Conservation Services

Garden Route: Scientific Services

Scientific Services (Rondevlei Office) has compiled State of Knowledge (SOK) reports for parks in the coastal areas. The primary objective of these reports is to improve awareness of the information available form various published sources; all of which has relevance to park management, planning and research.

The SOK reports give brief introductions to the extensive literature cited and do not purport to be exhaustive summaries of what is available. All information is referenced so that further reading can be undertaken if required. The emphasis of the SOK reports on the biophysical and ecological attributes and processes reflects the competencies of authors. However, the intention is to widen the scope of the reports to cover other aspects (e.g. social sciences) but to succeed in this Endeavour Scientific Services (Rondevlei Office) will be dependent upon specialists in these fields.

The target audience was initially SANParks staff but it has become apparent that the SOK reports have a much wider appeal. It is important that users, especially non-SANParks users, familiarise themselves with the content of the Disclaimer in each SOK report.

The reports for Wilderness, Knysna and Tsitsikamma will be combined to form a consolidated Garden Route report which will incorporate the State Forest areas that are now under SANParks management. This report will be updated at intervals of not more than six months. In future the reports for Agulhas, Bontebok and West Coast will be maintained and updated by the Cape Research Centre’s staff members.

Readers who are aware of omissions or inaccuracies or who wish to make comments are encouraged to contact the senior authors (Tsitsikamma: Nick Hanekom nickh@sanparks.org ; Wilderness & Knysna: Ian Russell ianr@sanparks.org ; Bontebok: Tineke Kraaij tinekek@sanparks.org) to ensure that changes can be made.