The CSIR will collaborate with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) on the next National Biodiversity Assessment 2018 (NBA 2018) for South Africa. This collaboration correlates strongly with the celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity on Sunday, 22 May 2016, where the focus is placed on ‘mainstreaming biodiversity, sustaining people and their livelihoods’.

The CSIR team and SANBI had collaborated on the first two NBAs for South Africa, the National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment of 2004 and the NBA of 2011, as well as the 2011 National Freshwater Ecosystem Priority Areas (NFEPA).

CSIR researchers, Dr Jeanne Nel and Lara van Niekerk, were previously key partners to SANBI in these projects, with support from Heidi van Deventer, Lindie Smith-Adao, Chantel Petersen and Ashton Maherry, for the wetlands, rivers and estuarine ecosystems.

The CSIR will lead two of the four main ecosystem components of the NBA 2018: Dr Heidi van Deventer will lead the Freshwater Component and Lara van Niekerk will lead the Estuarine Component, while SANBI will lead the Terrestrial and Marine components.

The Freshwater Component will consist of a wetland sub-component, led by Heidi and a river sub-component, led by Lindie. The NBA 2018 will also expand on themes related to indigenous species, genetic diversity of species, pressures including climate change and invasive species, as well as benefits.

The NBA is a policy tool that provides a platform for synthesising existing information on South Africa’s biodiversity, publishing new scientific findings and binding results to policy and managerial responses in government. The NBA also provides an opportunity for setting the scene for biodiversity research for the next five to seven years to plug the gaps in future NBA's.