Conservation and Management of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

South Africa has a distinctive natural heritage and biological diversity, which pose several challenges and opportunities for conservation, sustainable use and stewardship. As a nation, we need to recognize, protect and manage this natural resource base by improving our knowledge and developing technology, designs, systems, approaches and strategies to contribute to a safer and healthier environment for all.

It is fundamental for the effective management of the earth system and sustainable development in South Africa to embrace biological, biophysical and human needs approaches. The sustainable management of the biological and biophysical environments requires an improved understanding of resources and processes within the life-supporting atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic (marine, estuarine and freshwater) ecosystems. We need to improve our documentation, management and use of our biological diversity to mitigate negative impacts on environmental systems. However it is important to recognize that the conservation, use and claims to truth about the protection of natural resources are embedded in contested political, social and economic systems. For example the national system of Protected Areas is historically a result of political rather than biological imperatives which raise issues of justice both for human and non-human communities as well as certain ecosystems. It is therefore important that the management of these resources is informed by a good understanding of the ecological processes and the complex relationships between society and the natural environment. Research should be cognisant of the interaction between social and natural systems, human and natural driven environmental changes, as well as the inevitable impacts of humans on our natural heritage. Furthermore these need to be understood, monitored, modelled and interpreted to inform the environmental aspects of policy and governance at all levels for sustainable development. Long-term environmental research is integral to research design in order to unravel these complex interrelationships.

This focus area presents opportunities for fundamental and applied, disciplinary and trans-disciplinary, as well as trans-national research. Specifically it seeks scholarship that can critically advance relevant existing knowledge and potentially create new paradigms. An important outcome of research could be guidelines (e.g. sector-based or cross-sectoral) for sustainable development and ecosystem stewardship. These guidelines could inform policy on the consumptive and non-consumptive use of natural resources as well as community development. In particular, the harvesting, cultivation, production and improvement of natural products require investigation for ecological sustainability and socio-economic meaning. In the process, the cultural, spiritual and economic values of biodiversity and natural features to society have to be explored.

It is crucial that we improve our ability to exchange environmental knowledge among and between various stakeholders e.g. through environmental education and innovative communication strategies. This focus area seeks to maximise collaborative, complementary and comparative research by lending itself readily to local, national and trans-national partnerships. It draws on the notable strength of South Africa's research infrastructure. At the same time it is committed to maintaining and expanding the necessary skills in people in a way that contributes meaningfully to research, education, innovation and development. This capacity will make an important contribution to knowledge of sustainable development within South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa as well as globally.

Aims

• Develop a more comprehensive and scaled understanding of the way that ecosystems are structured and function in South Africa including the human dimensions.
• Describe, understand and conserve the biodiversity resources in South Africa at landscape, ecosystem, habitat, community, population, species and gene levels, by:
  • Assessing and evaluating South Africa's natural heritage
  • Examining past practices, policies and impacts
  • Developing appropriate practices, strategies, tools and policies for the sustainable use and conservation of South Africa's natural heritage
• Monitor, interpret and predict environmental change
• Analyse the natural environmental potentials for and constraints on human development
• Advance understanding of human society and natural systems at both empirical and theoretical levels
• Develop appropriate management protocols, governance and institutional arrangements
• Contribute, through research, to the objectives set out in relevant national and international conventions
• Expand and increase the representivity of South Africa's human capacity to enhance the stewardship of our natural heritage

Research Themes

Within various natural systems (namely atmospheric, terrestrial, marine, estuarine and freshwater), the following overlapping aspects could be a research focus:

Research Theme 1: Stewardship of ecosystems, populations and species

• Developing enhanced understanding of our biodiversity resources and the natural and social processes that affect them
• Examining the underlying human influences on the natural environment
• Optimising ways to protect the environment while stimulating social and economic development by
  • developing appropriate technologies and management systems based on a fundamental understanding of ecosystems
  • exploring and examining innovative and sustainable ways to incorporate biodiversity considerations in local development and land-use planning that will optimize the sustainability of the natural environment
• Critically analysing past practices, including economic, political and cultural dimensions
• Interrogating the discourses whereby environmental problems are constructed

Research Theme 2: Society, the natural environment and ecosystem services

• Assessing practices for the co-management of natural resources, for example, community-based management regimes, nature-based tourism, access to natural resources, and subsistence gathering, harvesting, hunting and fishing
• Developing natural resource-use alternatives with user groups
• Assessing the social and economic value of ecosystems and developing indicators for the sustainable use thereof
• Assessing the dynamics of demographic and health issues in relation to ecosystems and biodiversity
• Examining the impacts of globalization on natural environments
• Integrating scientific knowledge systems of ecosystems and biodiversity with other types of knowledge systems
• Assessing the appropriateness of environmental policies and legislation, governance structures, and institutional arrangements and conceptualising innovative approaches for improvement.

(Note: Aspects of this section will find overlap in the focus areas on Sustainable Livelihoods: The Eradication of Poverty and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.)

Research Theme 3: Environmental Change

• Improving our understanding of social and ecosystem dynamics and how these are impacted by environmental and social changes
• Developing appropriate monitoring and information technology to enhance national capacity for environmental stewardship in response to local and global change
• Developing appropriate early warning systems and indicators for predicting the patterns and impacts of natural disasters and hazards
• Understanding and monitoring the impacts of land-use practices ,changes and transformation on ecosystems, for example, desertification and aforestation
• Developing capacity to predict the effects of climate change on ecosystem patterns and processes
• Monitoring and predicting the impacts of pollution on ecosystems, ecosystem services and human health
• Examining and monitoring the role and impact of non-indigenous organisms in ecosystem service provision and biodiversity conservation
• Enhancing scientific understanding of the effects and control of invasive aliens in ecosystems
• Assessing and monitoring the impacts of genetically modified organisms on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem dynamics
• Developing capacity to monitor, analyse, interpret and model atmospheric and marine variability and change.
• Examining and monitoring issues of equity and justice pertaining to clean, safe, secure and healthy environments

This theme should be read in conjunction with documentation on the website of the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON; www.saeon.ac.za). SAEON is designed to supply long-term data in support of decisions relating to a limited set of thematic issues of high importance to both ecosystem function and human wellbeing in South Africa. They are, in no order of priority:

• Water
  including its distribution in space and time, storage and flows through the system, energy exchange with the atmosphere, contamination, management and costing
• Carbon / Nutrient Cycles
  including plant and animal productivity in natural and managed systems, on land, in rivers and oceans, nutrient loading and deposition, eutrophication
• Soils / Sediments
  including measures of soil degradation and renewal, nutrients, biodiversity, pH distribution of sediment in space and time, sediment storage and sediment flux through the system fluvial sediment and river ecosystem health
• Biodiversity
  including studies of populations of species and their interactions, their genetic composition and the diversity of the landscape and oceans impact of proven and potential threats e.g. climate change, habitat conversion/fragmentation, desertification, invasive aliens and genetically modified organisms
• Disturbance Regimes and their outcomes
  including inter alia Large Infrequent Disturbances (e.g. floods, droughts, fire), human settlement, fishing, toxicity and herbivory. human dimensions of coupled human-ecosystems including the monitoring of socio-economic and institutional conditions relating to resource use, consumption and contamination.
• Climate/Atmosphere
  Including variability and change in precipitation, temperature, humidity, general circulation, chemistry and radiation

Note: Proposals that are coordinated by SAEON will be prioritised

Specific Research Programmes

SEACHANGE (Society, Ecosystems and Change) - see www.nrf.ac.za/focusareas/conserve/seachange.stm

When submitting a proposal to SEACHANGE please select one of the four sub focus areas which is the most appropriate. (if the proposal fits more than one sub focus area please indicate this under the rationale):

• Ecosystems & Change
• Ecosystems & People
• Ecosystem Functioning
• Biotechnology

All prospective grant-holders will be obliged to accept conditions for funding additional to standard NRF conditions before funds will be released.

The South African Biosystematics Initiative (SABI) - see www.nrf.ac.za/focusareas/conserve/sabi.stm

When submitting proposals to SABI please indicate this in the "Short Proposal Title" field of the application e.g. The study of animals and plants (SABI)

Funding access and the Evaluation process for both SEACHANGE and SABI follow the NRF's standard policies and procedures but the availability of research funds is contingent upon continued support from the DEAT and DST respectively.

Contact
Lebusa Monyooe
Manager: Focus Areas
email: lebusa@nrf.ac.za
Tel:+27 12 4814230
Fax:+27 12 4814005