Volume 9 • April 2013 CREW –National Overview Domitilla Raimondo REW, the Custodians of his year CREW celebrates its Over the past ten years CREW has C Rare and Endangered T10 year anniversary. grown at a sustainable rate, ex- Wildflowers, is a programme panding from the focus on the Fyn- What started off as a three year that involves volunteers from bos to include summer rainfall ar- pilot project in the Fynbos with ex- the public in the monitoring ternal grant funds from the United eas. In 2006 the Mpumalanga Plant and conservation of South States, has expanded into a nation- Specialist Group joined CREW and Africa’s threatened plants. ally implemented programme with in 2007 the KwaZulu-Natal Node CREW aims to capacitate a financial and institutional commit- was established. CREW work start- network of volunteers from ment from SANBI and the Botani- ed for the first time in Limpopo in a range of socio-economic cal Society (BotSoc). Few projects 2012, with an exciting partnership backgrounds to monitor of this nature have a lifespan longer between the University of Limpopo and conserve South Africa’s than five years, so getting to 10 and the Limpopo Botanical Society threatened plant species. is very impressive. The success group (see article on page 34). This The programme links vol- of CREW is due to the dedication year, 2013, we take the bold step unteers with their local of our network of volunteers who of moving the programme deeper conservation agencies and donate their time and resources to into the Eastern Cape, working particularly with local land monitoring and conserving rare and both in the Pondoland region in stewardship initiatives to en- threatened plants. To honour this partnership with Sustaining the sure the conservation of key commitment, SANBI and BotSoc Wild Coast trust, as well as in the sites for threatened plant will be producing a coffee table Grahamstown and former Ciskei species. publication this year, highlighting region with Rhodes University. A the plight of 100 of South Africa’s CREW node will be established in most threatened plants. A major Grahamstown based at the Selmar focus of the book, titled Plants in Schonland Herbarium and Vatiswa Peril, will be to demonstrate the Zikishe, who has been working with work being done by CREW volun- CREW in the Cape Floristic Re- teers, highlighting CREW activities gion (CFR), will head up the work to monitor the status of threatened in the Eastern Cape. Our first two species accurately as well as con- years will focus both on setting up tribute towards their conservation. a group of volunteers based in Gra- The number 100 was chosen as hamstown to monitor plant species this year is the centenary anniver- of conservation concern as well as sary of the Botanical Society. piloting employment of young mem- 1 bers from rural communities in the status of South Africa’s biodiver- tor and conserve plants of conser- former Ciskei area to work as para- sity. We would like to thank all our vation concern in your regions. We ecologists. volunteers for their hard work that challenge you to help us break all resulted in this recognition. We look previous records and to demon- The term para-ecologist is some- forward to celebrating our ten-year strate that this programme has the what unknown in South Africa. anniversary with you. This year we necessary momentum to continue Para-ecologists are individuals encourage extra hard work to moni- well into the future. recruited from rural communities to help conduct ecological and conservation research in the area in which they live. With dedicated training and constant linkages with News from the CREW visiting scientists, para-ecologists become local experts in biodiver- KwaZulu-Natal Node sity and work to bridge the com- Suvarna Parbhoo munication gap between local and scientific communities, contributing The fifth annual summer-rainfall to both scientific research and local ix months have passed development. CREW’s para-ecolo- Ssince I took over the reins workshop, held at Umthamvuna gist project will run from April 2013 of CREW KwaZulu-Natal man- Nature Reserve, was by far the ager from Isabel, and a busy six to November 2015, with three focal best attended workshop. Sixty-five months it has been. areas namely, the former Ciskei re- participants attended, including gion of the Eastern Cape, the Pon- My highlights have been the four- CREW volunteers from KwaZulu- doland region, and rural towns sur- day bumper CREW summer-rainfall Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga rounding Cape Town (Mamre and workshop and meeting new volun- provinces, students from UKZN- Worcester). Funding for employing teers via the Bioblitz project. My Westville campus, inland and para-ecologists has come from lowlights have been the untimely coastal branches of the KwaZulu- the Groen Sebenza project (Jobs death of Rob Scott-Shaw and Natal Botanical Society and the Fund) that SANBI is implementing missing opportunities to join the KwaZulu-Natal provincial con- across the Conservation Sector in CREW groups on field trips due servation agency. It was the first partnership with 32 environmental/ to this season’s strange weather. CREW workshop to be held over biodiversity organisations, and the Sadly, 2013 began with the news four days. The workshop kicked off Kirstenbosch Branch of the Bo- that Roger Uys, Ezemvelo KZN with Braam van Wyk’s tree iden- tanical Society. Groen Sebenza is Wildlife’s ecologist, is relocating to tification course and concluded aimed at developing priority skills New Zealand. Apart from being an with Marie Jordaan’s Gymnosporia in the biodiversity sector to create ardent CREW fan, Roger has been identification course. During the sustainable job opportunities for extremely helpful with plant permits weekend, Braam informed us of the 800 unemployed graduates and and access to the provincial re- principles of plant geography by matriculants. CREW will be doing serves. We wish Roger all the best. explaining the distribution patterns its bit to build skills by employing ten para-ecologists. Reflecting on 2012, there is much to be proud of. Our volunteers surveyed many species of con- servation concern with so many exciting finds (see articles written by each CREW group for examples of these). SANBI’s virtual museum, iSpot, has taken off, with CREW volunteers making a massive contribution (see article on page 8). The data collected by CREW volunteers has been invaluable for updating the Red List. During 2012, the conservation status of 797 plants was updated. At the end of 2012, the CREW team received SANBI’s CEO Special Award recognising the value of our contribution towards achieving Rob Scott-Shaw showing volunteers how to do plots at Red Desert Nature Reserve 2 SANBI’s mandate to monitor the (Photograph: D. Higginson-Keith). Participants at the 2012 CREW summer-rainfall workshop. of plants and why some plants are rare. Mondi’s environmental man- ger, Jacqui Shuttleworth, provided insight into the company’s environ- mental programme. Tony Dold in- troduced his newly launched book, Voices from the Forest. On Sunday we were joined by an amaMpondo delegation to celebrate the launch of Sinegugu Zukulu’s book, Me- dicinal and Charm Plants of Pon- doland. The 2013 CREW summer- rainfall workshop will be held in Es- howe on 6–9 September with three well-known botanists (Neil Crouch, Benny Bytebier and Pieter Bester) already secured for plant identifica- tion courses. My first official assignment as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife ecologist, Roger Uys, eThekwini municipality ecologist, Er- CREW KwaZulu-Natal Node rol Douwes and some participants of the Entumeni Bioblitz. Manager was to prioritise the 460 KwaZulu-Natal threatened plant species into target species for almost 40 priority species. The herbarium at Umthamvuna Nature each of the eight CREW groups. group’s enthusiasm has grown Reserve but also contributes to This new target species list made tremendously over the past year, other herbaria. for intense discussions at each with an injection of new CREWites. of the planning meetings and The CREW herbarium techniques The CREW KwaZulu-Natal Node gave the groups a new focus. course at the Bews Herbarium, has entrenched its university pro- The Nicholson Botanical Group facilitated by Christina Potgieter- ject at the University of Zululand, set out on a mission to Dumisa in Curry, further enhanced CREW University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pie- search of Data Deficient species. volunteers’ confidence in plant termaritzburg campus) and Durban The group recorded more than collecting. Both the Boston and University of Technology. This pro- 100 species in just two hours with Underberg groups have submitted ject was initiated in 2009. Universi- the find for the day being Searsia specimens to the KwaZulu-Natal ty of Zululand students were again rudatsii (Endangered), previously Herbarium for the first time. The unsuccessful in their search for the known only from Vernon Crookes Mkhambathini Group continues very rare saprophytic ground orchid Nature Reserve. The Underberg to donate specimens to the Bews Didymoplexis verrucosa (Vulner- Group excitedly set out to find Herbarium and the Nicholson able) that is only known from one the historical localities of their Botanical group has its very own locality. University of KwaZulu-Na- 3 tal students collected baseline plant programme appreciates her invalu- biodiversity symposium and WES- demographic data for a population able help in this regard, as CREW SA KwaZulu-Natal coastal office. It of the medicinal Merwilla plumbea volunteers will be able to access will also be reaching out to the vari- (Near Threatened) for the third year this information electronically [see ous other provincial conservancies and conducted a mini Bioblitz at the http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/ in the upcoming ‘quiet’ season. In site. We trust that we have inspired nu].