An assessment of anthropogenic threats to areas important for frog conservation in South Africa

Recent studies on conservation and species threat level assessments have advocated the importance of human demographic variables and other associated variables in determining threats to biodiversity. In addition to this, the current study is aimed at determining the extent to which areas representing biologically important frog groups are affected by anthropogenic induced threats. Analyses were conducted at the national scale for South Africa and for predefined biogeographical units, the latter was determined based on discernible anuran assemblages. At the national scale, in order of priority, these areas were characterized by higher levels of alien plants species richness land transformation, human population density and a change in population density than expected. Endemic frog hotspots were the least threatened at both the national and the biogeographical scales. From these analyses, it seems that frogs in South Africa are well-represented in the current conservation network, although this needs further investigation especially at the species level for more accurate conclusions about the conservation status of South Africa's amphibian fauna.