PRESENTATION TOParliamentary Portfolio Committee

Cape Town

17 October 2007

Prof. Gideon F. Smith

South African National Biodiversity Institute

Key Achievements 2006/2007

• Further establishment and positioning of SANBI as a lead institution in Africa and beyond

• Cementing SANBI as the management home of bioregional programmes such as CAPE, SKEP, STEP and Grasslands

• Execution of African Plants Initiative with external funding

• Improvement of visitor and research facilities at several SANBI nodes

• 1,258,032 People visited the eight NBG’s. This is the highest annual visitor numbers received by SANBI to date

• SANBI websites hits per year approaching 20 million, with 4 million pages downloaded

• Further successful implementation of large employment and skills development projects: Greening the Nation and Working for Wetlands

• Publication of the new book “Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland”

• Publication of South African Response to GSPC acknowledged as world leader

• African Plant Checklist and Website launched in Cameroun in February 2007

SANBI’s Vision and Focus

“Biodiversity richness benefitting all South Africans”

• By 2010, SANBI will deliver decision support that will contribute to sustainable economic growth of 6% in South Africa’s developmental state, by Ensuring free, and easily accessible

information on biodiversity and the environment

Supporting expansion of science capacity Contributing to effective communication of

policy-influencing research results

Core Functions and Services 2007 - 2010

• Biosystematics Research & Biodiversity Collections• Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use

Research• Biodiversity Policy Analysis, Advice and Reporting

and Biodiversity Information Management• Gardens and Biodiversity Outreach Programmes –

including National Botanical Gardens, Education• Bioregional Programmes to mainstream NEMBA

objectives across appropriate sectors• Corporate Services – Human Resource

Management, Financial Management, Marketing and Information Technology & Communications

SANBI will restructure its programmes within the following core and corporate areas:

A new National Botanical Garden launched for the Northern Cape at Nieuwoudtville

• The world’s richest diversity of flowering bulbs

• Top priority conservation in National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment

• High unemployment, vulnerable economy

• High ecotourism potential – flowers, waterfalls, cultural diversity, on “kokerboom” forest

• Supportive municipality and provincial governments

• Needs SANBI investment in land purchase, infrastructure, skills development

• Ecotourism is the key resource for socio-economic development in a marginalised region

SANBI: Key Challenges 2007/2008Under the leadership of the newly appointed CEO:

• Implementation of Business Case

• Clarification of respective roles and funding responsibilities for biodiversity research by DEAT and DST

• Increasing number of Black visitors to all gardens

• Clarification on future of Natural History Collections in Museums and of taxonomic research in South Africa

• Land acquisition strategy and implementation for new and existing National Botanical Gardens

• Sustained CAPEX funding for expanded facilities required by SANBI mandate

• Clear and accelerated access to funding opportunities

• Skills attraction and retention, especially in technical areas

• Security of staff, visitors and assets

• Adequately acknowledge performance excellence among staff

Thank you