Threatened Species Programme
In one of the continent's largest collaborative conservation projects to date, South Africa has become the first megadiverse country to fully assess the status of its entire flora. The Red List of South African Plants Online provides up to date information on the national conservation status of South Africa's indigenous plants.
The conservation status of plants indicated on the Red List of South African Plants Online represents the status of the species within South Africa's borders. This means that when a species is not endemic to South Africa, only the portion of the species population occurring within South Africa has been assessed. The global conservation status, which is a result of the assessment of the entire global range of a species, can be found on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species: http://www.iucnredlist.org
Contribute your observations of species of conservation concern to Red List Alert on iNaturalist
Did you know that one in four South African plant species is of conservation concern? Have you spotted one of them? Now you can notify the Red List team at SANBI's Threatened Species Programme of your find by adding your observation to the Red List Alert project on iNaturalist.
Welcome to the Red List of South African plants version 2024
This website hosts all national assessments conducted for plants. The latest version includes 1657 updated assessments and 1225 new maps. Over the past three years, SANBI's Threatened Species Unit has focused on reevaluating assessments of succulent plants, proteas, newly described species and additional species identified by field botanists as needing status changes. Of these, 83 species are listed for the first time on the Red List.
Many species have changed status in this update. Interestingly, the majority of these (83%) are due to improved information available since these species were previously assessed. New information is mostly attributed to the amazing work undertaken by citizen scientists via iNaturalist. Other changes are the result of taxonomic revisions leading to changes in species delineations. Unfortunately, 17% of the revised assessments are for species that have become more threatened due to either intensifying existing threats or emerging threats.
The Northern Cape has experienced a remarkable increase in the number of threatened species, primarily attributed to mining activities, succulent poaching, and climate change. This Red List update includes many species that are rapidly declining to extinction as a result of the surge in succulent poaching experienced since 2020. This impact is evident in the uplisting of 85 Conophytum species, initially classified in 2020 as Least Concern, Critically Rare, and Rare, now all listed under a category of threat. Overall, 96% of all Conophytum species are now designated as Vulnerable or higher. Many other caudiform and geophytic species are also under pressure with trends changing rapidly as different species become targeted by this growing illegal wildlife trade.
Climate Change is now a prominent threat to our flora, 12% of newly updated assessments are affected by climate change. The extended drought in Namaqualand that started in 2012 and lasted until 2021 has caused substantial population declines. A few harrowing examples of species declining due to climate change include the charismatic tree aloes Aloidendron pillansii; Aloidendron dichotomum, and other Richtersveld iconic species, including the Halfmens Pachypodium namaquanum and Aloe pearsonii. Mining is causing alarming loss, 51 species are threatened with extinction due to diamond mining along the Orange River, while a further 43 have been listed as threatened as a result of the proposed Boegoebaai Port development and associated renewable and green hydrogen developments. Never before has South Africa’s flora faced such rapidly increasing threats. We hope that this red list update provides the necessary data to help conservation stakeholders identify species and sites that need urgent management actions to reverse declines.
