• Webinar recordings

    WWF Living Planet Award - Prof. M. Timm Hoffman - acceptance speech

    Prof. Timm Hoffman won the WWF Living Planet Award for 2020. The awards ceremony was a virtual event held on Tuesday 1 September 2020. The Living Planet Award is awarded annually to extraordinary South Africans who have contributed meaningfully to conservation and have inspired people to live in harmony with nature.

    Watch the acceptance speech here.

     

    SAAB 2021 Silver Medal Award - Prof. M. Timm Hoffman - acceptance speech

    Prof. Timm Hoffman won the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) Silver Medal Award for 2021. The Silver Medal is awarded in acknowledgement of significant contributions to the advancement of botany in South Africa. His presentation on 27 January 2021 provided a comprehensive overview of the work that he has undertaken with colleagues and students over the last 35 years and demonstrated the extent of change that has occurred in many of southern Africa’s diverse biomes.

    Watch the full presentation and Q&A discussion here.

     

    Fellowship inauguration into the Royal Society of South Africa - Prof. M. Timm Hoffman - inaugurual lecture

    Prof. Timm Hoffman was inaugurated as a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 2020. He gave a presentation about the Karoo to the Royal Society of South Africa on 17 March 2021.

    Watch the full presentation here.

     

  • Radio interviews about repeat photography

    2014

    Prof. Timm Hoffman was interviewed in 2014 by Tim Neary for the 'Nature Journal' on Radio Today. He spoke about his long-standing interest in repeat photography and his collaboration with Professor Les Underhill from the Animal Demography Unit, on the newly launched rePhotoSA project. This project engages with the public or 'citizen scientists' to take repeat photographs of old historical landscape photographs of southern Africa.

    Listen to the broadcast here. 

     

    2016

    On Saturday 19 November 2016, Samantha Venter (the rePhotoSA project coordinator) was interviewed by Tim Neary for the 'Sappi Nature Journal' on Radio Today. She spoke about rePhotoSA as the repeat photography project of southern African landscapes, which is a citizen science project and a collaborative effort between the Plant Conservation Unit and the Animal Demography Unit at UCT. Samantha highlighted the aim and importance of the project and spoke about the different ways in which the public can get involved.

    Listen to the broadcast here.

  • SAEON "Change is in the Air" video

    "Change is in the Air" is a short documentary produced by the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) that highlights the effects of climate change and especially CO2 on the vegetation in southern Africa. According to SAEON; "The effects of climatic events and interactions with land use and fire regimes are well described in the literature. A radical view is offered that rising CO2 levels not only causes global warming but is the invisible driver of global change in South Africa's grassy systems. Over the last century indigenous trees have encroached on savannas and grasslands, grasses have invaded arid shrublands, and alien plants are invading the Fynbos. The video provides visual evidence of these. Ecologists and land managers discuss the causes and effects, including implications for management and policy."

     

    The video reflects the work of several South African ecologists including Nikki Stevens, William Bond, Guy Midgley, Luthando Dziba and Timm Hoffman whose work on long-term environmental change through the use of repeat photography forms part of the documentary.

     

    The video is augmented by a booklet called "Change is in the Air" which is also downloadable. Please visit the SAEON website for more information.