Assessment Report - Erica swaziensis

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	ERICALES	ERICACEAE

Scientific Name:	Erica swaziensis
Species Authority:	E.G.H.Oliv.
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	-
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Vulnerable B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)
Year Assessed:	2023
Assessor/s:	Braun, K. & Loffler, L.
Reviewer/s:	Raimondo, D.
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: This species is only known from a very restricted area in northwestern Eswatini, with an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 41.414 km², and an area of occupancy (AOO) of 24 km². It is known from eight locations and is experiencing habitat degradation from ongoing livestock grazing and frequent burning. It is therefore assessed as Vulnerable under Criterion B.
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species is known from northwestern Eswatini, from the Mbabane and Pine Valley areas, and in the Forbes Reef area. Precise locality information is not available for some of the older records, and the locations might coincide with more recent records.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini;

Population
Population:	No detailed population surveys have been conducted for this species. For the purposes of this assessment, the continued existence of this plant has been assumed for localities from older records. The plant is difficult to find due to its small size and its occurrence within densely vegetated grassland, so it might well still occur in these areas. The population trend is unknown.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	This plant has been found in vlei margins and seep areas most often with sedges near granite outcrops. The locations fall within the vegetation type KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16) (Mucina et. al. 2018).
List of Habitats:	4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Threats
Major Threat(s):	The known locations for this species are not in any protected area, some are subject to the threat of urban development, others are suspected to be impacted from ongoing decline in habitat quality due to heavy livestock grazing and too frequent burning.
List of Threats:	1 Residential & commercial development 1.1 Housing & urban areas 2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming

Conservation Actions
Conservation Actions:	None of the currently known localities of this plant fall within protected areas, although the most recently discovered location is within a proposed conservancy.
List of Conservation Actions:	1 Land/water protection 1.1 Site/area protection 3 Species management 3.4 Ex-situ conservation 3.4.2 Genome resource bank

Bibliography
	Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A.W., de la Torre, J. and Scott, B. 2011. Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT geospatial conservation tool. In: Smith V, Penev L (Eds) e-Infrastructure for data publishing in biodiversity science. . ZooKeys 150: 117-126. Mucina, L., Rutherford, M.C. and Powrie, L.W. (Editors). 2018. The Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Available at: http://bgis.sanbi.org/Projects/Detail/186.

Bibliography

Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A.W., de la Torre, J. and Scott, B. 2011. Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT geospatial conservation tool. In: Smith V, Penev L (Eds) e-Infrastructure for data publishing in biodiversity science. . ZooKeys 150: 117-126.
Mucina, L., Rutherford, M.C. and Powrie, L.W. (Editors). 2018. The Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Available at: http://bgis.sanbi.org/Projects/Detail/186.

Citation: