Van Deventer, HeidiDurand, FGrundling, PL2025-08-222025-08-222025-032222-41730254-3486DOI: https://doi.org/10.36303/SATNT.2025.44.1.1399http://hdl.handle.net/10204/14368The National Biodiversity Assessment of 2018 listed wetlands (estuaries and freshwater ecosystems) as the most threatened ecosystem of South Africa. By 2030, South Africa must report to the United Nations’ Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) to which degree we have reached Target 2 that aims to have 30% of the extent of degraded ecosystems under restoration. This study aimed to calculate the preliminary extent as a percentage of wetlands that have been under ecological restoration interventions, relative to the total extent of degraded freshwater wetlands of South Africa. We also assessed the percentage of extent relative to ownership of the degraded wetlands and those that are under ecological restoration. Data released by the Working for Wetlands and Working for Water programmes were combined with the National Wetland Map version 6 as well as information on land ownership and protection level status of the country. The majority of the freshwater wetlands (51%) were modelled as degraded, with > 2 million ha of the 4 million ha of wetlands showed impacts resulting from various pressures, including changes to the hydrological cycle, water quality, fragmentation and degradation of habitats, climate change, or a combination of these pressures. The 30% GBF Target 2 requires that almost 613 136 ha of freshwater wetlands should be under restoration by 2030. The government’s two restoration programmes have reached only 203 283 ha (10%) of the desired target. The majority (82,8%) of freshwater wetlands is located on private land, of which the majority is degraded. Many of the impacts and none of the restoration interventions undertaken by the private sector or individuals are refl ected. Monitoring and quantifi cation of all freshwater habitats are therefore needed to attain the 30% extent target of the GBF.FulltextenBiodiversityConvention on BiodiversityEcological degradationEcological interventionErosion controlInvasive speciesArticleN/A