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SANBI: Institutional Response to Implementing the International Agenda

South Africa’s network of eight national botanical gardens, spread across five provinces of the country, are managed by the parastatal South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) (Willis, 2005). Established through the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act of 2004, SANBI has a much broader biodiversity mandate compared with that of the previous organization from which it evolved, the National Botanical Institute (NBI) whose sole focus was on plants. The NBI itself was formed in 1989 through the amalgamation of the Botanical Research Institute (established 1903) and the National Botanic Gardens (established 1913).

Amidst the changes experienced over the past 15 years that have been associated with revised institutional visions, strategic plans, national mandates, responsibilities, government and public expectations, legislation, international conventions and frameworks, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation, SANBI’s eight national botanical gardens have had to continuously adjust to different circumstances, expectations and responsibilities.

The basis of the gardens’ activities through the years, and the core thread that has run through the history of the national botanical gardens and associated institutional changes, is their focus on the cultivation, propagation and conservation of South Africa’s indigenous plants, and compliance with the internationally accepted definition of botanic gardens as ‘institutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education’ (Wyse Jackson, 1999).

The globally adopted International Agenda and widely publicized GSPC have prompted botanic gardens worldwide to reconsider the value, conservation role and significance of their living collections. SANBI formally registered its commitment towards implementing the International Agenda in 2001, both as an institution and as eight individual national botanical gardens.

As part of SANBI’s commitment to implementing the International Agenda and raising public awareness, a dedicated poster encouraging public support for each garden’s plant conservation programme was developed in 2003 for display at the gardens’ visitor centres and entrances. In addition, as part of a 5-year institutional review of SANBI, the progress by each national botanical garden in the implementation of the International Agenda was internally reviewed in October/November 2004.

This review used a spreadsheet created by David Galbraith of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Canada, and endorsed by BGCI. The intention of the spreadsheet is to enable individual institutions to judge whether they are engaged in a particular recommendation ("Doing"), might do so in the future ("Considering") or are not doing it now nor contemplating such action in the future ("Not Doing").

Results from this review, submitted to BGCI, indicate that South Africa’s eight national botanical gardens are, on average, implementing 53% of the 211 activities listed in the IA, considering implementing 26% and not doing 21% of the activities. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (NBG), as SANBI’s flagship garden with the largest horticultural staff complement, nursery infrastructure and volunteer support, is currently implementing 70% of the listed International Agenda activities and considering implementing 20%.

Whilst the degree of implementation of activities differed between gardens, those areas of activities that were generally not being implemented by South Africa’s NBGs included biotechnology, aspects of sustainable development and sustainable use of biodiversity, national strategies on the conservation of biodiversity, access to genetic resources and benefit sharing, research, and technology transfer.

Areas that are generally being adequately addressed by the national botanical gardens include those of ex situ conservation, identification and monitoring, information exchange, training and capacity building, public education and awareness, impact assessment and mitigation, technical and scientific co-operation, cultural heritage, and networking/relationships with other sectors.

Various listed activities (such as contribution towards the preparation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan) are in fact being implemented by other sections of SANBI, such as the Research Directorate and Biodiversity Policy and Planning Directorate, and not specifically by the Gardens Directorate, which manages the national botanical gardens. There is regular collaboration between sections of the Institute on various projects, and SANBI produces an internal conservation newsletter, The Conservation Leaflet, which attempts to showcase conservation programmes and activities within the organization. This provides an important communication and information medium in an organization that is geographically widespread.

South Africa’s national botanical gardens have recently developed a Plant Conservation Strategy to guide their plant conservation efforts. Included in this Strategy are targets related to the GSPC’s 16 goal-oriented targets. Although not all the GSPC’s targets are included in the Strategy, SANBI has made an attempt to develop realistic but challenging targets for its national botanical gardens over the next five years, up to 2010. Targets within this Plant Conservation Strategy must still be adapted to take into consideration the 2010 Targets for botanic gardens developed for botanic gardens at the 2nd World Botanic Gardens Congress in Spain in April 2004 and approved by the International Advisory Council (IAC) of BGCI in 2005 (see page xx).

With 2,300 Red Listed plant species in South Africa, the challenges facing South Africa’s NBGs are immense, and they have been forced to prioritize their efforts to make a meaningful contribution to the conservation of the country’s indigenous flora. Integration of ex situ and in situ conservation efforts must be a priority for NBGs holding conservation collections over the next five years.

The monitoring and evaluation of the conservation role of each national botanical garden in South Africa is one of the Key Performance Indicators in SANBI’s Corporate Strategic Plan (SANBI, 2005).  The development of appropriate partnerships (at local, national and international levels) and support for their conservation programmes a sine qua non. SANBI does indeed have a much broader and very challenging mandate beyond the NBGs to monitor and report regularly to the Minister of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism on the conservation status of all listed threatened and protected species (both plant and animal) in South Africa.

South Africa’s NBGs are involved in a variety of plant conservation projects. Each project involves various partners and funding sources. Examples of these projects include involvement with the Millennium Seed Bank Project funded by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the National Lottery (U.K.), the Threatened Species Programme (currently producing a new Red List for South African plants as well as supporting various student research projects and provincial conservation efforts) and the associated CREW (Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers) Project, projects on specific threatened plant taxa (such as cycads, Gerbera aurantiaca and Aloe albida) as well as the development of demonstration gardens that highlight not only threatened indigenous South African plants but also those South African plant taxa that have become invasive weeds in other parts of the world (such as Carpobrotus edulis, watsonias and various grasses). The CREW project is an exciting component of the Threatened Species Programme that focuses on involving civil society volunteers in the monitoring and conservation of threatened plant populations. In collaboration with the local and provincial conservation authorities, various NBGs are also involved in the rescue of indigenous plants from sites scheduled for development, restoration of various natural areas, as well as providing repositories for confiscated plant material.

NBGs are also working closely with SANBI’s Environmental Education Directorate in supporting outreach greening programmes in disadvantaged schools and local municipalities. These projects, funded by the National Lottery and the government’s Expanded Public Works Programme, provide opportunities for job creation and skills transfer to unemployed people within South Africa.

Many opportunities for the development of strategic and co-operative partnerships still exist for SANBI, such as collaboration and support of local municipalities in the implementation of their Integrated Development Plans, contribution towards restoration and rehabilitation projects, closer integration and co-operation between SANBI’s operational units involved in conservation projects, the integration of plant conservation activities with appropriate animal and ecosystem conservation activities, and the promotion of greater public awareness of the national botanical gardens’ conservation efforts. Priority over the next couple of years will be, amongst others, to (a) develop an efficient information system on the NBGs’ plant collections, and (b) develop effective monitoring and evaluation systems for plant conservation efforts within SANBI.    

As stated in the IA, it would be impossible for every botanic garden to achieve all the key tasks and recommendations outlined in the Agenda. The Agenda also rightly states that the successful implementation of the International Agenda will be dependent on each botanic garden carefully considering and formulating its own response to the Agenda. SANBI does not profess to have all the answers, nor is it implementing all 211 of the listed activities. By making plant conservation activities ‘core’ business and through developing strategic partnerships and challenging but realistic targets (bearing in mind constraints in terms of resources and capacity), significant progress and contributions can be made by institutions in halting the loss of plant species and their associated genetic diversity.

References

SANBI, 2005. SANBI Corporate Strategic Plan 2005-2009
http://www.nbi.ac.za/aboutsanbi.htm, accessed November, 2005

Willis, C., 2005. National Botanical Gardens: embassies of South Africa’s biodiversity and culture. BGjournal 2(2): 9-12.

Wyse Jackson, P., 1999. Experimentation on a large scale – and analysis of the holdings and resources of botanic gardens.  BGCNews 3(3): 27-30.

Wyse Jackson, P., 2004. Developing international targets for botanic gardens in conservation: a consultation document BGjournal 1(1): 4-6.