A new species of Crassula, C. turpiniae (Crassulaceae subfam. Crassuloideae), is described from high altitude rock faces (1640–2200 m) along a restricted stretch of the Mpumalanga Escarpment in eastern South Africa. The new species shows affinities with both C. multicava and C. ovata and, along with these two species, fits in C. sect. Anacampseroideae. The new species can be easily separated from the other two based on the expression of several diagnostic vegetative and reproductive characters. The placement of C. turpiniae within the most recently proposed sectional classification for the Crassula taxa of southern Africa is discussed.

Water provisioning is common in arid and semi-arid African ecosystems, but its effects on carnivore communities are not understood. Recently, Morin et al. documented the unexpectedly contrasting space-use patterns of dominant and subordinate carnivores around water sources, with dominant carnivores facilitating subordinate carnivores.

A new Cotyledon species, C. nielsii N.R.Crouch, D.Styles & Mich.Walters, is described from cliffs of the western part of eThekwini Metro near the city of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The species is closely allied to the recently described C. petiolaris van Jaarsv. from the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape province, but is readily separable on vegetative and reproductive characteristics.

Throughout the world, biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are under threat, with clear changes evident. Biodiversity and ecosystem services have particular value in Africa– yet they are negatively impacted by a range of drivers, including land use and climate change. In this communication, we show evidence of changing biodiversity and ecosystem services in Africa, as well as the current most significant drivers of change. We then consider five plausible futures for the African continent, each underlain by differing assumptions. In three out of the five futures under consideration, negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services are likely to persist. Those two plausible futures prioritizing environment and sustainability, however, are shown as the most likely paths to achieving long term development objectives without compromising the continent's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Such a finding shows clearly that achievement of such objectives cannot be separated from full recognition of the value of such services.

CITATION: Somers, M. J. et al. 2020. The implications of the reclassification of South African wildlife species as farm animals. South African Journal of Science, 116(1/2):7724, doi:10.17159/sajs.2020/7724.

Zoonoses account for about 25% of the infectious disease burden in low-income countries Poverty might increase the risk for zoonotic disease where the active human--livestock and human--wildlife interfaces can increase the likelihood of disease transmission A combined disease burden exists for people in areas such as tropical and subtropical Africa, where there is likelihood of co-infection with zoonotic diseases and other pathogenic or infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV Many endemic zoonoses remain widely neglected in such settings, undetected and underreported, because their impacts are borne largely by impoverished and marginalized communities Here, Wernecke et al discuss how to 'prevent the next pandemic' by interrogating what is known about zoonotic diseases and how best one can break the chain of transmission

Citation: Stringer, L., Osman-Elasha, B., DeClerck, F., Gebremikael, M. B., Barau, A. S., Denboba, M. A., Diallo, M., Molua, E., Ngenda, G., Pereira, L. ORCID: 0000-0002-49967234, Rahlao, S., Kalemba, M. M., Ojino, J. A., Belhabib, D., Sitas, N., StrauS, L. and Ward, C. Options for governance and decision-making across scales and sectors. In: Archer, E., Dziba, L., Mulongoy, K-J., Maoela, A. and Walters, A. (Eds.), The IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa. (pp. 353-414). Bonn, Germany: Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. ISBN 978-3-947851-05-8

It became apparent a few decades ago that biodiversity is declining worldwide at nearly unprecedented rates. This poses ethical and self-interested challenges to people, and has triggered renewed efforts to understand the status and trends of what remains. Since biodiversity does not recognise human boundaries, this requires the sharing of information between countries, agencies within countries, non-governmental bodies, citizen groups and researchers. The effective monitoring of biodiversity and sharing of the data requires convergence on methods and definitions, best achieved within a relatively loose organisational structure, called a network. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) is one such structure. This chapter acts as an introduction to the GEO BON biodiversity observation handbook, which documents some of the co-learning achieved in its first years of operation. It also addresses the basic questions of how to set up a biodiversity observation network, usually consisting of a number of pre-existing elements.

Summary Political commitment and policy instruments to halt biodiversity loss require robust data and a diverse indicator set to monitor and report on biodiversity trends. Gaps in data availability and narrow‐based indicator sets are significant information barriers to fulfilling these needs. In this paper, the reporting requirements of seven global or European biodiversity policy instruments were reviewed using the list of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) as an analytical framework. The reporting requirements for the most comprehensive policy instrument, the United Nation's Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, were compared with the indicator set actually used for its reporting, to identify current information gaps. To explore the extent to which identified gaps could be bridged, the potential contribution of data mobilization, modelling and further processing of existing data was assessed. The information gaps identified demonstrate that decision‐makers are currently constrained by the lack of data and indicators on changes in the EBV classes Genetic Composition and, to a lesser extent, Species Populations for which data is most often available. Furthermore, the results show that even when there is a requirement for specific information for reporting, the indicators used may not be able to provide all the information, for example current Convention of Biological Diversity indicators provide relatively little information on changes in the Ecosystem Function and Ecosystem Structure classes. This gap could be partly closed by using existing indicators as proxies, whereas additional indicators may be computed based on available data (e.g. for EBVs in the Ecosystem Structure class). However, for the EBV class Genetic Composition, no immediate improvement based on proxies or existing data seems possible. Synthesis and applications. Using Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) as a tool, theory‐driven comparisons could be made between the biodiversity information gaps in reporting and indicator sets. Analytical properties, such as an identification of which data and indicator(s) are relevant per EBV, will need to be addressed before EBVs can actually become operational and facilitate the integration of data flows for monitoring and reporting. In the meantime, a first analysis shows that existing indicators and available data offer considerable potential for bridging the identified information gaps.

Summary: A new Kalanchoe species, K. winteri Gideon F.Sm., N.R.Crouch & Mich.Walters, is described from rocky grasslands of the Wolkberg region of Limpopo province, South Africa. The species is closely allied to both K. thyrsiflora Harv. and K. luciae Raym.-Hamet, from which it is readily separable on vegetative and reproductive characteristics.

DNA is the most elemental level of biodiversity, drives the process of speciation, and underpins other levels of biodiversity, including functional traits, species and ecosystems. Until recently biodiversity indicators have largely overlooked data from the molecular tools that are available for measuring variation at the DNA level. More direct analysis of trends in genetic diversity are now feasible and are ready to be incorporated into biodiversity monitoring. This chapter explores the current state-of-the-art in genetic monitoring, with an emphasis on new molecular tools and the richness of data they provide to supplement existing approaches. We also briefly consider proxy approaches that may be useful for many-species, global scale monitoring cases.

A global system of harmonized observations is needed to inform scientists and policy-makers.

The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has been in formal existence for three years, following several years of design and discussion. It is the realisation of the biodiversity societal benefit area envisaged in the GEO System of Systems (GEOSS). GEO BON links together existing networks, each covering particular aspects of biodiversity or parts of the world, and takes steps to help fill important gaps in the system. GEO BON focusses on coordination and harmonisation of the existing and emerging systems; advocacy and action to sustain the observing systems and to fill the identified gaps; and understanding and servicing user needs for biodiversity observations, particularly in the policy-making domain.

It is crucial to understand the genetic health and implications of inbreeding in wildlife populations, especially of vulnerable species. Using extensive demographic and genetic data, we investigated the relationships among pedigree inbreeding coefficients, metrics of molecular heterozygosity and fitness for a large population of endangered African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) in South Africa. Molecular metrics based on 19 microsatellite loci were significantly, but modestly correlated to inbreeding coefficients in this population. Inbred wild dogs with inbreeding coefficients of ≥0.25 and subordinate individuals had shorter lifespans than outbred and dominant contemporaries, suggesting some deleterious effects of inbreeding. However, this trend was confounded by pack-specific effects as many inbred individuals originated from a single large pack. Despite wild dogs being endangered and existing in small populations, findings within our sample population indicated that molecular metrics were not robust predictors in models of fitness based on breeding pack formation, dominance, reproductive success or lifespan of individuals. Nonetheless, our approach has generated a vital database for future comparative studies to examine these relationships over longer periods of time. Such detailed assessments are essential given knowledge that wild canids can be highly vulnerable to inbreeding effects over a few short generations.

of scholarly resources from and about Africa as part of an aim to connect resources and scholars from around the world. They provide powerful tools for knowledge exchange and production. More recently, JSTOR, which is also part of Ithaka, has taken over the management of the plant component of ALUKA with a view to creating a global botanical resource. The API started with the aim of digitising herbarium type specimens of African plants and linking them to a range of related images and data, including photographs, drawings, botanical art, field notes, published Flora accounts, and other reference works, and making them available through the internet. Type specimens are essential in classifying and naming plants, which action in turn fundamentally underpins all other species-level biological research, including conservation science. Appropriately, the foundational importance of systematics in achieving all the Targets of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) has been recognised (UNEP, 2002); this role of taxonomy has been articulated eloquently in two recent papers (Paton & al., 2008; Paton, 2009). In South Africa, the initiative grew to include other projects: these include medicinal plants of southern Africa, synopsis of the Lycopodiophyta and Pteridophyta of Africa, Madagascar and neighbouring islands, grasses (Poaceae) of southern Africa, aloes (Aloe L.; Aspodelaceae) of the world, and the documentation of taxon protologues of the mesembs (Aizoaceae).

We present preliminary data on the dietary habits of black-backed jackals Canis mesomelas in a xeric conservation area (Great Fish River Reserve, South Africa) where large predators are absent and therefore the availability of carcasses reduced. Hence, the question arose whether jackals substantially feed on antelopes through direct predation and/or scavenging of carcasses of animals that died from other natural causes. We therefore collected scats (n = 109) during autumn when, in addition to adults, both newborn and older calves or lambs were available to jackals. The diet of jackals from two areas of the reserve that differ in habitat structure and composition revealed a large and comparable food spectrum. The contribution of antelopes to jackal diet – expressed as relative volume of remains in the scats – reached 20.7%, followed by “other mammals” ( Suidae , Tubulidentata , Primates ; 19.8%), arthropods (17.6%), rock hyraxes Procavia capensis and springhares Pedetes capensis (12.8%) and unidentified plant material (10.5%). Fruits, carnivores, small rodents and reptiles acted as supplementary food sources (18.6% in total). Further studies covering the yearly cycle and including an assessment of prey availability and an estimation of food biomass ingested by jackals are needed to fully appreciate the importance of antelopes in jackal diet in areas devoid of large predators.