How to build science-action partnerships for local land-use planning and management: Lessons from Durban, South Africa

The gap between scientific knowledge and implementation in the fields of biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation has resulted in many calls from practitioners and academics to provide practical solutions responding effectively to the risks and opportunities of global environmental change, e.g., Future Earth. We present a framework to guide the implementation of science-action partnerships based on a real-world case study of a partnership between a local municipality and an academic institution to bridge the science-action gap in the eThekwini Municipal Area, South Africa. This partnership aims to inform the implementation of sustainable land-use planning, biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and climate change adaptation practice and contributes to the development of human capacity in these areas of expertise. Using a transdisciplinary approach, implementation-driven research is being conducted to develop several decision-making products to better inform land-use planning and management. Lessons learned through this partnership are synthesized and presented as a framework of enabling actions operating at different levels, from the individual to the interorganizational. Enabling actions include putting in place enabling organizational preconditions, assembling a functional well-structured team, and actively building interpersonal and individual collaborative capacity. Lessons learned in the case study emphasize the importance of building collaborative capacity and social capital, and paying attention to the process of transdisciplinary research to achieve more tangible science, management, and policy objectives in science-action partnerships. By documenting and reflecting on the process, this case study provides conceptual and practical guidance on bridging the science-action gap through partnerships

Two new species Bicoxidens Attems, 1928, from Zimbabwe (Diplopoda: Spirostreptida: Spirostreptidae)

Bicoxidens nasti n.sp. and Bicoxidens friendi n.sp. are described from five and six males, respectively. B. nasti was collected from miombo woodland litter west of Marondera, Mashonaland East, whereas B. friendi was collected in grasses on a granite rock outcrop at Mutawatawa Growth Point in Maramba district, Murewa, northeast of Harare. B. nasti differs from all other species of Bicoxidens by the presence of a hammer-shaped mesad process on each paracoxite and a long sickle-shaped mesad process on the telocoxite, which completely overlaps with that of the opposite gonopod. B. friendi differs by having three median processes on the telocoxite giving the gonopod a T-shape.Keywords: millipede, gonopods, paracoxite, taxonom

A preliminary survey of micro-organisms in the gut and pellets of a tropical millipede Doratogonus uncinatus Attems (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Spirostreptidae).

Millipede gut microbiology and decomposition of faecal pellets over a period of eight weeks were studied in the laboratory. Bacterial numbers, carbon and nitrogen content, pH and weight loss were monitored. Heterotrophic bacteria were the most abundant and reached a peak in the first two weeks of decomposition. The amount of carbon was constant while ammonium nitrogen decreased from 1.51 % to 0.03 % after eight weeks. The pH of the pellets was slightly acidic and did not change much during the course of decomposition. A succession of micro-organisms was observed on decomposing pellets. Zygomycetes were replaced by Ascomycetes after 20 days of decomposition. Decomposition was significantly affected by temperature. The rate of decomposition was highest at 35oC. Key words: decomposition, pellets, bacteria, fungi, succession (Global Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences: 2003 9(2): 171-176