A decade of implementing the Biodiversity management plan for African penguins – successes, failures and lessons learnt

• The African Penguin Biodiversity Management Plan aimed to halt the species decline. • Adults and chicks rehabilitation, predator management and artificial nests successful. • Penguin numbers continue decreasing ten years post-implementation. • Stakeholders in African penguin conservation suggested improvement. • Institutions accountability, funding and capacity were limiting factors. The rapid decline of the African penguin Spheniscus demersus in the early 2000 s triggered the drafting of the first African Penguin Biodiversity Management Plan (BMP) published in 2013, to “halt the decline of the African penguin population”. Working Groups (WGs) were created with stakeholders involved in penguin conservation to facilitate the implementation of the BMP. This study reviews the execution of the plan (1) from aide memoires and reports circulated within these WGs between 2013 and 2022; (2) by interviewing (in 2023) some of the stakeholders involved to assess their perceptions of the BMP 10 years post-implementation; and (3) by assessing the effectiveness of some actions using available scientific data. Interviewees unanimously agreed that the plan improved the species’s management and facilitated collaboration across institutions involved. Conservation actions identified as the most effective were 1) the rehabilitation of adults and chicks; 2) predator management and 3) habitat improvement with the provision of artificial nests. Scientific reviews of these actions validated their success. For example, rehabilitation effort may have increased the 2023 penguin breeding population by ca 7 %. Nevertheless, African penguin numbers continued decreasing and the species is now “Critically Endangered” on the IUCN Red List. Measures are still lacking in effectively increasing prey availability despite intensive engagement. Dedicated funding, trained capacity and accountability by relevant institutions undertaking their actions and deliverables were identified as essential for a more successful implementation of the BMP. Lessons learnt may pave the way for stronger conservation actions for African penguins and other threatened seabirds.