Corrigendum: The alignment of projects dealing with wetland restoration and alien control: A challenge for conservation management in South Africa

Errors that appear in the Discussion of the Research Article by Sieben et al. are corrected here. Dr Graham Harding (Registered PCO, Invader Plant Specialists (Pty) Ltd) is acknowledged for drawing the authors’ attention to these errors

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

How Often Are We in the Here and Now?

There is a conflict between humans’ need to focus on the present circumstances and their ability to plan and reminisce, which often results in mind wandering. Contemporary techniques with ancient roots, such as mindfulness, are useful in solving some of the problems associated with excessive mind wandering but largely fail to recognize the importance of planning and reminiscing. This lack of recognition means that research has by and large ignored the need for a balanced approach, incorporating a focus on both the present local circumstances and elsewhere. Here, I scrutinize time use data to classify contemporary human activities, with an emphasis on leisure but also relevant in a work context. I classify activities according to their temporal and spatial profiles, while also noting any social components involved, which may further remove the activity focus from the self. A visual summary of this classification indicates that our activities, whether societally imposed on us or performed by choice, cover the full range of time-and-place focus profiles available to the human mind more or less evenly. This contradicts the prevalent paradigm, suggesting a dichotomy between present time-and-place focus and mind wandering. I suggest that individual differences in temporal and spatial focus profiles require both broad and in-depth study, such differences having the potential to help optimize not only individual well-being but also the functioning of society, and that mind wandering may be (at least partly) unnecessarily vilified

The value of arboreta in South Africa

Significance:• Arboreta are documented, living collections of ligneous species cultivated for research, education and display.• Arboreta are a valuable resource for the forestry industry as gene banks.• Arboreta, together with botanic gardens, form a useful network of sentinel sites for plant pathogens and invasive species.• A survey of the species composition and status     of  arboreta in South Africa would be an important contribution to our botanical knowledge

Vertebrate distributions indicate a greater Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany region of endemism

The Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (MPA) biodiversity hotspot (~274 316 km2) was primarily recognised based on its high plant endemism. Here we present the results of a qualitative biogeographical study of the endemic vertebrate fauna of south-eastern Africa, in an exercise that (1) refines the delimitation of the MPA hotspot, (2) defines zoogeographical units and (3) identifies areas of vertebrate endemism. Initially we listed 62 vertebrate species endemic and 60 near endemic to the MPA hotspot, updating previous checklists. Then the distributions of 495 vertebrate taxa endemic to south-eastern Africa were reviewed and 23 endemic vertebrate distributions (EVDs: distribution ranges congruent across several endemic vertebrate taxa) were recognised, amongst which the most frequently encountered were located in the Eastern Escarpment, central KwaZulu-Natal, Drakensberg and Maputaland. The geographical patterns illustrated by the EVDs suggest that an expansion of the hotspot to incorporate sections of the Great Escarpment from the Amatola-Winterberg-Sneeuberg Mountains through the Drakensberg to the Soutpansberg would be justified. This redefinition gives rise to a Greater Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (GMPA) region of vertebrate endemism adding 135% more endemics with an increase of only 73% in surface area to the MPA hotspot. The GMPA region has a more natural boundary in terms of EVDs as well as vegetation units. An accurate delimitation of this hotspot, as well as a better understanding of biogeography in the region, would greatly benefit conservation planning and implementation. Towards these aims, we used EVDs to delimit non-overlapping zoogeographical units (including 14 areas of vertebrate endemism), facilitating numerical biogeographical analyses. More importantly, this study opens up possibilities of refining hotspot delimitation and identifying local conservation priorities in regions of the world where data do not allow numerical analyses