C O M M U N I T Y
• the Albany thicket, along the coasts of KwaZulu-Natal and the
Eastern Cape
• the desert biome, most of which is across the border in Namibia,
but there is a small section of true desert in the Richtersveld,
which is otherwise mostly succulent Karoo.
Biodiveristy Act
Recognising the value of these amazing riches, the government
enacted NEMBA – the National Environmental Management
Biodiversity Act – in 2004. Among many other things, this act
established the South African National Biodiversity Institute, which is
mandated to ‘explore, reveal, celebrate and champion biodiversity
for the benefit and enjoyment of all South Africans’.
Today, SANBI manages the country’s ten national botanical gardens
– Kirstenbosch being the oldest and most famous among them,
of course – as ‘windows on biodiversity’. But it also manages the
foundations of biodiversity – collections, taxonomy, inventory,
maps, classification of ecosystems and species, and so on; concerns
itself with increasing our collective knowledge of the natural world
that surrounds us; helps the country convert science into policy
and action; and, probably most significantly for our communities, it
shares the information it collects and curates.
L I V I N G
‘A large collaborative project that was established to classify, map
and sample the vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland’,
the project includes the map itself, and the classification system
and national vegetation database that underpin it – all of which are
‘fundamentally important for environmental planning, conservation
management, biodiversity assessment and research in the
floristically diverse region of southern Africa’.
Biodiversity advisor
For planners, developers and estate managers, SANBI’s Biodiversity
Advisor – biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org – provides access to
biodiversity information for help with decision-making, planning,
and research. There’s an interactive identification guide to the
country’s TOPS (threatened or protected species) and CITES-
listed species, as well as a raft of documents about biodiversity
stewardship, which it defines as ‘an approach to entering into
agreements with private and communal landowners to protect
and manage land in biodiversity-priority areas’. This is significant,
because some types of biodiversity stewardship agreements can be
formally recognised under the Protected Areas Act to provide them
with long-term security.
Resources Finally, the National Vegetation Map 2018 – bgis.sanbi.org/vegmap
– has detailed descriptions of all 459 vegetation types found in South
Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Vegetation types being even finer in
scale than biomes, you can use this map as a guide when choosing
the most appropriate species to plant in your location.
Just take a look at the list on its ‘Resources’ page (sanbi.org/
resources): downloadable documents, links to useful websites,
infobases (electronic resources developed by SANBI and partners),
atlases that record species distribution, and even real-world, brick-
and-mortar libraries – they’re all there. SANBI describes its mission as ‘the exploration, conservation,
sustainable use, appreciation and enjoyment of South Africa’s
exceptionally rich biodiversity for all South Africans’. And it certainly
seems to be succeeding.
Shares it on on a grand scale. And you get most of it online for free.
For gardeners, though, possibly the most useful – and easy for the
layperson to understand – of SANBI’s sites is PlantsZAfrica (pza.
sanbi.org).
I
This must be the most comprehensive site about South Africa’s
bewildering array of plants, with comprehensive articles about
each listed species (and they’re listing more and more all the time).
There are articles with information about each plant’s natural habits,
its uses in our traditions and culture, notes on its history, how it got
its name(s), and – here’s the best part for home owners – how to
propagate it, and how to use it in your garden.
Planners – and, indeed, anyone who wants to ensure that they’re
choosing the right plants for their neighbourhood – will want to
access the National Vegetation Map Project: bgis.sanbi.org/vegmap
www.sanbi.org | By Martin Hatchuel