Selecting the best candidates for resurrecting extinct-in-the-wild plants from herbaria

Resurrecting extinct species is a fascinating and challenging idea for scientists and the general public. Whereas some theoretical progress has been made for animals, the resurrection of extinct plants (de-extinction sensu lato) is a relatively recently discussed topic. In this context, the term ‘de-extinction’ is used sensu lato to refer to the resurrection of ‘extinct in the wild’ species from seeds or tissues preserved in herbaria, as we acknowledge the current impossibility of knowing a priori whether a herbarium seed is alive and can germinate. In plants, this could be achieved by germinating or in vitro tissue-culturing old diaspores such as seeds or spores available in herbarium specimens. This paper reports the first list of plant de-extinction candidates based on the actual availability of seeds in herbarium specimens of globally extinct plants. We reviewed globally extinct seed plants using online resources and additional literature on national red lists, resulting in a list of 361 extinct taxa. We then proposed a method of prioritizing candidates for seed-plant de-extinction from diaspores found in herbarium specimens and complemented this with a phylogenetic approach to identify species that may maximize evolutionarily distinct features. Finally, combining data on seed storage behaviour and longevity, as well as specimen age in the novel ‘best de-extinction candidate’ score (DEXSCO), we identified 556 herbarium specimens belonging to 161 extinct species with available seeds. We expect that this list of de-extinction candidates and the novel approach to rank them will boost research efforts towards the first-ever plant de-extinction

Fiscal Implications of Illegal Migration: Impact on South Africa as a 'Receiving' Country

Journal articles in The 7th Annual International Conference on Public Administration and Development Alternatives, 14 - 16 September 2022International migration is a worldwide phenomenon that happens due to various reasons such as economic stability, war, political situations and so forth. South Africa's migration started around the 1860's with the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand and diamonds in the Orange Free State. The change of political leadership from apartheid system to the new democracy drew many migrants all over the world to South Africa. Whilst volumes in migration are said to have increased since 1990, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are said to be destinations of choice in the SADC region for illegal migrants. Illegal migration is said to be difficult to measure clandestine migration due to its complexity such as political, socioeconomic, wars and other factors. South Africa's migration control and deportation rate is said to have increased post 1990 having a serious dent on the fiscus. There is however, no publicly available financial information on South Africa's expenditure on immigration enforcement. This paper is a desk top analysis of the fiscal implications of illegal immigrants on South Africa as a 'receiving' country. This paper focuses on areas where there are financial implications caused by illegal migration. The results of this desktop research indicate that access to records on how much South Africa spend on the detention and deportation of illegal immigrants is not easily available as such information on the budget spent by the country is collected from limited resources. The limited studies on the fiscal implications on 'receiving' countries such as South Africa indicate that it is a sizable amoun

A Clarion Call for Decolonisation of Curriculum in South Africa: The Struggle Left Unattended

Journal articles published in the 6th International Conference on Public and Development Alternatives (IPADA), 06-08 October 2021, Virtual Conference.The purpose of this paper is to explore in greater details and assess the potency of the current educational curriculum's responsiveness towards socio economic issues and market demand. The paper proposes the need for the decolonising of the inclusive and well-resourced education in South African educational contexts. The clarion call for decolonisation of curriculum in South African institutions of learning be it basic education and higher education endure to relish appeals both from the students and the academics. Decolonisation of education, therefore, rest upon academics who coordinates teaching and learning in public educational institutions. For instance, on the 26 November 2020 the Minister of higher education Dr Blade Nzimande noted students who enrol for courses that are not short of in the market breeding more unemployment with government spending funds on students that are not going to be employed. The question that rises from his speech is: Why are those courses offered by institutions of higher learning if they are not contributing to the unemployment reduction? The paper adopted the Afrocentricity Theory by Asante (1980) in order to strengthen the argument that the current curricula is guarding against unemployment being addressed. The paper uses the Constitution of Republic of South Africa 1996, chapter 2, section 29, and subsection 2 to fortify the argument. The paper further proposes that a decolonised well-resourced education as a basic human need that will serve as a panacea to the tripartite debacles faced by the country of which are poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The inability of the curriculum to respond to contextual issues is as of the lack of capacity of both Departments of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training

A Benchmark Study of Waste Tyre Recycling in South Africa to European Union Practice

Abstract: The number of vehicles is increasing globally resulting in an increase in end of life tyres. Waste tyres are now considered to be a source of valuable materials and structures which can be used to produce new goods and products of useful significance. Technologies and innovations for recovering end of life tyres are well established. Reuse, re-treading, energy and material recovery of end of life tyres are viable options. However, the recycling of waste tyres is not globally successful. The aim and motivation for this study was to compare the success of South Africa in waste tyre recycling to that of countries in the European Union and elucidate on factors that can help explain the gaps in recycling uptake. The European Union tyre recycling rates are closer to 100% while in South Africa the rate is less than 20%. Thus the EU is four times more effective than South Africa in addressing the problem of waste tyres. Legal regulations banning end of life tyre in landfills as well as waste tyre management models, such as extended producer responsibility, free market and tax system were evaluated. The paper contributes to an understanding of the differences, challenges and opportunities for waste management that can be obtained from international benchmarks