Afrotheria is an ancient radiation of African mammals which includes the Chrysochloridae (Golden Moles), a highly specialized family of fossorial, range-restricted species, and the regionally endangered forest-dependent Dendrohyrax arboreus (Southern Tree Hyrax). South Africa is home to 17 of the 21 currently described Golden Moles, of which 16 are endemic and 10 listed as either Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered according to the IUCN regional Red List. As such, ensuring adequate conservation of Afrotheria within the country is paramount. Until recently, the legislation tasked with ensuring responsible infrastructure development in South Africa failed to adequately protect cryptic species such as Golden Moles and the Southern Tree Hyrax during the environmental impact assessment process. We detail how new legislation which requires the use of a web-based application, the Environmental Screening Tool, will improve the protection afforded to Afrotheria species of conservation concern. We describe the process by which 11 species of conservation concern are incorporated into the screening tool, what this tells us of our current knowledge of their distribution and discuss the potential impact the screening tool may have on Afrotheria conservation going forward.

Afrotheria 是非洲哺乳动物的一种古老辐射，其中包括 Chrysochloridae（金鼹鼠），这是一个高度专业化的化石家族，范围受限的物种，以及区域濒危的依赖森林的Dendrohyrax arboreus（南方树蹄兔）。南非是目前描述的 21 种金鼹鼠中的 17 种的家园，其中 16 种是地方性的，10 种根据 IUCN 区域红色名录被列为易危、濒危或极危。因此，确保在国内充分保护 Afrotheria 至关重要。直到最近，负责确保南非负责任的基础设施发展的立法未能在环境影响评估过程中充分保护神秘物种，如金鼹鼠和南方树蹄兔。我们详细介绍了要求使用基于网络的应用程序环境筛选工具的新立法将如何改善对受保护的 Afrotheria 物种的保护。