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SAEON expands its international presence
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- By Johan Pauw, Managing Director, SAEON
The past two months have been characterised by stepped-up international collaborations.
A cornerstone event was that of the annual International Long-Term Ecological Research network (ILTER) meeting, hosted this year by the LTER network of Slovakia.
The meeting had two main scientific purposes. The first was to proceed with a multi-biome assessment of ecosystem services along the lines of the Millennium Assessment, but by using LTER sites around the Globe. Dr Nicky Allsopp, Manager of the SAEON Fynbos Node, will be SAEON’s correspondent on this project and she will be using the Paulshoek site in Namaqualand as the study area. The site will be clustered with dryland sites in Israel, Namibia (Gobabeb) and Chili.
The second initiative was for ILTER to become a partner in a new Climate Change Adaptation Network that will be led by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). SAEON has submitted a position paper with an offer to make appropriate sites available through its nodes. SAEON would also be willing to host a regional coordinating office if required by UNEP.
Other ILTER business on the agenda concerned its funding, the establishment of a secretariat, data management policies, publicity and policy outreach. Dr Amani Saidi, SAEON’s Stakeholder Relations Manager is a key participant in the latter two initiatives.
SAEON learns from interdisciplinary long-term research in Atlantic Forest
Dr Nicky Allsopp travelled to the Botanical Gardens of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for a workshop of a joint project between France, Brazil and South Africa known as “Evidence Based Policy Biosoc: Validity of scientific knowledge and public intervention: the case of agriculture in sustainable development”. The visit enabled her to learn more about the long-term research conducted in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest , a major global biodiversity hotspot.
The research in the Atlantic Forest is particularly relevant since it takes on an interdisciplinary approach with anthropologists, economists as well as biologists participating in the research.
Since Brazil and South Africa share many similarities around socio-economic issues and as countries with high levels of unique biodiversity, this visit was an opportunity to share experiences in conducting long-term research in a multidisciplinary context. Dr Allsopp met with one of the researchers involved in environmental monitoring, Dr Fabio Scarano, Director of Research at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Gardens to discuss synergies.
Dr Juliet Hermes, Manager of the SAEON Egagasini Node, has been on a 37-day funded trip during which she not only received formal training, but also lectured and participated in a training cruise for oceanographic monitoring at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science
On the education outreach side there has been collaboration with the US Embassy in terms of their plans to establish a science library in Mamelodi Township outside Tshwane.
Further collaboration followed in the form of a visit by a delegation from the Institute of International Education (US-based) and Toyota International to explore the potential for teachers in the USA to be placed in South African schools for a three-week period. The delegation declared themselves “hugely impressed” during their visit to the SAEON Ndlovu Node and two of its associated schools.
SAEON is presently working hard to roll out its junior nodes. Dr Nicky Allsopp is appointing the core staff for the SAEON Fynbos Node and a manager for the node for arid lands in Kimberley is being recruited through SANParks.
Planning for the refurbishment of office space for the node for Grasslands-Forests-Wetlands is also progressing well and SAEON should shortly be recruiting a manager in partnership with KZN Wildlife.
The conceptualisation of a core science plan for SAEON is proceeding well but will require another internal iteration among SAEON staff towards the end of the year. The plan will initially be published at a high and condensed level, allowing for more detailed chapters to be added over time in the fashion of Wikipedia.
Fine-tuning SAEON’s international connectivity
SAEON is in the process of redesigning its website, which is due to be published two months from now. In addition, SAEON is about to issue contracts to software developers in partnership with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to start the next phase of the development of SAEON’s IT backbone.
The recent ILTER meeting reconfirmed the effectiveness of the SAEON eNews as Dr Amani Saidi was recognised by colleagues from around the world even before he was personally introduced, simply because they had read about him and had seen his picture in the newsletter.
