What is the Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2?
(SABAP2)

 SABAP2 logo

SABAP2 is an update and refinement of the first Southern African Bird Atlas Project which ran from 1987-1991 and culminated in the publication in 1997 of two volumes on the distribution and relative abundance of southern African birds.


SABAP1 largely achieved its objective of providing the first quantitative description of the distribution of all bird species in southern Africa, and represented a “snapshot” of the distribution of each species during the late 1980s to early 1990s. It also involved a large number of lay people as citizen scientists and made a huge contribution to the public understanding of science, participation in biodiversity data collection and public awareness of birds. This public interest and involvement was sustained after SABAP1 by the launch of focused projects such as the Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC), Birds In Reserves Project (BIRP) and Coordinated Avi-faunal Roadcounts (CAR) which showcased the birding public’s commitment to making further contributions to bird conservation in South Africa.


The success of SABAP1 was also borne out of the fact that the software developed for SABAP1 was used to devleop atlas projects for other faunal groups. The Southern African Frog Atlas Project (1996-2003) piggy-backed and modified the technology developed for SABAP1 to produce the first comprehensive account of the distribution and status of all 115 known frog species in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. The atlasing concept was then transferred to reptiles and currently the Southern African Reptile Conservation Assessment (SARCA) is collecting information on the distrbution and divesrity of reptiles in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. SARCA started in 2005 and plans to finish in 2009. The Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA) was launched on 14 May 2007 and avid butterfly watchers and photographers can now contribute to a project that aims to determine the distrubtion and conservation priorities of butterflies in southern Africa.


During the past 15 years bird distributions in southern Africa have continued to change, possibly more rapidly than during the previous 30-40 years. Large-scale landscape changes, resulting in widespread habitat loss, transformation and fragmentation, and in some cases habitat creation, coupled with climate change and invasion have contributed to changing bird distributions. Monitoring these distributional changes is crucial if we are to put in place proper and effective management plans to conserve bird populations and diversity in southern Africa into the future, especially as changing landscapes and climate patterns will continue. Borne out of recommendations from SABAP1 and from recent calls from both the scientific and birding community, SABAP2 was identified as the project to lead the way in monitoring these ecological changes.


Based on the above the project has two broad aims:

1. A scientifically rigorous, repeatable platform for tracking through time and space the impacts of environmental change on southern African birds, through standardized data collection on bird distribution and an index of abundance.

2. Increased public participation in biodiversity data collection, and public awareness of birds, through large-scale mobilization of citizen scientists.


To serve the first aim, information gathered from SABAP2 will need to be comparable, as much as possible, to the information available from SABAP1. This is important if we are to monitor how things have changed. But to improve the scientific rigour of SABAP, and take advantage of improved technology and analytical tools, SABAP2's methodology will be refined considerably. Where SABAP1 provided the baseline, SABAP2 will build and advance on that baseline. The project will generate better and improved data which will ultimately assist in more efficient conservation planning.


The major changes to SABAP2 from SABAP1 include:

SABAP2 still involves recording the presence or absence of species within a grid cell but will vastly improve coverage in grid cells and ensure better quality of data overall. More details about these changes and Instructions to Atlasers will be posted on this website shortly.


The project is overseen by Steering and Executive Committees, and implemented by a Project Team. Click here to see the composition of these groups.


SABAP2 is funded through the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and BirdLife South Africa and is managed and run by the Animal Demography Unit, University of Cape Town and BirdLife.