Gauteng has conserved less than 1% of threatened Highveld Grassland

By Lebone Rodah Mosima

Gauteng has formally conserved less than 1% of its Highveld Grassland even though more than 80% of the province falls within the threatened ecosystem, Environment MEC Ewan Botha said.

Speaking at Gauteng’s commemoration of the International Day for Biological Diversity on Tuesday at Roodeplaat Nature Reserve, Botha said the country’s economic heartland was also one of its most ecologically vulnerable regions.

“Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa (by land area). We are also the most densely populated, the most economically pressured, and the most ecologically compromised,” Botha said, according to his prepared remarks.

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“We carry over 3,300 plant species and approximately 720 recorded animal species. The biological inheritance of 16.4 million people. And it is disappearing faster than most of us are willing to admit.”

South Africa is facing mounting pressure to meet