PRESENTATION TO Parliamentary 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 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 2007/2008 Under 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