SSC Specialist Group Profile:The Southern African Invertebrate Specialist Group Profile

The Southern African Invertebrate Specialist Group (SAISG) was the first regionally-based invertebrate Specialist Group to be created, to help overcome the limited coverage of invertebrates in the existing SSC Specialist Groups. Since its relatively recent establishment in 2001, this dynamic Group of 30 members has thrived and already plays a major role in invertebrate conservation in the region. It also has an international remit, with strong links to the Invertebrate Committee of the IUCN/SSC and the new international initiative on invertebrate conservation, the ‘Expanding the Ark Coalition.’

Geographical area of responsibility

Geographically, the SAISG has tentacles throughout southern Africa. It includes three of the 33 global hotspots for invertebrates (Cape Floral Region, Succulent Karoo and Maputaland) and reaches up to East Africa. It also encompasses the Indian Ocean Islands, which are a particular cause for invertebrate conservation concern. They are under considerable human pressure and there was widespread dieback of the coral reefs following a mass bleaching event in 1998.

Working with others to promote invertebrate conservation

During these formative years, the SAISG has established strong links with universities, museums and NGOs. It has also contributed to the National Biodiversity and Strategic Action Plan for South Africa, and the new Biodiversity Bill. A sister grouping of invertebrate conservationists has been initiated under the name of the “Inland Invertebrate Initiative”, which focuses on fund raising for terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity in South Africa and Lesotho.

Making a difference – conservation action on the ground

The SAISG is also the Red Listing Authority for the region. Red Listing has quickly proved to be a very effective tool in raising the awareness of invertebrate conservation issues in the area.

Invertebrate specialists keep in touch through the Group’s newsletter, Colophon, and meetings held in 2001 and 2003 proved to be a successful means of sharing views and initiating invertebrate conservation programmes. Amongst these are management methods for remnant grassland corridors (which play a major role in conserving indigenous grasshoppers, butterflies and flower-arthropod associations) and the removal of alien trees from river corridors, to the benefit of riparian wildlife, most noticeably certain dragonfly species.

Other invertebrate conservation projects include studies on coral reef die-back, snails, butterflies, grasshoppers and millipedes, including the Seychelles giant millipede (Sechelleptus seychellarum); so abundant on Cousine Island that it is equivalent in biomass to one elephant per 5 hectares! The recent exciting discovery of a completely new insect order, the Mantophasmotoidea suggests that there are many more invertebrates out there waiting to be discovered. It also emphasizes the importance of the landscape or ‘coarse filter’ approach in addition to the species or ‘fine filter’ specific site approach for maintaining the rich diversity and all the ecological processes in the area.

THE MEMBERS PROFILED

Prof Michael Samways, SAISG chair
Dr Michelle Hamer
Ms Marianne Forsyth
Dr Dai Herbert
Dr Justin Gerlach

Prof. Michael Samways, Chair

“There’s nothing like the thrill of successful conservation!"

Just as Milan is to opera singers or Moscow to ballet dancers, so South Africa is to invertebrate conservationists like Michael Samways, Professor of Entomology at the University of Stellenbosch and Chair of the Southern African Invertebrates Specialist Group. It is a rich and exciting area, with three of the world’s 33 global creepy-crawly hotspots within its boundaries.

The conservation of insects has been a love of Michael’s for many years. He wrote Insect Conservation Biology in 1994, followed by a ten-year update, Insect Diversity Conservation in 2004.

However, for Michael, the real joy of conservation is seeing it put into action, with landscape improvements and species then being saved. This has been done in various ways.

“One of the most exciting approaches has involved modifying the landscape mosaic to optimize agriculture without compromising biodiversity using a network of remnant grassland corridors and nodes between afforested pine patches” says Michael. “What matters is that disturbance in these corridors is not too high. A few cattle are not a bad thing, as their impact mimics the natural impact of large game animals”.

Another of Michael’s passions over the last few years has been the conservation of dragonflies. Foreign trees, especially acacias, along river corridors were known to be very harmful to the indigenous biodiversity, but what was surprising was how species bounced back once the invasive alien trees had been removed from the river banks. The real cherry on the top has been the reappearance of some species which had not been seen for years. This has led to the pleasurable experience of actually seeing species improve their position on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

There is nothing like the thrill of successful conservation!

Dr Michelle Hamer

“I realised that habitats and probably species associated with them were disappearing as fast as I was describing them...this triggered my interest in invertebrate conservation and led me to get involved in Red Listing”.

Michelle Hamer is a senior lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Her research programme focuses on different aspects of invertebrate conservation in South Africa, such as millipede taxonomy, developing a burning regime for grasslands that does not threaten invertebrates and investigating the impacts of elephants on ground-dwelling invertebrates.

It was Michelle’s postgraduate studies and early taxonomic research - wallowing in mud pools looking for fairy shrimps, or digging for millipedes in forests - that triggered her interest in invertebrate conservation. “I realized that habitats and probably species associated with them were disappearing as fast as I was describing new species. In one case I collected a new genus of shrimp from a single pool in KwaZulu-Natal. Before I had even formally described this genus the pool had exotic timber planted through it and the shrimps had disappeared. I never found the genus again and assume that it is now extinct. This led me to get involved in co-ordinating the Red Listing of freshwater crustaceans for South Africa,” she says.

Over the years Michelle has seen the power of a species being officially Red Listed. She has revised the threat status of five onychophoran species (peripatus or velvet worms - small carnivorous animals resembling both arthropods and worms) and submitted 15 threatened millipedes for consideration: these will be the first millipedes on the IUCN Red List.

Adding to the frustration of virtually watching invertebrates go extinct was the exclusion of invertebrates from most conservation activities in South Africa. There is no real evidence for the often repeated statement that if we care for the larger animals and habitats, invertebrates will coincidentally be conserved. In order to address this and promote invertebrate research and conservation, the Inland Invertebrate Initiative, a group of specialists committed to invertebrate conservation has been established and is co-ordinated by Michelle. It is already involved in several large collaborative projects on invertebrate conservation in South Africa.

Ms Marianne Forsyth

“I hope my work will strengthen the position of invertebrate conservation in the face of enormous urbanization pressure that Gauteng province experiences daily.”

Marianne has been working as an invertebrate scientist for Nature Conservation in Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (GDACE) for five years. Together with other scientists, she spends just over a week each month in the summer surveying the province and the data collected is analysed in the winter. Marianne and technician Hermien Roux, have been focusing their efforts on Red Listed, threatened, rare and conservation worthy invertebrates with a view to including them in the provincial Conservation Plan (C-Plan).

The Conservation Plan is the end product of the Biodiversity GAP Analysis Project (BGAP Project), a project initiated a few years ago by GDACE to identify and map areas of biodiversity importance in the province. This is used by the scientists to inform decision-making on land use, planning, conservation management and policy development in the province.

Marianne is currently working with other invertebrate specialists to assess the extinction risk of a number of invertebrate species that are in the C-Plan. It is hoped that a number of them will be included in the IUCN Red List in the near future. It is anticipated that this will strengthen the position of invertebrate conservation in the face of enormous urbanization pressure that Gauteng province experiences daily.

Marianne is kept motivated by the fact that a few years ago invertebrates were not seriously considered in conservation and land use planning, but that now, thanks to the efforts of invertebrate scientists, invertebrates play a major role in shaping land use decisions in Gauteng province.

Dr Dai Herbert

“I see land snail conservation as a major priority, with non-marine mollusc extinctions out-numbering the combined recorded extinctions of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians since 1500."

Dai Herbert of the Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, and is an unashamed devotee of the Mollusca – known to some of his close friends as ‘escargot’, or occasionally ‘slime boy’. He was born and brought up in Wales and graduated from London University with a Ph.D. in 1984, whereupon he upped and left the UK almost immediately, to take up a position as malacologist in the museum’s Department of Mollusca, of which he is now head – after writing up a thesis, dredging unexplored parts of the Indian Ocean sounded like fun!

Spending the first ten years working on marine species, Dai’s attention then turned to terrestrial snails and slugs, which have since captivated his interest. With non-marine molluscs outnumbering mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians combined, in terms of the number of recorded extinctions since the 1500s, he sees land snail conservation as a major priority.

As a means of promoting the cause and enhancing the generally poor public perception of snails and slugs, Dai has written several academic papers on molluscan conservation and recently completed a Field guide to the slugs and snails of eastern South Africa, with a colleague – the first comprehensive guide to the terrestrial molluscan fauna of any part of sub-Saharan Africa . He has travelled extensively (not always slowly) in pursuit of snails, and is engaged in several collaborative projects studying the invertebrate fauna of parts of southern Africa, including the Earthwatch-sponsored ‘South Africa’s hidden species’ project. He is also a member of the SSC’s Mollusc Specialist Group.

Dr Justin Gerlach

“Through my work, I aim to ensure the preservation of much of the unique plant and animal life of the Seychelles and create an opportunity for eco-tourists to experience one of the world’s special places”

Justin’s research and conservation activities are very varied but he has always had a particularly strong interest in invertebrates. Original interest in tropical snails has extended to cover all aspects of tropical island ecology, evolution and conservation. This has developed into a particular interest in how the evolution of the fauna and flora of islands influences their ecology and to what extent they are able to adapt to environmental change caused by human actions.

Recent research has focused on the conservation needs of the Seychelle islands, providing the hard scientific data needed for conservation planning. A major part of this is the Indian Ocean Biodiversity Assessment which is surveying the biodiversity of all 115 Seychelle islands, providing current data on the distribution and status of all land and freshwater species of animal and plants.

Justin is also developing research on several islands, integrating evolutionary ecology and conservation. This demonstrates that many conservation ‘problems’ can be accommodated by a healthy ecosystem. He believes the conventional wisdom that island systems are especially prone to disruption by invasive alien species may not always be the case.

Justin is currently combining these themes of research and the conservation of ecosystems and species into the Silhouette Island Conservation Project. This is restoring the natural ecosystems of one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the western Indian Ocean .  A large number of the island’s invertebrates are specialists restricted to areas of mist-forest or rivers, some with tiny ranges. Two species of hawkmoth, believed to be extinct, were re-discovered, thanks to this work, in 1997 and 2000.

“Through my work,” says Justin, “I aim to ensure the preservation of much of the unique plant and animal life of the Seychelle islands and create an opportunity for eco-tourists to experience one of the world’s special places”.  

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