What would you like to search for?

Expand our Network of Conservation Areas
© WWF / Angus Burns

The welcome adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022 – along with the inclusion of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) as a tool to achieve its targets by 2030 – reaffirmed our conviction that inclusive land stewardship has an important role to play in halting and reversing biodiversity loss.
Levers for Change

Between 2020 and 2025, WWF’s approach to expanding South Africa’s conservation estate focused on two key levers: purchasing strategic tracts of land in priority landscapes (usually adjacent to existing national parks and reserves to expand the footprint of these protected areas) and partnering with the owners and residents of ecologically important land to secure it through biodiversity stewardship agreements – whether legally binding or not – to improve the way land is managed.
WWF works to reconnect people to our most valuable and vulnerable landscapes.

Learn more about our efforts to protect priority landscapes.

Our Land Work
© WWF / Angus Burns
INCLUSIVE PROTECTION AT SCALE

The proposed Grasslands National Park in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg will, once formally declared, be celebrated as the first national park in South Africa to be built entirely on the principles of inclusive conservation. Spanning more than 22 000 hectares (ha) so far, and more than five years in the making, the proposed park is a tapestry of private- and communally owned property woven together with working agricultural farmland, which has been secured through a range of voluntary stewardship agreements with communal and private landowners.

These agreements unlock a range of benefits for the landowners – including tax incentives, access to funding for conservation efforts, improved freshwater flows for agricultural production and opportunities for sustainable ecotourism within the unique grassland biome – while protecting the land against unsustainable uses.
A Proven Method with Proven Benefits

WWF has a long history of securing land through stewardship agreements that unlock proven benefits for both people and nature. As an example, over the past decade, many commercial fruit and wine farms under our Conservation Champions programme have benefited from year-round water (where water was once seasonal) thanks to biodiversity stewardship agreements that committed them to clearing thirsty invasive alien plants off their lands. 

OUR CONSERVATION CHAMPIONS
Boschendal has noted a return of natural fynbos to their property.

The return comes after consistent clearing efforts on the wine farm over the past 10 years – a big win for the small yet spectacular Cape Floristic Region.

LEARN MORE
© Peter Chadwick / WWF
Success across biomes

Like in the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo, similar positive outcomes have been observed in stewardship focal areas across South Africa’s most important and vulnerable biomes. When WWF supported the Bambanani and Ukuthanda Ukukhanya communal property associations (CPAs) in committing 1 680 ha of ecologically important southern Mpumalanga grasslands to formal protection, a safe habitat for various threatened bird species was secured for the next three decades.

At the same time, the CPAs and their communities have benefited from a more secure water supply due to the clearing of invasive alien plants and improved rangeland management, as well as strengthened fire preparedness. These improved conditions have contributed to greater agricultural yields, with a related boost in income.
Growing Conservation Areas

With precious little time left to achieve the Global Biodiversity Framework’s targets and halt biodiversity loss, WWF will continue working with landowners and residents to be stewards of their land, building on the 226 088 ha of land added to the “ladder of protection” over the past five years.

 

AS AT 1 JULY 2020

  

AS AT 30 JUNE 2025

HIGHEST LEVELS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Land declared under the National Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act (2003), including national parks, nature reserves and protected environments

 

Total WWF-owned land declared:
211 200 ha


Total land acquired by WWF for National Parks Trust of South Africa and declared:
95 770 ha


Land protected under stewardship agreements declared with our support:
81 168 ha
Of which
81 168 ha was privately owned land
0 ha was communally owned land

  

 

Total WWF-owned land declared:
267 582 ha


Total land acquired by WWF for National Parks Trust of South Africa and declared:
109 473 ha


Land protected under stewardship agreements declared with our support:
199 566 ha
Of which
193 033 ha is privately owned land
6 533 ha is communally owned land
 

OTHER LEGALLY BINDING AGREEMENTS

Land protected under Biodiversity Act, contract law, property law and OECM criteria. This category includes biodiversity agreements, conservation servitude agreements, WWF Conservation Champion agreements and so on

 

Land protected under other legally binding biodiversity agreements: 
145 716 ha 
Of which  
54 088 ha was privately owned land 
91 628 ha was communally owned land 

  

 

Land protected under other legally binding biodiversity agreements: 
174 054 ha
Of which 
68 434 ha is privately owned land  
105 620 ha is communally owned land
 

NON-BINDING BIODIVERSITY AGREEMENTS

Land protected in the form of conservancy areas and by entering biodiversity partnerships

 

Land protected under non-binding biodiversity agreements: 
40 374 ha 
Of which 
40 374 ha was privately owned land 
0 ha was communally owned land 

  

 

Land protected under non-binding biodiversity agreements: 
49 641 ha 
Of which 
49 641 ha is privately owned land
0 ha is communally owned land
     

Going forward

We will continue working with conservation partners, landowners and communities to protect South Africa's priority landscapes for the benefit of people and the environment.

 

We are currently already working to secure several hectares for protection by 2030:

270 433

13 760

0

For highest levels of environmental protection

For other legally binding agreements 

For non-binding biodiversity agreements 

 
BACK TO 2020–2025 REPORT