ity

and

wat

er

infr

astr

uct

ure

.

I

mp

lem

ent

lon

g-te

rm

mo

nit

ori

ng

of

po

pu

lati

on

s tr

end

s o

f

targ

et s

pec

ies

and

envi

ron

men

tal

vari

able

s.

E

nga

ge c

itiz

en s

cien

tist

s

in m

on

ito

rin

g.

P

rom

ote

cap

acit

y

dev

elo

pm

ent

to

sup

po

rt m

on

ito

rin

g.

M

ake

wat

er

mo

nit

ori

ng

dat

a m

ore

acc

essi

ble

.

Pri

ori

ty s

pec

ies

Vu

lner

abili

ty a

sses

smen

ts f

or

dif

fere

nt

taxa

to

det

erm

ine

exp

osu

re

risk

, tra

its,

sen

siti

vity

to

ch

ange

,

adap

tive

cap

acit

y an

d a

cces

s to

mic

ro-c

limat

es.

Fin

e sc

ale

loca

tio

n a

nd

dis

trib

uti

on

dat

a.

Id

enti

fica

tio

n o

f cl

imat

e ch

ange

refu

gia

for

dif

fere

nt

taxa

?

D

eter

min

e en

viro

nm

enta

l flo

w a

nd

hab

itat

req

uir

emen

ts f

or

fish

es a

nd

am

ph

ibia

ns?

Ass

ess

the

susc

epti

bili

ty o

f fi

shes

(an

d o

ther

bio

ta)

to d

isea

se, p

aras

ites

an

d o

ther

pat

ho

gen

s at

th

e e

dge

of

thei

r st

ress

ran

ge.

Enga

ge in

res

earc

h o

n b

iolo

gy a

nd

eco

logy

,

trai

ts, p

hys

iolo

gy a

nd

cri

tica

l hab

itat

req

uir

emen

ts.

Pri

ori

ty

eco

syst

ems

Dat

a o

n e

cosy

stem

se

rvic

es f

rom

rive

rs a

nd

sp

ecie

s.

Dev

elo

p r

esea

rch

into

eco

syst

em s

ervi

ces

and

val

uin

g sp

ecie

s an

d b

iod

ive

rsit

y.

Dev

elo

pin

g ap

pro

pri

ate

valu

e se

ts

app

rop

riat

e c

om

par

iso

ns

of

bio

div

ersi

ty,

eco

syst

em s

erv

ices

an

d e

con

om

ic g

ain

s.



Table

2 (

cont’d)

Q

ualit

ative

ana

lysi

s of

mana

gem

ent

que

stio

ns, in

form

ation

requi

rem

ent

s a

nd p

ote

ntia

l

act

ions

by r

ese

arc

hers

and

pra

ctitio

ners

to a

dd

ress

the

se r

equi

rem

ent

s.

Man

age

me

nt

C

ate

gory

In

form

atio

n r

eq

uir

em

en

ts

Act

ion

s

Re

sear

che

rs

Pra

ctit

ion

ers

(al

l le

vels

)

Ho

w d

o w

e

imp

rove

effi

cien

cy in

man

agem

ent

and

con

serv

atio

n?

Pla

nn

ing

F

ine

Scal

e (t

rib

uta

ry, c

atch

men

t, a

nd

foca

l sp

ecie

s) c

on

serv

atio

n p

lan

s fo

r

pri

ori

ty a

reas

.

W

hat

are

th

e o

pti

on

s fo

llow

ing

ext

rem

e ev

ents

(ex

tirp

atio

ns)

.

In

form

atio

n o

n e

ffec

tive

nes

s o

f

con

serv

atio

n/m

anag

emen

t

tech

niq

ues

. Wh

at w

ork

s an

d w

hat

do

es n

ot?

D

evel

op

“th

resh

old

s o

f co

nce

rn”

that

can

be

use

d t

o g

uid

e m

anag

emen

t ac

tio

ns

e.g

.,

wh

at f

low

leve

ls a

re c

om

plia

nce

tri

gger

s?

R

ese

arch

into

bu

ffer

s fo

r ex

trem

e ev

ents

e.g.

, co

nst

ruct

ion

of

arti

fici

al p

oo

l re

fugi

a

and

/or

rest

ock

ing

stra

tegi

es a

fter

ext

irp

atio

n

even

ts.

D

evel

op

inte

grat

ed

man

agem

ent

pla

ns

on

a

foca

l sp

ecie

s o

r

catc

hm

ents

.

D

evel

op

str

ate

gy f

or

com

mu

nic

atin

g va

lues

to s

take

ho

lder

s.

C

lear

ly d

efin

e m

and

ate

and

re

spo

nsi

bili

ties

of

dif

fere

nt

dep

artm

ents

and

age

nci

es.

Enfo

rcem

ent

Enfo

rcem

ent

pla

ns

and

pro

ced

ure

s.

Dat

a o

n c

om

plia

nce

an

d c

ase

his

tori

es

Dat

abas

e o

f w

ho

’s-w

ho

in t

he

enfo

rcem

ent

and

co

mp

lian

ce c

hai

n

at m

un

icip

al, W

M, P

rovi

nci

al a

nd

Nat

ion

al le

vel.

Lega

l res

earc

h in

to c

ase

his

tori

es f

or

legi

slat

ive

bac

kup

. Dev

elo

p a

lega

l to

ol-

kit

on

en

viro

nm

enta

l flo

w r

equ

irem

ents

(co

mp

lian

ce t

rigg

ers)

.

D

evel

op

sys

tem

fo

r

Tran

sgre

ssio

ns

and

lega

l bac

k u

p a

nd

det

erre

nts

i.e.

wh

om

sets

fin

es a

nd

wh

ere

is

the

legi

slat

ive

bac

kup

D

epar

tmen

ts.

Co

mm

un

icat

ion

C

om

mu

nic

atio

n s

trat

egy

on

clim

ate

chan

ge a

nd

imp

acts

fo

r al

l lev

els

Dev

elo

p c

om

mu

nic

atio

n s

trat

egy

to r

aise

awar

enes

s o

f aq

uat

ic e

cosy

stem

th

reat

s.

Iden

tify

an

d h

igh

ligh

t aq

uat

ic e

qu

ival

ents

of

cham

pio

n s

pec

ies

such

as

the

pan

da

and

rhin

o.

Dev

elo

p a

str

ateg

y to

lin

k co

nse

rvat

ion

an

d

clim

ate

chan

ge t

o N

atio

nal

pri

ori

ties

e.g

.,

foo

d s

ecu

rity

, eco

no

mic

em

po

we

rmen

t an

d

R

aise

th

e p

rofi

le o

f

clim

ate

chan

ge im

pac

ts

at a

Pro

vin

cial

an

d

Nat

ion

al le

vel.

D

evel

op

str

ate

gy t

o

com

mu

nic

ate

res

ult

s

for

po

licy

mak

ers

.

D

evel

op

pu

blic

Freshwater fishes of the Cape Fold Ecoregion and Climate ... · native freshwater fishes of the...

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Transcript of Freshwater fishes of the Cape Fold Ecoregion and Climate ... · native freshwater fishes of the...