The Swaziland National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, 1999

This is the draft Swaziland National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan and as such is a working document and not a formal policy document. It should not be interpreted as the policy of the Government of Swaziland until it has been finally agreed and adopted.

6.0 Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring progress is vital to the BSAP process. The SEAP document has discussed relevant indicators and monitoring systems for that process. These will not be repeated again here. Presented below are steps for monitoring the BSAP processes only. However, since the BSAP and SEAP processes are interconnected (see Chapter 10.0, above), the monitoring outlined below should be seen as part of the overall SEAP monitoring process and not in isolation.

There are in fact two separate issues that require monitoring.

The first is the BSAP implementation process itself. In other words, is BSAP being implemented according to the plan?

The second is the state of Swaziland’s biodiversity. In other words, is the implementation of BSAP improving the conservation status of Swaziland’s biodiversity? The distinction is important. By way of example, the BSAP implementation process may be proceeding according to plan, but the erosion of biodiversity could still be increasing.

Monitoring the BSAP process

Monitoring the progress of BSAP should be a relatively simple process. The priority actions identified by BSAP have been defined as clearly as possible (including the provision of a time-frame) so as to allow easy assessment of progress. The Biodiversity Implementation Committee should review the progress of BSAP on a regular basis. The responsibility of actual monitoring would fall on the Biodiversity Officer (SEA).

Monitoring the conservation status of biodiversity

Monitoring the state of biodiversity in Swaziland is a less simple task. For a start, information on biodiversity in Swaziland is patchy and incomplete (see Chapter 2.0). The high levels of biodiversity, combined with a shortage of local technical expertise, limit the quantity and quality of any monitoring exercise. A common solution is the use of indicators. Indicators express information, collected from a complex system, in a simplified form. Three broad categories of indicators have been identified as suitable for the monitoring of SEAP: 1) socio-economic indicators; 2) environmental indicators; and 3) indicators of sustainable development (for further details see the SEAP document). Relevant indicators of the state of biodiversity need to be developed for Swaziland.

In the Swaziland context, the following groups could potentially serve as indicators of biodiversity: state of the vegetation; macro-invertebrates (aquatic systems); birds (aquatic and terrestrial systems); and possibly frogs (aquatic systems). This does not imply that other groups are unsuitable as indicators, but rather that their potential has not yet been explored. In addition to the above-mentioned groups, endangered or endemic species of organisms could also act as indicators.

This page was last updated on 11 October 2005