STEP - Planning Domain

A map of the STEP planning domain, based on the coastline, and cadastral and municipal boundaries where possible. The boundary was defined to include the thicket vegetation found east of the Duiwenhoks River and west of the Great Kei River. Thicket vegetation west of this planning domain (i.e. towards Cape Town) was not incorporated, considering that it has already been taken into account in the Cape Action Plan for the Environment (Cowling et al. 1999). Thicket vegetation east of this planning domain (i.e. towards KwaZulu-Natal) was also excluded, considering that it continues up into Natal, and for implementation purposes, it was not practical to have a planning domain boundary any further east of the Kei River. In all cases, we avoided cutting protected areas with our planning domain boundary. This rule was compromised in a small number of areas where we preferred to follow municipal boundaries