As a general rule, it is advisable to appoint a biodiversity specialist sufficiently early in a project planning process so that biodiversity issues can timeously be identified and ‘ironed out’ through positive planning.
The proactive role of biodiversity specialists in pre-application biodiversity screening was covered in the previous section – Contextualisation.
Recommended resources
BROWNLIE, S. 2005. Guideline for involving biodiversity specialists in EIA processes: Edition 1. CSIR Report No ENV-S-C 2005 053 C. Republic of South Africa, Provincial Government of the Western Cape, Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Cape Town.
For triggers for specialist involvement, see pp. 19-22
For drafting specialist terms of reference, see pp. 22-23
RALSTON, S., DE VILLIERS, C., MANUEL, J., TE ROLLER, K. & PENCE, G. 2009. Where are we going? Fine Scale Systematic Conservation Plans and their Contribution to Environmental Assessment. In IAIAsa 2009 National Conference Proceedings, 23-26 August 2009, Wilderness.
BROWNLIE, S., WALMSLEY, B. and TARRET, P. 2009. Guidance Document on Biodiversity, Impact Assessment and Decision making in Southern Africa. As part of IAIA’s Capacity Building in Biodiversity and Impact Assessment project.
RETIEF, E. (2012). Guide to Access Avian Data for Environmental Impact Assessment Reports. BirdLife South Africa.
SANBI. 2013. Grasslands Ecosystem Guidelines: landscape interpretation for planners and managers. Compiled by Cadman, M., de Villiers, C., Lechmere-Oertel, R. and D. McCulloch. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria. 139 pages.
For an international best practice perspective on biodiversity in EIA and strategic environmental assessment:
International Association for Impact Assessment. 2005. Biodiversity in impact assessment. Special Publications No. 3
SLOOTWEG, R., KOLHOFF, A., VERHEEM, R. and HOFT, R. 2006. Background document to CBD decision VIII/28: Voluntary guidelines on biodiversity-inclusive impact assessment. The Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment.
There are also a number of biodiversity-related guidelines produced by provincial biodiversity conservation agencies in South Africa.
Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment. 2009. Requirements for biodiversity assessments version 2.
Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
The system is still under development, so you may find a few bugs/issues. If you do, please report it via the error reporting button available in various sections of the website or provide us with any useful feedback you may have via the ‘Give us feedback’ option available in the sidebar menu. You can create a free account for yourself by clicking on the user profile icon which will take you through to the login page. Here you can choose the ‘Create an account’ option or simply fill in your details if you have an account already. Having an account on Biodiversity Advisor will provide users with free access to biodiversity resources.
In future, Team SANBI will be able to log in using their day-to-day login details, BGIS users will be able to use their existing accounts and details, and general users will be able to log in using their LinkedIn profile, but for now you will need to create an account.
