Biodiversity Management Plan for Bontebok (Damaliscus Pigarus Pigarus) in South Africa.

This Biodiversity Management Plan for the bontebok provides the opportunity for the conservation of both the bontebok antelopes and the critically endangered renosterveld vegetation type on which they naturally occur. The Management Plan provides for targeted actions and measures, in order to contribute to the desired outcome of ensuring the long term survival of the subspecies in nature and thereby ensuring the sustainable use of the bontebok by private land owners. Therefore the Management Plan aims at achieving the following objectives: conservation of the genetic integrity and diversity of bontebok; further habitat loss and habitat degradation prevention; maintenance of historic habitat connectivity; improvement of effective communication and awareness between and among stakeholders on the conservation of the species; conducting research aimed at supporting adaptive management and the implementation of actions to promote and ensure bontebok conservation. The Management Plan pursues the following benefits and outcomes: ensuring sustainable hunting and regulated trade of bontebok; implementing the scientific management of the bontebok population; establishment and maintenance of a National Database to advise on the status of bontebok population; identification of priority conservation land for bontebok; promotion of collaboration and cooperation activities between government agencies as well as between government and the private sector; measures for improving the conservation of the habitat an the rehabilitation of degraded areas for re-introduction of bontebok; promotion of bontebok as an iconic flagship conservation species for renosterveld vegetation.