Biodiversity

Data Sources & Tools

Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS) A comprehensive platform for accessing and visualising freshwater biodiversity data across southern Africa. Includes fish, invertebrate, and algae occurrence records (See also: YouTube demonstration)

South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Resources Research outputs, species lists, threat assessments, and biodiversity monitoring data from South Africa's national biodiversity authority

GBIF – South Africa Global Biodiversity Information Facility occurrence records for species observed in South Africa, searchable by taxon, habitat, and location

iNaturalist – South Africa Citizen science observations of plants, animals, and fungi across South Africa, useful for tracking species distributions and seasonal changes

IUCN Red List – Freshwater Species Global threat assessments for freshwater fish, amphibians, molluscs, and other taxa, with regional filtering available for southern Africa

Invasive Species

A Practical Guide to Manage Alien Invasive Plants – WWF Guidance on identifying and managing invasive alien plants that threaten riparian and wetland biodiversity

SAPIA – South African Plant Invaders Atlas (SANBI) Distribution data for invasive alien plants across South Africa

South Africa's Freshwater Ecoregions and Ecosystem Types

South Africa's rivers and wetlands are classified through several complementary frameworks. At the global scale, the country spans roughly six of the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (Abell et al. 2008) – including the Cape Fold ecoregion, a global hotspot of fish endemism. Nationally, the foundational layer is the set of 31 Level I ecoregions (Kleynhans et al. 2005), defined by physiography, climate, geology and vegetation, which underpin the Department of Water and Sanitation's ecological condition and Reserve assessments.

River and wetland ecosystem types are delineated in the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA), South Africa's flagship state-of-biodiversity report. The most recent edition, NBA 2025 (SANBI, launched December 2025), is the fourth iteration and the first published as an open-access digital platform. River types are built from the Level I ecoregions combined with flow regime and geomorphology (derived from the NFEPA network), while inland wetlands use a revised hydrogeomorphic typology of four HGM classes subdivided into 82 provisional regional types, aligned to the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology. NBA 2025 applies the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems framework across all realms.

The assessment's findings are sobering for water resource management: more than 60% of river and wetland ecosystem types are threatened, and fewer than 10% are well protected – making freshwater the least-protected realm in the country. Freshwater fishes remain South Africa's most threatened species group. These pressures –  altered flows, pollution, land-use change and biological invasions – have not abated since NBA 2018.

Key resources

• National Biodiversity Assessment 2025 (freshwater realm): https://nba.sanbi.org.za

• Freshwater Biodiversity Information System (FBIS): https://freshwaterbiodiversity.org

• NFEPA Atlas — Nel et al. (2011), WRC Report TT 500/11

• SANBI spatial metadata catalogue (NBA river/wetland layers): https://metadata.sanbi.org

References
Abell, R. et al. 2008. Freshwater ecoregions of the world. BioScience 58(5): 403–414.
Kleynhans, C.J., Thirion, C. & Moolman, J. 2005. A Level I River Ecoregion Classification System for South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. DWAF, Pretoria.
Nel, J.L. et al. 2011. Atlas of Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas in South Africa. WRC Report TT 500/11.
SANBI 2025. National Biodiversity Assessment 2025: The status of South Africa's biodiversity. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.

Investment & Policy

DFFE – Biodiversity Sector Investment Portal A portal connecting investors and funders with biodiversity conservation opportunities in South Africa