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Rooted in resilience at this year’s 45th Fynbos Forum conference

The BotSoc Conservation team recently participated in the 45th Fynbos Forum held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from 6-8 August 2024. 

Rooted in resilience at this year’s 45th Fynbos Forum conference

The BotSoc Conservation team recently participated in the 45th Fynbos Forum held in Stellenbosch, South Africa, from 6-8 August 2024. We were joined by conservation managers, land use planners, landowners, conservation practitioners, and researchers under this year’s conference theme – Rooted Resilience: Navigating the Future of Fynbos Conservation.

The annual forum highlighted the unique diversity and adaptations of our fynbos flora and associated ecosystems, and an imperative to the collective efforts needed to protect the unique biodiversity of the Cape in the face of ongoing climate change and habitat transformation. The Fynbos Forum was a great networking nexus and tied many ecological themes together to pave a way forward for strengthening conservation of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), a global biodiversity hotspot of conservation priority.

STRENGTHENING BOTSOC’S CONSERVATION WORK

Our team included Dr Martina Treurnicht, BotSoc Conservation Project Manager and Chairperson of the Fynbos Forum, and Kayleigh Murray, BotSoc Conservation Project Coordinator (Cape) who attended and presented at the Forum this year. The message from the Fynbos Forum Chairperson highlighted major achievements of the 45-year legacy of the Fynbos Forum outlining its impacts, history and conservation champions that have contributed invaluably to the conservation of the fynbos biome over more than four decades. Kayleigh Murray presented a poster on her relatively new role as BotSoc’s Conservation Project Coordinator, providing conservation support to BotSoc branches in the Cape region. As the Cape Coordinator, Kayleigh is spearheading conservation projects aimed at growing capacity, mobilising volunteers and supporting the Weskus, Cape Winelands, Southern Overberg and Kirstenbosch branches with conservation activities, aligned to the BotSoc Conservation Strategy.

PARTNERSHIPS FOR FUTURE COLLABORATION

The Fynbos Forum programme ran over three days and gathered 140 attendees from several conservation organisations. The programme constituted six keynote talks, two workshops, several field trips, and many presentations from a diverse range of speakers, providing insightful conversations about conservation approaches, fynbos and climate change research, and land use and rehabilitation efforts needed to safeguard fynbos landscapes and species.

The 45th Fynbos Forum (6-8 August 2024, hosted at Protea Hotel Technopark, Stellenbosch) ran over three days and gathered 140 attendees from several conservation organisations. The programme constituted six keynote talks, two workshops, several field trips, and many presentations from a diverse range of speakers. Photo credit: M Treurnicht

The workshops and field trips of the Fynbos Forum provided a valuable platform for formal and informal engagements and conversations during the conference. A workshop – organised by the Cape Floristic Region Partnership (CFRP) – brought together 56 participants to discuss and highlight progress of this initiative and to explore future initiatives to secure the conservation of fynbos landscapes. Significant topics that were covered included an update regarding the CFRP, sustainable financing and green bonds and investments, integrated fire management and invasive plant management, as well as the importance of enhancing communication and research links across various organisation working in the Cape region. The Cape Floristic Region (CFR) Partnership serves as a pivotal collaborative platform uniting stakeholders focused on the sustainable conservation of the region’s unique biodiversity.

An engaging iNaturalist (iNat) workshop, hosted by Dr Tony Rebelo (SANBI) and facilitated by BotSoc’s Conservation Coordinator, also showcased the power of this popular, open-source citizen science tool in biodiversity conservation, especially for identifying fynbos plants (an often-challenging task!). Fifty participants were trained on intermediate and advanced tools to document and identify species and to contribute to various projects on the iNat platform. The workshop highlighted the platform’s value in gathering important data for conservation research, monitoring species distributions, and encouraging community involvement. iNaturalist has become a powerful citizen science tool, and with more than 4.5 million observations of almost 44 000 wild species in southern Africa, iNat is an indispensable data source for research, conservation planning and management. Through iNat, both professionals and amateurs can contribute to the protection of South Africa’s unique flora by easily sharing observations with a global network of experts.

A series of field trips provided another dynamic platform for engagement among conservationists, researchers, and enthusiasts allowing participants to connect and explore key fynbos habitats in the Jonkershoek and Assegaaibosch Nature Reserves, and the Klipheuwel Conservation Corridor.

A Fynbos field trip illustrated the South African Scoring System (SASS) for freshwater monitoring or river health, allowing participants to observe how SASS sampling is a useful tool to assess the health of freshwater ecosystems by examining the presence, abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates. Photo by M. Treurnicht.

SAEON’s Ryan Blanchard (SAEON Fynbos Node Manager) and Abri de Buys (EFTEON Chief Technician), took participants to explore the long-standing and well-known Jonkershoek multiple catchment experiment, which has been running since the 1930s. It is the oldest experiment of its kind in Africa and one of the longest running in the world. Extensive effort and investment have gone into refurbishing and upgrading monitoring equipment to maintain the long-term data record to observe climate, water, carbon, and biodiversity patterns – see the SAEON data portal.  In Assegaaibosch Nature Reserve, Jeanne Gouws (Cape Nature) demonstrated and explained the South African Scoring System (SASS) for freshwater monitoring or river health. This hands-on demonstration allowed participants to observe how SASS sampling is a useful tool to assess the health of freshwater ecosystems by examining the presence, abundance and diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates. The SASS method serves as a reliable bioindicator of water quality, and the session highlighted the importance of monitoring freshwater systems within fynbos regions – underscoring CapeNature’s commitment to maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems, crucial for biodiversity conservation within protected areas like Assegaaibosch and Jonkershoek.

SAEON’s Ryan Blanchard (SAEON Fynbos Node Manager) and Abri de Buys (SAEON EFTEON Chief Technician), took participants to explore the long-standing and well-known Jonkershoek multiple catchment experiment – the oldest experiment of its kind in Africa and one of the longest running in the world.

The Klipheuwel Corridor field trip was led by Jacques van der Merwe, Conservation Stewardship Officer, City of Cape Town. This field trip showcased the challenges around urban conservation on the Cape lowlands – a severely fragmented landscape where biodiversity is under extreme pressure from agricultural transformation, housing development and other land use pressures. Despite these growing challenges, progress is being made with ongoing conservation planning and a highlight was the early spring flowers emerging, a beautiful reminder of the diversity and vibrancy of the threatened landscapes and species of the Cape Winelands.

Another highlight from this year’s conference, which provided a well-deserved break from the more formal conference programme, was the creative photo booth session offered in the evenings. This was an interactive installation to create portraits of those who are stewarding and studying the fynbos. Using live flowers and projected images of species in situ, the team from Turning Into Flowers, led by Megan Godsell, created images combining plants and people in an intimacy that reflected the intertwining of species the Fynbos Forum community holds so beautifully. This intimacy, which is so often only reflected in project data, scientific endeavour or geographical landscapes, is held for a moment and framed in a portrait, a brief mirror of the deep interconnection and joy these plants bring us.

Connecting with fellow conservation and fynbos enthusiasts and learning from various experts in the field at this year’s 45th Fynbos Forum has left us feeling inspired and motivated to continue BotSoc’s important conservation work. Annual events like the Fynbos Forum (and other conferences) provide a learning opportunity for sharing and networking – bringing South Africa’s conservation practitioners, scientists and students together for knowledge sharing and biodiversity conservation.

#FynbosForum #BotSocConservation

-By Martina Treurnicht, Conservation Project Manager and Chairperson of the Fynbos Forum NPC