Biodiversity provides jobs:South Africa’s biodiversity is the basis for employment across a range of sectors

South Africa is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, but also suffers very high levels of unemployment. The country’s exceptional biodiversity is a national asset that supports many jobs across a range of sectors and business activities that either protect biodiversity or make use of biodiversity. In the first attempt to assess the numbers of biodiversity-related jobs in the country, more than 418 000 jobs were counted, an amount comparable to the mining industry. Every one job involved in protecting biodiversity makes possible five jobs in economic sectors that use biodiversity. Biodiversity-related jobs have good growth potential and could be sustainable over the very long-term. Since many important biodiversity areas are located outside of cities, biodiversity- related jobs have the potential to support rural development.