NBA 2025 key messages

Key messages distill some of the most important findings of NBA 2025 in a way that is accessible to various audiences. The messages draw on evidence from NBA analyses (e.g. Red List status, ecological condition), explain why it matters (e.g. consequences for people), and point to practical actions, responses, and interventions that can be taken.

The 15 key messages from the NBA 2025 are clustered into three themes (Table 1):

CLUSTER A: Cross-realm pressures on South Africa’s biodiversity are impacting people

This cluster highlights the key pressures on South Africa’s biodiversity across realms, and how these pressures have impact on the numerous benefits people derive from biodiversity, such as natural disaster resilience, biodiversity-based livelihoods, clean water, and food resources such as fisheries.

CLUSTER B: Improving the status of South Africa’s biodiversity is key to a sustainable and equitable future for all

This cluster relates to the status of South Africa’s biodiversity, using national and international headline indicators. These messages encourage intensive effort towards ensuring a society living in harmony with nature, where biodiversity conservation and sustainable use ensure healthy ecosystems, with improved benefits that are fairly and equitably shared for present and future generations.

CLUSTER C: Inclusive actions across the whole of government and whole of society are needed to secure nature’s contributions to people

This cluster speaks to three all-inclusive and over-arching actions that are needed to accelerate the calls to action expressed in each message in cluster A and B. These include a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to biodiversity conservation, increased investment in biodiversity monitoring, and the need for sufficient resources to manage and protect biodiversity effectively.

Table 1. NBA 2025 key messages summary

CLUSTER A: Cross-realm pressures on South Africa’s biodiversity are impacting people	A1.	Accelerated climate change has widespread impacts on biodiversity and people.
	A2.	Unsustainable land use and sea use changes erode natural capital and undermine ecosystem services.
	A3.	Pollution reduces water quality, impacting aquatic ecosystems and their dependent economic activities.
	A4.	The prevention and management of biological invasions remain a priority.
	A5.	Building on past successes, opportunities exist for more sustainable and equitable fisheries.
	A6.	Innovation is needed to address escalating illegal wildlife harvesting and trade.
	A7.	Freshwater flows from land to sea are essential for coastal ecosystems, species and communities.
CLUSTER B: Improving the status of South Africa's biodiversity is key to a sustainable and equitable future for all	B1.	Recovery efforts are required to curb rising extinction risk and a growing number of threatened species.
	B2.	Estuaries, rivers and wetlands are the most threatened and least protected ecosystems in South Africa.
	B3.	Genetic diversity of South African indigenous species' populations is declining.
	B4.	Enhancing effectiveness of protected and conserved areas for mitigating pressures on biodiversity will build on progress in representing ecosystems and species.
	B5.	Scientific and well-documented programmes are needed for ecosystem restoration and species recovery.
CLUSTER C: Inclusive actions across the whole of government and whole of society are needed to secure nature's contributions to people	C1.	Safeguarding South Africa's biodiversity calls for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.
	C2.	Investment in biodiversity monitoring is crucial for management, decision-making, research and reporting.
	C3.	Innovative finance solutions are needed to address funding and capacity constraints in the biodiversity sector.

How to use these messages

• Read each key message with its underlying data and analyses.

• Use them to inform sector strategies, cross-sector planning, research, scenario planning, and implementation roadmaps.

• Treat confidence statements as guidance on certainty, evidence quality, and agreement. The confidence statements use the four-box model adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The NBA provides a summary of the state of biodiversity at a point in time. It cannot list every action or intervention; instead, it serves as a strategic tool that should stimulate discussions among stakeholders and inform sector specific strategies and action plans, cross-sectoral planning, research strategies, scenario planning, and co-produced response strategies that follow from the NBA.