Volume 11 • April 2015 CREW –National Overview Domitilla Raimondo, Threatened Species Programme Manager REW, the Custodians of C Rare and Endangered ast year, 2014, has been a others do monthly fieldtrips. Some Wildflowers, is a programme Lbumper year for the CREW cover a very wide area, while oth- that involves volunteers from programme: our network of vol- ers concentrate their monitoring on the public in the monitoring unteers has expanded into the a few highly threatened sites close and conservation of South Albany area of the Eastern Cape to where they live. Overall though Africa’s threatened plants. under the leadership of Vatiswa what stands out is that as each CREW aims to capacitate a Zikishe, with a first set of CREW year goes by, the knowledge of our network of volunteers from fieldtrips in the region already volunteers grows and more-and- a range of socio-economic yielding some interesting data more interesting species are found. backgrounds to monitor on plant species endemic to Hidden in the pages of this news- and conserve South Africa’s the Albany region (see page 5); letter are numerous discoveries of threatened plant species. a new CREW group has been new plant species, as well so many The programme links vol- formed for Gauteng and has just rediscoveries of plants not seen for unteers with their local started fieldwork in this highly decades. It is incredible to see that conservation agencies and threatened province (see page many of you volunteers are finding particularly with local land 38); the Fynbos-based CREW so many new threatened and range stewardship initiatives to en- have been incredibly productive restricted species that you have not sure the conservation of key with a record number of sites previously recorded and this shows sites for threatened plant being recorded this past year the need for long-term monitoring species. (see page 7); and the KZN CREW and the value of involving all of you are working hard to build aware- in monitoring South Africa’s special ness on threatened plants in the plants. province and are doing valuable I have just completed South Af- monitoring and capacity devel- rica’s National Plant Conservation opment work, page 3. Strategy, and CREW features very After reading all the articles submit- strongly in this strategy. CREW ted by the various CREW volun- fulfils the role of monitoring threat- teer groups to this newsletter, it is ened plants in the field providing evident that each of our volunteer the essential knowledge foundation groups has their own style of doing upon which the other conservation fieldwork; some do weekly trips, activities of the strategy are based. 1 Lize von Staden conducting Red List training for Groen Sebenza pioneers: Dewidine van der Colff, Hlengiwe Mtshali & Mahlatse Mogale. For example, CREW data is the globally to achieve the in situ con- many of them, especially our in- main source of new information to servation target of the Global Strat- terns from the Eastern Cape, this update the Red List status of all of egy for Plant Conservation. is the first time they have written an South Africa’s plants. The accu- article to publish, and we are very rate population data on threatened The CREW programme continues proud of their development. plants collected by CREW volun- to be deeply committed to capacity teers have also been used, along development; there was a strong In 2014, CREW piloted a new ap- with specimen data, to identify the focus in 2014 on developing ca- proach to tackling gap areas where we do not have CREW groups most important areas for expand- pacity of Groen Sebenza pioneers functioning and undertook a plant ing South Africa’s protected areas. (young individuals funded by the collecting and plant monitoring Lize von Staden, SANBI’s Red List national jobs fund to work in bio- expedition to the Richtersveld in Scientist, has over the past year diversity conservation). Fourteen the Northern Cape. We were very conducted a systematic biodiver- Groen Sebenza pioneers based fortunate to have an excellent lo- sity plan for species that identifies across the country worked on in- cal expert on the plants, Pieter van where the best sites are for con- ventorying plants and animals, and they also received extensive train- Wyk, who works as an ecologist serving unprotected species. Her at SANParks. Pieter knew most of ing that ranged from how to collect work has already been included in the special rare and endemic spe- certain groups of invertebrates to the Western Cape’s Protected Area cies we were searching for, so over managing finances. Three of these expansion strategy and sites identi- the 10-day trip we managed to find Groen Sebenza pioneers are uni- fied in this analysis are now being most of our target plants. Two of versity graduates employed via used to guide where biodiversity our interns who came on this trip stewardship works happens. The the Botanical Society. These three were Brittany Arendse and Mahl- other provinces will also be updat- individuals have had a deep invest- atse Mogale and they have written ing their protected area expansion ment in their skills via training on about our adventures on page 46. strategies over the course of the how to conduct Red Listing and we More than 300 endemic plants next year, and a national protected hope soon to have a new cohort from this region will now have their area expansion strategy that kicks of Red List scientists to help with assessments updated and made of this year will also use the results the very big job of keeping plant available as part of our next Red of this analysis. We are hopeful that assessments of South Africa’s rich List update. Many of these species within the next five years we will flora up to date. CREW also hosts have become more threatened as a manage to achieve formal conser- one year interns funded by the result of overgrazing and trampling vation of 75% of threatened plant National Research Foundation. At by goats. SANBI will work with species by conserving 30 priority the end of this newsletter, on pages SANParks to determine how this sites. If this is achieved South Af- 42–45, you will find a number of threat to the unique plant diversity 2 rica will become the first country articles written by our interns. For in this region can be removed. The implementation of the CREW forms a core part of the Botanical so much of your time and spend programme is made possible via Society’s conservation work; Cath- your own resources to get to distant the partnership between SANBI erine Brown explains more about field sites to monitor plants. We are and the Botanical Society and is this on page 9. I would like to end so grateful to the contribution you dependent on the funding received this article expressing our thanks to are all making to the conservation from the Botanical Society. CREW all of you, our volunteers, who give of South Africa’s unique flora! News from the CREW Kwa-Zulu Natal node Suvarna Parbhoo t is always rewarding to reflect Ion the activities of another year that has passed and 2014 was a remarkable year of threat- ened plant hunting. The enthu- siasm and commitment from the CREW summer-rainfall network keeps growing. Our focus for 2014 was to showcase some of KZN’s threatened plants by producing eye-catching posters. The six CREW KZN posters feature the province’s most threatened plants, trees and aloes; Pondoland’s threatened plants; as well as the top five threatened plants from both Participants at the 2014 CREW summer-rainfall workshop held at Highover, KZN Durban and the Midlands. Graham Southern Midlands. Photo: Graham Grieve. Grieve speaks more about the Pondoland poster on page 41. Mbali has been instrumental in threatened plant awareness and We were fortunate to have NRF knowledge in the general public. sponsored intern Mbali Mkhize establishing the ‘What’s flowering join the CREW team for a year as now?’ series of articles. As the title suggests, these short articles Our Groen Sebenza pioneer, she took on data management, Hlengiwe Mtshali, is truly an ensuring that information is provide a picture and a simple asset to the team. After extensive captured as it comes in. Read description of a threatened plant Red List training and mentoring, about Mbali’s CREW internship in flower in the KZN Midlands and Hlengiwe is now focussing on adventure on page 42. This gave Durban and outlying western areas. us the opportunity to analyse The articles are published (and red listing the KZN threatened our data and we are delighted to distributed) within the Midlands and species, apart from her CREW announce that we have found 211 the Kloof conservancy networks. KZN coordinator role. It is crucial of 473 threatened species known in Our articles are also published that we collect as much data as KZN. In addition, we have recorded in the Natal Witness newspaper. possible to enable appropriate Red 32 Rare species since the CREW We are excited to be receiving List statuses of our species. Hence, KZN node was initiated. A species alerts from the public and being 2015 will be a more focussed year is categorised as Rare when it able to visit new, botanically rich for data and specimen collection. meets at least one of four South properties. We have also been African criteria for rarity, but is not sharing these articles on our Having played a mentoring role exposed to any direct or potential Facebook page with the hope that over the past few years, I am threat and does not qualify for a information will be shared as widely proud to see the development of category of threat according to one as possible.