Nearly half of the 421 species and subspecies of indigenous reptiles found in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland occur nowhere else. As a signatory to the Conservation for Biological Diversity, South Africa has a responsibility to monitor and conserve its impressive reptile fauna. However, effective conservation planning and management is impossible without a thorough understanding of the evolutionary relationships between different types of reptiles, of their geographical distribution, and of the threats they experience.