Conservation Action Plan for threatened Cape Fold Fishes
A blueprint for conserving threatened Fynbos Fish by 2035
the cape’s freshwater fishes in freefall
Freshwater fish are South Africa’s most threatened species group. Despite this, they are also among the least-protected groups in the country. The Cape Fold Ecoregion (CFE) has the highest proportion of threatened fishes of any region in South Africa – these nine species are the focus of this project. There is an urgent need to identify priority conservation actions for these species to ensure strategic allocation of limited conservation resources and guide future conservation efforts. Such a plan does not exist at present.
A Conservation Action Plan for threatened Cape Fold Fishes
This project aims to improve the conservation status of the Caps’s most threatened freshwater fishes by developing an informed and comprehensive conservation plan for these nine species. This will be achieved through four key activities:
- A strategically planned river survey to ascertain population parameters, threats and conservation opportunities for each threatened species,
- A process of data analysis to integrate historical fish data with newly obtained information and to create updated distribution maps for each species,
- An expert workshop culminating in a conservation matrix detailing priority conservation actions for each threatened species, and
- The preparation and publication of a “Conservation Action Plan for threatened Cape Fold Fishes” – a blueprint for conserving threatened Fynbos Fish by 2035, including detailed information on species distributions, threats and conservation opportunities.
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