IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
| Anonymous, | |
| Red Data Book of the Mammals of South Africa: A Conservation Assessment | |
| Full Book | |
South Africa has been ranked the third most biologically diverse country on Earth based on an index of species diversity and endemism, and is one of 12 megadiverse countries which collectively contain more than two-thirds of global biodiversity (World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 1992). Located at the southern extremity of Africa, South Africa has a total land surface area of 1 219 912 km2 and the national territory includes the sub-Atlantic Marion and Prince Edward islands. Despite the majority of the country being semi-arid to arid with an average national rainfall of 500mm (DEAT, 1999, cited in Rossouw et al. 2003), South Africa is host to a wide variety of ecosystems. Agriculture is the dominant land use, contributing about 3.2% to the Gross Domestic Product and urban areas comprise approximately 1.14% of the land. In 2001, 44.8 million people lived in South Africa. |
|
 |
PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here |
(c) IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group ( IUCN - The World Conservation Union) |