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International Science and Technology Symposium on Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation

5 and 6 April 2006

The new Director General of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Dr Philemon Mjwara, will officially open the 4th annual Science Symposium in Cape Town on 5 April 2006. The symposium is hosted by the DST in conjunction with the Copenhagen-based Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and has been convened under the theme “The role of GBIF and other new technologies in conservation and monitoring of biodiversity change”.

All media is invited to attend:

• Date: 5 - 6 April 2006
• Venue: BMW, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
• Time: 09h00 - 16h00
• RSVP: zama.mthethwa@dst.gov.za or phone (012) 317 4506

This brings to South Africa (SA) and SA scientists an opportunity to showcase the country’s rich biodiversity resource base as well as its enabling technologies in facilitating international access to a range of scientific datasets for the monitoring of trends towards the better conservation and management of natural resources.

GBIF is an international, mega-science facility that aims at making the world’s biodiversity data freely available on the Internet through international collaboration. SA became the only African voting participant of the GBIF in 2003 and established the South African Biodiversity Information Facility (SABIF) in 2005 as the national node to this international network and biodiversity inventory.

The Symposium will be attended by a number of leading international and regional scientists, lecturers and graduate students, including, amongst others the Head of the GBIF Science Committee, Dr Woulter Los; the Executive Secretary of GBIF, Dr Jim Edwards; the Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute’s Dr Simon Mduma; Dr David Obura from the Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO) programme; as well as Dr Guy Midgley of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

On the evening of 5 April, media is also invited to the Ebbe Nielsen Prize Ceremony to be awarded by SA’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena. This prize is awarded annually to the most promising researcher and for the most innovative development and use of biosystematics and biodiversity informatics technology.

The Science Symposium and Ebbe Nielsen Prize Ceremony form part of the GBIF’s 12th annual board meeting programme held in Cape Town from 2 to 8 April 2006, in recognition of SA’s biodiversity wealth and technological research contributions towards the globally sustainable use of natural resources.

SA is ranked as the third most biologically diverse country in the world, containing between 250 000 and 1 million species of organisms, much of which occur nowhere else in the world. While SA occupies about 2% of the world’s land area, it is estimated that the country is home to 10% of the world’s plants and 7% of the reptiles, birds and mammals.

For media information please contact:

Kristin Klose
Communication, Department of Science and Technology,
Cell: +27 (0) 82 902 9503
Email: kristin.klose@dst.gov.za

or

Nthabi Maoela
Deputy Director: Communciation, Department of Science and Technology
Cell: +27 (0) 73 648 2876
Email: nthabiseng.maoela@dst.gov.za