South African Cape Shrublands & Mountain Forests bioregion
The bioregion’s land area is provided in units of 1,000 hectares. The conservation target is the combined Global Safety Net (GSN1) areas for the component ecoregions. The protection level indicates the percentage of the GSN goal that is currently protected on a scale of 0-10. N/A means data is not available at this time.
The South African Cape is the only Mediterranean bioregion in the Afrotropics realm. It is confined to the small southern coastline of the continent and incorporates the succulent Karoo ecoregion, which is tightly interlinked with the dominant shrublands. The bioregion, located in the Southern Afrotropics subrealm, contains five ecoregions—Knysna-Amatole Montane Forests (15), Albany Thickets (88), Fynbos Shrubland (89), Renosterveld Shrubland (90), Succulent Karoo Xeric Shrublands (110)—and adjacent marine areas. It is an area of extraordinarily high plant diversity and endemism that includes the Cape Floristic Region, one of only 7 floral kingdoms in the world, with over 9000 plant species, two-thirds of which are endemic. The total land area of this bioregion is nearly 18 million hectares.
The South African Cape Shrublands & Mountain Forests bioregion is part of the Southern Afrotropics subrealm and is made up of five ecoregions: Renosterveld Shrubland [1], Fynbos Shrubland [2], Succulent Karoo Xeric Shrublands [3], Knysna-Amatole Montane Forests [4], Albany Thickets [5].
Learn more about each of the Central South African Cape Shrublands & Mountain Forests ecoregions below.
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