Biodiversity Monitoring

It is one of SANBI's compulsory functions under the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) to monitor and report on the status of South Africa's biodiversity.

What we do

The unit's goal is to design, calculate and distribute statistics on South Africa's biodiversity. This information will be reported to the Minister of Environment Affairs, and can be used by people in the biodiversity sector and the general public to better understand the trends in our biodiversity. The unit was only established in August 2006.

A recent workshop was held in May 2012 to look specifically at updating the monitoring framework. Further workshops will be held in 2012 to further refine the indicators and framework from this initial discussion.

Where we work

Biodiversity monitoring is responsible for monitoring all biodiversity in South Africa. We work will all directorates within SANBI and many of our partners to gather monitoring data.

Reason for our programme

The National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act of 2004, states that SANBI must monitor and report regularly to the Minister on:

• the status of the Republic’s biodiversity
• the conservation status of all listed threatened or protected species and listed ecosystems;
• the status of all listed invasive species;
• the impacts of any genetically modified organism that has been released into the environment, including the impact on non-target organisms and ecological processes, indigenous biological resources and the biological diversity of species used for agriculture;

The Biodiversity monitoring programme aims gather data and create indicators so that the above reporting may be accomplished.

What have we achieved

The unit has successfully launched the SANBI Biodiversity Monitoring Framework and has completed indicators within this framework, however these are still awaiting official publication. The unit has also recently produced a monitoring progress report discussing biodiversity monitoring activities within SANBI.

How to contact us

Heather Terrapon (National Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinator)
E-mail: Heather Terrapon
Tel: 021 799 8799

Smiso Bhengu (Biodiversity Monitoring and Reporting Officer)
E-mail: Smiso Bhengu
Tel: 012 843 5231

Nhlanganiso Biyela (GIS Officer)
Email: Nhlanganiso Biyela
Tel: 012 843 5000