Southern ground hornbill

Only one of the nine African savanna hornbill species, the Southern Ground-Hornbill (Bucorvus leadbeateri: hereafter SGH) is listed as being of conservation concern. The species is an apex predator and thus ecologically important, as well as holding immense cultural value to the majority of language groups across its range. The objective of the Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) workshop was to review the knowledge-base for the species to ensure that conservation planning is sound and evidence-based, so as to maximise conservation resources in terms of strategic capacity, funding and effort. This PHVA report and the recommendations it contains are considered as advisory to provincial and national conservation-management authorities, and their collaborators, to help guide strategic actions thought to be beneficial to the long-term survival of the SGH, both within South Africa and beyond its borders.