NEWS
Cash-strapped conservationists in South Africa are struggling to collect biodiversity data – how to change that
Dian Spear 1 , Nicola van Wilgen-Bredenkamp 2 and Tony Rebelo 3
Current Address : 1 University of Cape Town , 2 Stellenbosch University and
3
South African National Biodiversity Institute Reprinted From : The Conversation
South Africa ’ s government conservation organisations have experienced substantial budget cuts . Even after steps to cut costs , South African National Parks reported a big shortfall ( R223 million or about US $ 11.92 million ) for 2021 / 22 . So did the provincial body KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife ( R89 million ; about US $ 4.77 million ).
South African conservation authorities manage millions of hectares of protected areas . However , recruitment freezes and insufficient funds have reduced their ability to conduct basic operations . One of these is biodiversity monitoring .
Knowing which plants and animals are present in protected areas and where they are is vital for making conservation decisions . You need to know what you have and where it is to monitor and manage it . This kind of information is known as biodiversity occurrence data .
Low data collection
With the current shortage of staff capacity in South African government conservation organisations , this data is not always collected , processed , curated or available .
Through our research and personal experience , we know that many existing species checklists for protected areas are out of date . This is because of species name changes , unrecorded species and changes in species occurrences . When there is capacity to conduct monitoring , it is not always possible to use the data . That ’ s because there isn ’ t capacity to digitise , clean , standardise , curate and analyse the data . Data is also lost when staff leave conservation organisations and data isn ’ t managed or handed over properly .
Our study
With funding from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation , we started a project to improve the management of biodiversity occurrence data at South African National Parks . We reviewed the literature and sources of data and the tools available to manage biodiversity information .
There is a wealth of resources that protected area staff can use . And the public can assist in many ways . In our paper , we provide recommendations for cash-constrained conservation organisations to use these tools to record , collate , standardise , and share information about species locality .
Resources and tools for collating data
The “ FAIR ” data principles of Findability , Accessibility , Interoperability and Reusability are very important to make data accessible and useful . Biodiversity information standards help make data compatible across different organisations . The Darwin Core standard is commonly used on global data-sharing platforms like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility . This platform includes herbarium and museum specimen records and citizen science records from recording platforms such as iNaturalist . Data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility is useful for developing and maintaining species checklists .
Maintaining a list of current species is not as simple as it sounds . Names of species change . Scientific discoveries reclassify species in different parts of their range . Taxonomists adjust the alignment of species to related species in other countries . The South African National Biodiversity Institute annually releases an updated South African National Plant Checklist of scientific names . This is a useful source of current accepted plant names for the country .
A national list for animals does not yet exist , so South African scientists use other sources to check animal species names . For example , marine biologists use the World Register of Marine Species as a source of accepted names . The Global Biodiversity Information Facility ( GBIF ) also provides a way to standardise names in checklists . This way you know whether two different names from different places or times refer to the same plant or animal .
23 Grassroots Vol 24 No 1 March 2024