Assessment Report - Eriosema rufescens

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	FABALES	FABACEAE

Scientific Name:	Eriosema rufescens
Species Authority:	Schinz
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	-
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Endangered B1ab(ii,iii)+2ab(ii,iii)
Year Assessed:	2023
Assessor/s:	Braun, K.
Reviewer/s:	Raimondo, D.
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: This species has a very limited distribution and very few known locations, with an extent of occurrence (EOO) of 3,462.102 km² and area of occupancy (AOO) of 16 km². It is experiencing ongoing loss in area of occupancy and habitat quality due to overgrazing by livestock, as well as expansion of forestry and agricultural developments. Based on this, it has been assessed as Endangered, under Criterion B.
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species is known from three subpopulations within Eswatini in the north west of the country, and one subpopulation from Giant's Castle National Park in South Africa.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini; KwaZulu-Natal;

Population
Population:	This species is only known from four old collections that all predate 1975 and one photographic record from Malolotja Nature Reserve taken in 1995, none of these have detailed locality descriptions. Fieldwork carried out in 2022 in Eswatini in the areas where two of the historic collections were made failed to locate this plant, but this does not yet confirm its absence, so for the purposes of this assessment, it has been assumed that it still occurs in the locations noted on older records. The population is inferred to be declining due to habitat degradation by livestock and grazing and habitat loss due to forestry and agricultural expansion.
Population Trend:	Decreasing

Population

Population:

This species is only known from four old collections that all predate 1975 and one photographic record from Malolotja Nature Reserve taken in 1995, none of these have detailed locality descriptions. Fieldwork carried out in 2022 in Eswatini in the areas where two of the historic collections were made failed to locate this plant, but this does not yet confirm its absence, so for the purposes of this assessment, it has been assumed that it still occurs in the locations noted on older records. The population is inferred to be declining due to habitat degradation by livestock and grazing and habitat loss due to forestry and agricultural expansion.

Population Trend:

Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	This species is known from highveld grassland areas, vegetation types KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), Barberton Montane Grassland (Gm17) and Northern KwaZulu-Natal Moist Grassland (Gs4) (Mucina et. al. 2018).
List of Habitats:	4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Threats
Major Threat(s):	There is ongoing pressure on most of the highveld grassland areas from livestock grazing. The location for two of the records is in an area where there has been extensive mining activity as well as establishment of forestry plantations in the past. There is also the threat of habitat loss due to expansion of the forestry plantations or other forms of agriculture, as well as habitat degradation due to livestock grazing.
List of Threats:	2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.2 Wood & pulp plantations 2.2.2 Agro-industry plantations 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming

Threats

Major Threat(s):

There is ongoing pressure on most of the highveld grassland areas from livestock grazing. The location for two of the records is in an area where there has been extensive mining activity as well as establishment of forestry plantations in the past. There is also the threat of habitat loss due to expansion of the forestry plantations or other forms of agriculture, as well as habitat degradation due to livestock grazing.

List of Threats:

2 Agriculture & aquaculture
2.2 Wood & pulp plantations
2.2.2 Agro-industry plantations
2.3 Livestock farming & ranching
2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming

Conservation Actions
Conservation Actions:	One location for this species in Eswatini falls within Malolotja Nature Reserve. The one record from South Africa is from within Giant's Castle National Park. More fieldwork is required to determine the population size, distribution and trends for this species. More information is required on the life history and ecology of this species for conservation planning purposes.
List of Conservation Actions:	1 Land/water protection 1.2 Resource & habitat 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: