SANParks’ scientific service keeps an eye on all national parks

From ocean deep to mountain high, indigenous forest to virgin grasslands, research to understand how South Africa’s biodiversity meshes is taking place on a global scale.

The tiniest single-celled diatoms, mega-herbivores and everything in between, together with human interaction with all these systems, are scrutinised – and it is the South African National Parks’ (SANParks’) Scientific Services that keeps an eye on it all in our national parks.

Dr Izak Smit is acting general manager for the savanna and arid research unit, based at Skukuza in the Kruger National Park.

The Citizen met him and others to bring readers an insight into this vital part of SANParks. SANParks not only keeps tabs on many national and international researchers, facilitating and hosting their research; it is also involved with park managers in co-writing all the national parks’ management plans.

“I like to think of the department as a bridging agent or a translator that links science with management. We do the research which provides the scientific evidence for how we manage our parks. We also look at what management’s concerns are and relay those back to the researchers.”

Smit said a lot of what the department did relied on networks and collaboration with external researchers.

“Since 2005, we have had more than 700 projects registered in Kruger National Park alone from a host of organisations.”

Management decisions are sometimes based on ongoing research, such as the contentious removal of artificial waterholes, when and if there should be veld burning in the parks and leaving or managing animals – and it’s up to scientific services to provide the best available and integrated scientific advice for whatever decision is made.

“The approach we take is strategic adaptive management and we sometimes translate that to say it means learning by doing, which sometimes on occasion the media and public interpret incorrectly,” Smit said.

“It can sound like we don’t know what we’re doing and as we go along we’re learning. But what it actually means is that we act with the best available current knowledge and then acknowledge whatever we do is an experiment. You need to continuously monitor the outcome so you can optimise your learning from it and adapt your actions if necessary.”

Smit explained, for instance, that the fire policy in Kruger had changed about seven times since the ’50s.

“Does that mean we don’t know what we are doing, or does that mean we are learning and adapting? We would rather change our approach if new research findings and a better understanding suggest we should, than to continue in our set ways.”

At almost 2 million hectares, Kruger is one of the biggest open-air laboratories and, when the neighbouring parks from Zimbabwe and Mozambique are factored in, the area under study grows substantially.

SANParks controls 20 national parks – about 4 million hectares – and monitors certain marine protected areas as well. Each area is unique with its needs and challenges.

“We call science an intellectual ecosystem service, since it provides learning opportunities, as a service, to those who study it. However, these benefits flow back to the parks as the learning from the ecosystem helps us to manage it better,” Smit said.

“Essentially, national parks are both benefactors and beneficiaries of science as there is a two-way flow of benefits between the parks and the science emanating from them.

“Increasingly, we’re trying to focus on integrating disciplines and looking at them through the lenses of sustainability within socioecological systems so we can really understand how everything is interlinked and work together optimally.”

Next week, we delve into the Kruger’s fire policy, touch on the ongoing fallout from the drought and reveal two vital cogs that help the park function smoothly. – amandaw@citizen.co.za