Protecting Habitats through OECMs

The project has several key objectives:

1. Domesticate International OECM Criteria: Adapt and develop OECM metrics that are relevant to South Africa’s unique context, ensuring that international standards are meaningfully applied locally.
2. Standardise OECM Implementation Nationwide: Roll out the OECM process across all nine provinces, working closely with provincial conservation agencies and departments to co-develop and embed OECMs into their conservation strategies.
3. Capacity Building and Stakeholder Engagement: Provide dedicated training and develop accessible information materials to support provincial and sector-wide understanding and implementation of OECMs.
4. Integrate Marine and Terrestrial Sectors: Assist in ensuring that OECMs are understood and adopted in the marine sector, enabling both land and sea to contribute to global biodiversity targets.
5. Strengthen Legal Recognition: Work towards improved legal recognition and standardisation of OECMs, encouraging greater participation from landowners and sea scape managers and ensuring long-term conservation impact.
6. Support Under-Recognised Conservation Mechanisms: Identify and develop guidelines for conservation mechanisms (such as Biosphere Reserve buffer zones, wildlife ranching, and estuaries) that currently fall short of OECM criteria, enabling them to achieve formal recognition.

This project is designed for both the general public and conservation professionals. It will:

• Recognise and support the efforts of landowners, seascape managers and governing authorities, communities and organisations contributing to biodiversity conservation outside traditional protected areas.
• Provide conservation professionals with standardised tools, training and guidelines to implement OECMs effectively.
• Help South Africa meet its commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Biodiversity Framework.

OECMs are a powerful tool for recognising and supporting conservation efforts that occur outside formal protected areas. By expanding the Conservation Estate through OECMs, South Africa can better protect its rich biodiversity, foster collaboration across sectors and ensure that a wider range of landscapes and seascapes contribute to a sustainable future.

An area or seascape that has conservation value and that is not already a declared Protected Area in terms of the National Environmental Management Protected Areas Act (NEM:PAA) (Act No. 57 of 2003) can potentially be recognised and reported as an OECM and contribute to South Africa’s conservation targets. Examples can include farms, wetlands, botanical gardens, military land, community managed land, coastal and marine areas, wine estates, indigenous forests that have intact natural areas which have conservation value. There are many others.

Recognition and reporting of an area as an OECM is a voluntary process and requires consent by the area’s governing authority. Provided this consent is obtained and the area meets the 8 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) criteria and aligns with the National OECM Norms and Standards, the area can be recognised and reported as an OECM. Once consent is obtained, a short assessment process is entered into and is followed by an approval by the relevant Provincial Conservation Authority before going to DFFE for recording and reporting to the CBD. An OECM can lose its status should a landowner or seascape governance authority choose to withdraw, the conservation area undergoes a land use change, or the area is shown to no longer have conservation value.

Some OECMs can be open to the public if the area has a use, such as eco-tourism, or with the governing authority’s permission. Recognition and reporting as an OECM does not automatically mean that the area is accessible to the public.

Participation in a process to be recognised and reported as an OECM is completely voluntary and requires consent by the landowner or governance authority. Recognition as an OECM does not remove rights and a landowner would retain full title and ownership rights. Depending on whether a contract is entered into or not, for example a Biodiversity Agreement or a conservation Servitude Agreement, there are no legal obligations. Potential benefits would depend on the context of the area. For example, a community owned area could potentially benefit from possible funding opportunities with being recognised as an OECM. A wildlife ranch or eco-tourism operation could benefit from the marketing opportunity provided by recognition as an OECM while a formal agricultural property could benefit from additional certification credits which may be available with OECM recognition.

Landowners, marine area governance authorities, and community leaders can approach their Provincial Conservation Agency or an NGO such as BirdLife South Africa or World Wildlife Fund South Africa (WWF SA) for assistance should they wish their areas to be recognised and reported as OECMs. Any property with biodiversity/conservation value and where the governing authority/landowner has a long term commitment to managing the area in a conservation friendly way, can qualify.  Conservation NGOs will always welcome contributions or donations toward their work in furthering South Africa’s conservation legacy and protecting our natural heritage. This includes working with people to recognise and report OECMs.