## 3 Results
### Valuation of Ecosystem Services Using Combined Approach of NPP and Land Cover  
Equation (1) was used to calculate ecosystem service values based on global published values [3; 14; 56]. Results are presented in Table 4. This shows an annual value for ecosystem service provision in South Africa, averaged across the five time slices, of USD 437.727 billion. This compares with the national GDP (2019 values) of USD 351 billion; therefore ecosystem services represent some 125% of GDP. Table 4 also shows the different contributions to this national total by the different provinces. This ranges from the highest value in the Northern Cape (35.86% of total national ecosystem service values) to the lowest in Gauteng (1.45% of total national ecosystem service values). These two contrasting provinces, however, represent different end members of total contribution to GDP, with Northern Cape containing 2.15% of the national population and 2.19% of its GDP and Gauteng 25.82% of the national population and 34.94% of its GDP. This clearly shows--in these specific provinces--an opposite relationship between ecosystem service values and economic output values. (Other provinces show more similar values compared to Northern Cape and Gauteng.) The significance of this analysis is discussed below. Spatial patterns of ecosystem service values are shown in Figure 9. These show generally higher values in the west and lower in the east, consistent with spatial patterns of land-cover types (Figure 4). Smaller-scale and isolated patches of bare land and wetlands are also present, and these can be considered as anomalies set within broader landscape patterns. Figure 8: Distribution of areas experiencing net degradation (NPP loss) and net restoration (NPP gain) according to normalized NPP values for different successive time periods (2001–2005, 2005–2010, 2010–2015, 2015–2019) in South Africa. Comparison between successive time periods can be used to indicate where ecosystem service values are increasing or decreasing over time (Figure 10). These spatial patterns reflect climate-controlled transitions at ecological boundaries (ecotones), and this is therefore shown as linear zones across the landscape that reflect the spread/retreat of a particular land-cover type (e.g., [66]). This is seen particularly at the (east/west) grassland-woodland/savanna boundary. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline
**Date** & **NC** & **WC** & **EC** & **FS** & **NW** & **KZN** & **GT** & **LIM** & **MP** & **TOTAL** \\ \hline
2001 & 157.851 & 53.625 & 59.959 & 41.157 & 33.283 & 32.020 & 63.099 & 32.822 & 21.116 & 438.146 \\ \hline
2005 & 157.613 & 53.582 & 59.953 & 41.171 & 33.354 & 31.799 & 63.273 & 32.696 & 21.035 & 437.535 \\ \hline
2010 & 157.350 & 53.361 & 60.157 & 41.309 & 33.464 & 32.052 & 63.663 & 32.682 & 21.360 & 438.105 \\ \hline
2015 & 157.363 & 53.297 & 60.115 & 41.159 & 33.690 & 31.739 & 63.922 & 32.761 & 21.291 & 437.811 \\ \hline
2019 & 154.887 & 53.509 & 60.620 & 41.207 & 34.383 & 32.059 & 64.428 & 32.698 & 21.230 & 437.038 \\ \hline
**AVERAGE** & **157.013** & **53.475** & **60.161** & **41.201** & **33.635** & **31.934** & **63.677** & **32.732** & **21.206** & **437.727** \\ \hline
2019\% of total national value & 35.86 & 12.21 & 13.74 & 9.41 & 7.68 & 7.29 & 1.45 & 7.47 & 4.84 & (100\%) \\ \hline
2019\% national population & 2.15 & 11.64 & 11.42 & 4.91 & 6.85 & 19.20 & 25.82 & 7.47 & 7.81 & (100\%) \\ \hline
2018\% contribution to GDP & 2.19 & 13.86 & 7.51 & 5.41 & 5.89 & 16.04 & 34.94 & 7.18 & 7.24 & (100\%) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 4: Calculated annual values of ecosystem services (USD billion) by South African province and the national total for each time slice. Provinces are arranged from west to east as given in Figure 3. Comparison is also made between the % of total national ecosystem value for 2019, contained within each province, and the population of that province as a % of total national population (source: StatsSA, 2019).