The Sibaya Coastal Forest Reserve contingent of citizen scientists made a significant impact in the recent City Nature Challenge (CNC), contributing to eThekwini’s impressive second place overall in South Africa.
As a province, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), encompassing areas such as the South Coast, eThekwini, KZN Midlands, the Dolphin Coast, and Zululand, claimed the silver medal position in Africa across all four categories: numbers of participants, observations made, species recorded, and identifiers. KZN recorded over 23,000 observations of 3,500 species, showcasing the region’s rich biodiversity.
Cape Town led the African leaderboard and made a notable global impact, securing 10th place for the number of observations made and 8th for the number of species recorded. Bolivian city La Paz emerged as the global leader across all categories.
The four-day global event, held from April 26 to 29, highlighted biodiversity in nearly 500 cities, with 83,528 participants making 2,436,844 observations of more than 65,682 species worldwide.
“We have much to celebrate as the southern African community,” said Suvana Mohan of the South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). “Thirty-six cities representing nine African countries participated, with a total of 136,234 observations made by 2,980 observers.”
Dr. Allister Starke, who led the Sibaya group, explained that the collected biodiversity data feeds into the SANBI-Global Biodiversity Information Facility (SANBI-GBIF) database. This database is a valuable resource for scientists, environmental managers, and conservationists, aiding global conservation efforts.
At Sibaya, the efforts of the Sibaya Conservation Trust continue to play a vital role in our precinct’s initiatives, contributing to the preservation and understanding of our local biodiversity.
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