Volume 10 • April 2014 CREW –National Overview Domitilla Raimondo & CREW co-ordination team REW, the Custodians of C Rare and Endangered 013 was an exciting year for for plant conservation in our coun- Wildflowers, is a programme 2the Custodians of Rare and try that aligns with 16 outcome- that involves volunteers from Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) oriented targets of the Global Strat- the public in the monitoring Programme, as you will read egy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and conservation of South in the pages that follow. The of the Convention on Biological Africa’s threatened plants. programme has expanded both Diversity (see www.Plants2020. CREW aims to capacitate a into new parts of the country net). The majority of South Africa’s network of volunteers from and also focused on develop- active botanists and conservation- a range of socio-economic ing a host of young plant con- ists gathered at this workshop spe- backgrounds to monitor servationists—an opportunity cifically to discuss the GSPC and and conserve South Africa’s that has been made available its implementation nationally. The threatened plant species. through the Groen Sebenza Pro- workshop included stakeholders The programme links vol- gramme, a jobs fund initiative of from national and provincial con- unteers with their local the Department of Environmen- servation authorities, taxonomists, conservation agencies and NGOs (e.g. the Botanical Society tal Affairs. particularly with local land of South Africa), independent bota- stewardship initiatives to en- CREW has been operating for over nists, conservationists working on sure the conservation of key 10 years and our volunteers have business and biodiversity initia- sites for threatened plant built up significant knowledge of lo- tives, and conservation planners. species. cal plants that they are now able to The workshop resulted in national help us transfer to this new cohort level targets being developed for all of budding plant conservationists. 16 targets. In addition, milestones were identified for measuring pro- 2013 also saw the CREW co-or- gress with implementation, and dination team leading the process commitment from various organisa- to develop a National Strategy for tions and individuals to lead on the Plant Conservation with support different targets, were made. The from the Botanical Society of South CREW Programme plays a vital Africa (BotSoc) and the South Af- part in ensuring that South Africa rican National Biodiversity Institute achieves the following three tar- (SANBI). This process involved gets related to the conservation of developing priority actions required threatened plants: 1 • Target 2, a conservation as- effort with the majority of CREW members has been challenging sessment of all known plants. groups contributing accounts of but full of rewards, and Vatiswa re- • Target 5, the conservation of threatened species and we would counts the road travelled so far on important plant areas. like to thank all of you who put so page 6 . Also in the Eastern Cape, much time into producing this book. in the plant biodiversity hotspot • Target 7, in situ conservation of A limited run of 500 copies were of Pondoland, another four para- threatened plant species. printed by BotSoc and are available ecologists are working and being South Africa’s national strategy will at SANBI’s Kirstenbosch and Pre- trained to collect herbarium speci- be published in 2014. toria bookshops. The book is also mens and monitor medicinal plant available in electronic format as an use by CREW volunteers based in After a decade of hard work, e-book. Port Edward. Spreading the knowl- CREW celebrated the success of edge of Pondoland’s unique flora the work of volunteers monitoring The CREW Programme did some and focusing efforts in the Eastern and conserving plants, by publish- major expanding during 2013. Up Cape section of this centre of en- ing the book Plants in Peril—100 north, the Limpopo CREW group demism is a very appropriate way of South Africa’s highly threatened got going, working hard to survey to continue the botanical legacy of plant species and the people threatened Euphorbia species Tony Abbott, one of South Africa’s protecting them. Written by the around Polokwane, and survey- finest botanical amateurs who network of volunteers involved in ing the Blouberg and Wolkberg passed away in 2013 and will be CREW, as well as several profes- mountains that are full of endemics. sorely missed by all involved with sional botanists and horticulturists, Limpopo Province has the poor- the CREW Programme. Our para- this publication profiles the excel- est biodiversity information of all of ecologist project is funded by the lent work being done to conserve South Africa’s provinces. It is very Groen Sebenza Programme, and South Africa’s most threatened under-surveyed and we have few will continue for another two years. plants. The book has four sec- records of threatened plant spe- We hope that in this time valuable tions, the first includes case stud- cies. Read more about this new specimens will be gathered from ies of highly threatened species, and essential work on page 14. this under-collected part of the the second is a section focusing CREW has now taken the bold step country and that the para-ecolo- on species threatened by use, and of moving our work into deep rural gists build skills that will allow them the third section looks at hotspots areas of the Eastern Cape. We to find employment in the biodiver- of plant diversity where our CREW have set up a base at the Selmar sity conservation sector after the volunteers are based that are under Schonland Herbarium in Gra- programme. threat. In the last section the book hamstown and under the capable features various CREW groups and leadership of Vatiswa Zikishe, six CREW is becoming famous all also focuses on how the network of para-ecologists (young community over the world; other mega-diverse people required to conserve these members who monitor plants) have countries, including Brazil and Co- species is being grown. Produc- been employed. Taking on capacity lumbia, are interested in repeating ing this book was a collaborative development of young community our model. The IUCN Species Sur- The cover of Plants in Peril. vival Commission is also very inter- SANBI and BotSoc. As part of cele- strength to strength. With the now ested and we are repeatedly asked brating their centenary, BotSoc has long-term involvement of many vol- to write up case studies of our pro- developed a conservation strategy unteers in certain parts of the coun- gramme for international audienc- which requires involvement of their try, a deep knowledge of where es. During 2014, the CREW co-or- members in the CREW Programme special plants occur has been de- dination team will focus on produc- as the fundamental core of their veloped and maintained, allowing ing a lessons learnt scientific paper conservation work, see Catherine a very valuable contribution to con- so we can share the successes of Browne’s article on page 38. the CREW model with biodiversity servation to be made. We would conservationists around the world. In this newsletter you will read that like to thank all our CREW volun- Fundamental to the success of in its tenth year of operating, the teers for your ongoing dedication to CREW is the partnership between CREW Programme has gone from the conservation of our flora. News from the CREW Cape Floristic Region node Ismail Ebrahim nother amazing year of was a very successful event, show- gensis (Vulnerable), which was ACREW work passes by and casing the magnificence of the on display at the expo. I was very it still feels like the first day of Cape floral diversity. The expo was excited to see this species for the starting the CREW Programme. attended by a range of stakehold- first time. Gladiolus overbergensis We have so much to do and the ers, including cut flower producers, usually only appears after fire. The excitement and commitment with various displays of indigenous area we found them in was cleared from the volunteers have just in- plant products, conservation pro- for a new protea orchard and the creased over time. As we reflect jects and a huge labelled specimen plants were coming up between on ten years of CREW’s exist- exhibit. The event also gave our the newly planted seedlings. The ence, we can feel proud of our new Groen Sebenza intern an op- farmer confirmed that a few years achievements. We have made a portunity to see what the CREW ago there were many plants in the huge impact on the conserva- Programme is all about and meet natural veld just above the orchard tion community and won some some of the volunteers involved in and fortunately he doesn’t have any great battles for the protection the project. development plans for that area. of our rich and diverse flora. We also found a small population One of the highlights was the cen- After the event we went off to find of Aristea teretifolia (Endangered) tenary celebration of Kirstenbosch a population of Gladiolus overber- which was a nice surprise. National Botanical Garden and the Botanical Society of South Africa in 2013. There were many spectacu- lar events to celebrate this momen- tous milestone. The first was the Kirstenbosch Science Showcase, which saw SANBI pull out all the stops to put on a magnificent dis- play of past and present research programmes. We organised an iSpot Bioblitz in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden as part of the celebration. Our Bioblitz events have been a great way of exposing this wonderful tool and getting new people to join the iSpot family. In August we were invited to re- peat our display at the Cape Floral Kingdom Expo in Bredasdorp.