Scenario Builder

Configure your optimization scenario using the controls in the sidebar, then click 'Run Optimization'.


Study Area

Optimized Land Allocation

Solution Statistics

Area Allocation Results

About the RSA Landscape Planning Tool

South Africa faces mounting pressure to meet ambitious national and global targets for biodiversity conservation, renewable energy expansion, and food security simultaneously - yet land is finite and these demands often conflict. The RSA Landscape Planning Tool provides a rigorous, transparent, and reproducible framework for navigating these trade-offs at scale.

The tool is an interactive systematic conservation planning platform developed by the Endangered Wildlife Trust's (EWT) Conservation Planning and Science Unit. It enables users to identify optimal land allocations across South Africa, balancing competing demands for biodiversity conservation, renewable energy development, and agricultural production within a single integrated framework. Analyses can be run at national or provincial scale, or for a user-defined area of interest.

How it works

Optimal land allocations are identified using prioritizr, an R package for systematic conservation planning, solved by the Gurobi mathematical optimisation engine. Solutions are guaranteed to be within 5% of the true mathematical optimum. For full technical details, including data sources, cost surface construction, and solver settings, see the Technical Reference Document.

Resources

Funding

This tool was developed with the generous support of the JRS Biodiversity Foundation.

Suggested citation

Cowan, O. (2026). RSA Landscape Planning Tool: A systematic conservation planning framework for South Africa. Endangered Wildlife Trust. Available at: https://rsa-landscapeplanning.ewt.org

Contact

For queries, feedback, or collaboration enquiries, please contact science@ewt.org.

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