David Balfour

Setting up camp in SAEON territory

When reading David Balfour’s CV it is almost uncanny how his studies and previous experience seem to have been specifically designed to prime him for his current position as manager of SAEON’s first observation node, the SAEON Ndlovu Node. It is just as well, as he finds himself in a vastly challenging situation: not only is he required to establish and manage a brand new observation node, but also the first of its kind within SAEON. His pioneering work will in future provide the blueprint for the establishment of other SAEON observation nodes throughout South Africa.

Since his appointment on March 1 this year, he has been involved in groundbreaking work to establish the Node administration office at the new access gate to the Kruger National Park (KNP) and the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park. This has involved overseeing the construction of the office, a role for which he has been well prepared through his studies in Civil Engineering, and his experience as trainee engineer and site manager for a number of construction sites.

Just as his training and experience in Ecology, Systematics, Botany and Zoology prepared him for the establishment and management of the actual observation node itself. “Setting up camp”, as Dave smilingly refers to this establishment phase, involves building sound networks with key partners, setting up effective data management systems and networks to capture and share data with local and international users, teasing out and putting reality to initial conceptual debates that will inform research focus areas, exploring synergies between identified SAEON research areas and research done in the KNP by visiting scientists, and appointing suitably qualified new staff members.

“I have generally found people to be positive and enthusiastic about the SAEON initiative,” he says, “and there has been a lot of support from private and state institutions.”

Dave has succeeded in strengthening ties with the KNP, with which a formal Memorandum of Understanding has been signed, and establishing close working relations with KNP financial, research and administrative staff. He is currently also in the process of establishing ties with potential partners in the region, such as the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Wits rural facility, whose interests are similar to those of SAEON, as well as with large corporates that have an impact on the environment, such as mining companies.

During his term of office at KwaZulu-Natal Parks, he was responsible for “rejuvenating” the monitoring systems in the Zululand parks and ensuring that standards of data quality were set and maintained. In addition, he co-ordinated the development of a GIS system as well as a number of monitoring databases, all of which served to make him familiar with the whole process of managing, analysing and reporting on the use of information, an essential part of the SAEON mandate.

Well primed by his previous work as co-ordinator of the four ecological advice teams serving the managers of protected areas in the Zululand and Maputaland regions of KwaZulu-Natal, Dave will be instrumental in setting up pre-agreed sites to monitor the basic ecological drivers in the Lowveld system. One of these drivers, fire, was a central part of his research for his doctoral thesis,  The role of fire and large herbivores in determining the distribution and abundance of different acacia woodlands in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park.

Dave will be responsible for promoting, encouraging and facilitating research in the selected areas. “We are aiming at creating a kind of umbrella environment for researchers, drawing them into a more coordinated and comprehensive research effort,” he explains. For this, as for so many of his other challenges, there is no existing model. He has to create his own blueprint.

Exploring new frontiers seems to hold a definite fascination for Dave, whose research and travels have taken him to some of the last wild places on this planet, such as Antarctica and the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

It therefore comes as no real surprise that this modern-day explorer shares a family tree with Robert Louis Stevenson, author of several classic tales of adventure such as  Treasure Islandand  Kidnapped. Dave Balfour is also the name of the central character in  Kidnapped.

With Dave at the helm, the SAEON Ndlovu Node will be charting a new course into previously unknown territory, clearly mapping out the way for the successful establishment of the other SAEON nodes.