CONSERVATION BIOLOGY MSc STUDENTS AT THE PLANT CONSERVATION UNIT

The Plant Conservation Unit is very proud to be associated with the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology’s long-standing and world-renowned Masters programme in Conservation Biology. The association in 2015/16, however, is a bit unusual in that no less than three of the students have chosen to do projects under the supervision of staff in the Plant Conservation Unit. Wataru Tokura is using remote sensing technologies to investigate changes in the vegetation of the 100,000 ha Tswalu Kalahari Reserve over the period 2000-2015. Identifying the variability in biomass production over space and time as well as hotspots of degradation is important for the management of this conservation area.   Gabi Fleury is analysing the results of a 20 year photo-monitoring programme (1995-2015) carried out in Riemvasmaak, a 75,000 ha farming area just north of Augrabies Falls National Park in the Northern Cape. Riemvasmaak is the first post-1994 land restitution case in South Africa and Gabi is trying to understand the impact of livestock farming on the rangelands of this arid savanna and the perceptions that people from Riemvasmaak have about these changes. Hermenegildo Matimele has a passion for the flora of his home country, Mozambique, and is focussing on 13 endemics from the Maputaland Centre of Endemism in southern Mozambique. Hermenegildo’s research, which is wonderfully supported by colleagues from the South African National Biodiversity Institute, the Buffelskloof Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga and from Kew, England, will provide the first conservation assessment for the majority of these targeted species. It will also suggest the most appropriate approach for conserving these endemics in a region that is under tremendous threat primarily from urbanisation, agriculture and charcoal production. The Plant Conservation Unit has benefitted enormously from having these students form part of our postgraduate research programme and wishes them well in the final few weeks of their thesis write-up.