Legislation It is the only
Protea species protected in South Africa under the National Forests Act of 1998. Pursuant to this law, plants may not be disturbed, damaged or destroyed in any way, nor may their products be possessed, collected, transported, purchased or sold, except under licence granted by the relevant delegated provincial authority.
Population It was formerly common in the Barberton Mountains. In 1998 the IUCN believed that the total population was somewhat declining in number and range. According to the
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), in 2019 the entire world population only consisted of some 3,150 to 6,300 individual plants in the wild, and was still believed to be decreasing. Most of the known different subpopulations consist of fewer than 200 plants. There are an estimated 2000-5000 plants in Mpumalanga, the largest population in Songimvelo has several hundred plants. The Ithala Nature Reserve is thought to contain almost all, if not all, of the plants in KwaZulu-Natal, a total of 1100 mature individuals divided over five to eight small subpopulations of 30-180 plants; the numbers of the plants are monitored here, and there is continuing decline. It is estimated that there are around 200 plants in Swaziland divided over three localities. It is inferred from the extent of habitat loss that the population has been reduced by 23-28% over the past 150 to 300 years.
Status The conservation status of
Protea comptonii was first assessed in the 1980 book
Threatened plants of southern Africa as 'rare'. In 1996, the South African National Botanical Institute, later the Biodiversity Institute, rated the status as '
vulnerable' in the
Red data list of southern African plants. In 1998, the IUCN assessed the global status of the species for their
Red List as '
lower risk/near threatened'. An assessment of 'vulnerable' was given in 1999 by the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service for the population in that province. SANBI re-assessed the species in 2009, downgrading the status to '
near threatened', but in 2019, in a new assessment, it upgraded the status again to 'vulnerable'.
Threats Historically much of its habitat in the mountains around Barberton was destroyed and fragmented in order to plant forests for timber exploitation, and at present, some 26% of the habitat has been irreversibly modified, mainly in this region. However, loss of range to
afforestation is no longer occurring. According to the IUCN in 1998, the main threats to the survival of
P. comptonii were the harvesting of the bark for
herbalism and unsustainable browsing by native herbivores (game). As of 2019, game remains an important problem in Ithala. Although
P. comptonii is not directly affected, in Songimvelo
overgrazing by livestock is causing the grasslands to degrade and encouraging the spread of
invasive plants. The plants which do not occur in protected areas in Mpumalanga grow on land owned by commercial forestry companies or mines, and as 2019 there is some renewed interest in exploiting the mineral wealth of the region, which might constitute a future threat, at least for two subpopulations. The species is unable to recover from too frequent burning. In Ithala biennial burns are likely to be causing a decline in numbers and ongoing habitat degradation. In Eswatini, threats identified are competition from invasive plants, too frequent fires and habitat loss due to
mining.
Protected areas Most extant wild individuals of this species are restricted to
protected areas, namely
Songimvelo Game Reserve (which contains the largest numbers) and
Barberton Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga, and in KwaZulu-Natal the
Ithala Game Reserve. The population in Eswatini is largely protected within the
Malolotja National Park. ==References==