Revision sheet: South African Fauna and Flora Tourism

📋 Course Outline

1. Fauna, Flora, and Cultural Environment
2. Manmade and Natural Environments
3. Habitats, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems
4. South Africa’s Physical Environment
5. Wildlife and Conservation Challenges
6. Poaching, Hunting, and Mass Tourism
7. Luxury Private Game Reserves
8. South African Botanical Gardens
9. Parks, Reserves, and Game Farms

📖 1. Fauna, Flora, and Cultural Environment

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Cultural environment : A society’s culture, heritage, and traditionally followed ways of life.

★ Must-know

📌 Fauna refers to the animals living in a particular region, whereas flora refers to the plants living in that region.

Further detail

• Elements of the cultural environment include:
  • food
  • religion
  • rituals such as initiations
  • clothing
  • stories
  • attitudes towards older people
  • dances

💡 Memory Hook

Fauna = animals; flora = plants.

📖 2. Manmade and Natural Environments

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Manmade environment : Everything created by people, including tourism facilities and attractions.
• Natural environment : Natural resources such as plants, animals, birds, water, and air.

📝 Essential Points

• Examples of manmade tourism attractions include:
  • the Palace of the Lost City
  • the Cable Car to the top of Table Mountain
  • the V & A Waterfront
  • uShaka Marine World
  • the Apartheid Museum

💡 Memory Hook

Natural resources occur in nature, whereas manmade attractions are created by people.

📖 3. Habitats, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Species : A species is a group of animals or plants that are similar, such as chickens, while ducks belong to a different species.
• Habitat : The specific area in which a plant or animal lives, such as open grassland near water for the oribi antelope.
• Biodiversity : The variety of life forms and natural patterns on Earth.
• Ecosystem : An area where groups of organisms, including plants, animals, and bacteria, live and interact with one another.

💡 Memory Hook

Habitat loss → biodiversity decline → conservation need.

📖 4. South Africa’s Physical Environment

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Physical environment : The natural environment as well as climate, geographical location, geographical features, tourism infrastructure, and the manmade environment.

★ Must-know

• The Cape has a Mediterranean climate with winter rainfall, while the rest of South Africa has a summer rainfall climate.

Further detail

• Examples of South Africa’s physical environment include:
  • large mountain ranges such as the Drakensberg
  • open plains such as the Karoo and Free State
  • a good road network
  • clean and reliable water
  • airports supporting air travel

💡 Memory Hook

The physical environment includes the natural environment plus climate, geography, infrastructure, and human construction.

📖 5. Wildlife and Conservation Challenges

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Wildlife : Animals and birds living in the wild rather than domesticated animals such as dogs, cows, or goats.

★ Must-know

• The Big Five are:
  • lion
  • leopard
  • elephant
  • rhinoceros
  • buffalo

Further detail

• The conservation categories described are:
  • Extinct in the Wild (EW)
  • Critically Endangered (CR)
  • Endangered (EN)
  • Vulnerable (VU)
  • Near Threatened (NT)
  • Least Concern (LC)

💡 Memory Hook

Big Five: LLErB — lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo.

📖 6. Poaching, Hunting, and Mass Tourism

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Poaching : The illegal hunting and killing of wild animals, often in protected areas for meat, animal parts, or sale.
• Mass tourism : A large number of tourists visiting the same area or attraction at the same time, often over a short period.
• Over-consumption : World Wildlife Fund — The use of resources at a rate that exceeds the ability of natural processes to replace them.

📝 Essential Points

📌 Controlled legal hunting can help keep animal populations healthy and controlled, generate income for conservation, and bring visitors to pay up to 40 000 US Dollars to shoot a lion.

💡 Memory Hook

Poaching is illegal, legal hunting is controlled, and mass tourism is defined by visitor numbers.

📖 7. Luxury Private Game Reserves

★ Must-know

• Shamwari is a 25,000 hectare, malaria-free Big Five private reserve in the Eastern Cape near Port Elizabeth, with five ecosystems and five distinctive lodges plus one villa.

• Madikwe is a 75 000 hectare, malaria-free reserve in South Africa’s North West Province, restored from farmland and developed with local community participation.

• Phinda lies near the northern KwaZulu-Natal coastline, contains seven distinct habitats, and is known for cheetah, black rhino, suni, and red duiker.

Further detail

• Sabi Sabi has hosted international visitors since 1979 and lies in the 65 000 hectare Sabi Sand Wilderness in the southwestern section of Kruger National Park.

💡 Memory Hook

Shamwari → Madikwe → Phinda → Sabi Sabi.

📖 8. South African Botanical Gardens

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Botanical garden : A well-maintained park containing a variety of labelled plant species from a specific region or from around the world.

📝 Essential Points

• South Africa has nine National Botanical Gardens managed by the Conservation Gardens and Tourism division of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

• Kirstenbosch is located on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain in Cape Town, is South Africa’s largest botanical garden, and was the first botanical garden included in a World Heritage Site, the Cape Floral Kingdom.

💡 Memory Hook

A labelled plant collection in a landscaped park, with tours, concerts, and exhibitions.

📖 9. Parks, Reserves, and Game Farms

📝 Essential Points

📌 National parks are owned, funded, and managed by the national government, nature reserves by provincial government, and private game farms by private individuals or groups.

📌 National parks protect large tracts of natural environments, habitats, flora, fauna, and cultural groups, while nature reserves protect naturally occurring ecosystems or particular species.

📌 Private game farms protect ecosystems and habitats mainly for commercial purposes such as legal hunting and tourism, whereas national parks and nature reserves do not allow hunting.

💡 Memory Hook

National parks are national, nature reserves are provincial, and private game farms are privately managed.

📊 Synthesis Tables

Protected Areas Compared

Feature	National parks	Nature reserves	Private game farms
Management	National government	Provincial government	Private individuals or groups
Main purpose	Protection and recreation	Protection, especially of ecosystems or species	Commercial tourism and legal hunting
Hunting	Not allowed	Not allowed	Allowed