Significant features of the 105 454 km² STEP planning domain are:

• The Albany Centre, which overlaps in the west with the Succulent Karoo Centre. Both are centres of high diversity and endemism for succulents and bulbs and are floristically the most important parts of the Thicket Biome.
• The Albany Centre is a recognised WWF-IUCN global centre of plant biodiversity and nearly all of its plant endemics are components of the Thicket Biome.
• The Thicket Biome in this region is thought to contain the most species-rich formations of woody plants in South Africa.
• Overlaps with regions that are also the subjects of major strategic conservation planning projects, namely, Cape Action for People and the Environment (C.A.P.E.), and Succulent Karoo Ecosystem Planning project (SKEP).
• Hundreds of thousands of people who rely on thicket products for their livelihoods.
• An extraordinarily high level of rural poverty.