Proceedings of Important Plant Areas workshops held in Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa

SABONET Report No. 39
T.J. Smith
2005.
ISBN 1-910076-23-X.
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This publication documents the regional Important Plant Areas (IPA) workshop that was held in Pretoria in 2004. Criteria for the selection of IPAs, as well as summaries of presentations and discussion-sessions are given. Also included are sections on national IPA workshops held in Mozambique and Namibia, which aimed to select IPA sites in these two countries. South Africa's contribution includes a summary of a desktop study that aimed at identifying target regions within South Africa, within which representative IPAs can be selected.

The initial southern African IPAs Workshop was held under the auspices of the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET). The aim was to introduce the IPA initiative and discuss the criteria for identification of IPAs within southern Africa. The initiation of the programme will help to address Target 5 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and to move the SABONET project forward in terms of conservation issues.

The objectives of the workshop were to:
Review current knowledge and data sources available for the SABONET countries.
Review possible approaches to identifying Important Plant Areas.
Discuss the use of IPAs as a conservation tool within the SABONET countries.
Develop an understanding of the methodologies required for defining or refining the existing information for IPAs in the SABONET region.
Provide recommendations on the most appropriate methodologies to select IPAs in southern Africa.