By Estelle Razanatsoa, Junior Research Fellow, University of Cape Town;Lindsey Gillson, Associate Professor Plant conservation unit, University of Cape Town; Malika Virah-Sawmy, Visiting Scientist, Humboldt University of Berlin – First published in The Conversation on 19 April 2026 MADAGASCAR IS HOME TO seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on […]
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Bioregioning Is Our Future
By Richard Heinberg, Resilience Lately I’ve been reading Andrew Schelling’s Tracks Along the Left Coast, a biography of linguist, anthropologist, and anarchist Jaime de Angulo (1887-1950). De Angulo was a character worth knowing about. His affluent Spanish parents gave him a civilized upbringing in fashionable Paris; nevertheless, he had a wild streak. So, before he […]
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Land reform in South Africa: how new landholders could prosper from wildlife and not just farming
By Hayley Clements, Senior Researcher, African Wildlife Economy Institute and Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University; Alta De Vos, Associate Professor, Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University; Matthew Child, PhD candidate, University of Pretoria; Siviwe Shwababa, Associate Researcher, Rhodes University. First published on January 7, 2026 by The Conversation South Africa has a thriving wildlife […]
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Making Ends Meet: Part 1 – Agri-Tourism
By Leon Hugo, University of Pretoria & Jean Hugo, Tshwane University of Technology The pressing environmental crisis is well-documented and widely recognized (Hugo, M.L. & Hugo, J.O., 2024). A significant global concern is food security, particularly in the context of a rapidly increasing world population. The advent of geoengineering in agriculture has led to a […]
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Cape Town’s wildflowers are a world treasure: six insights from a new checklist
By Dian Spear – Senior research scientist, Stellenbosch University; Nicola van Wilgen-Bredenkamp – Research associate, Stellenbosch University; Patricia Holmes – Plant ecologist, Stellenbosch University; Ronell R Klopper – Extraordinary Lecturer, University of Pretoria; Tony Rebelo – Scientist, South African National Biodiversity Institute. First published in The Conversation on 11 February 2026 CAPE TOWN, IN SOUTH […]
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Namibia and Angola’s remote Ovahimba mountains reveal a haven for unique plants – new survey
By Vera De Cauwer, Associate Professor Natural Resource Management, Namibia University of Science and Technology. First published in The Conversation on October 19, 2023 The Kaokoveld region, covering north-western Namibia and south-western Angola, is one of the remotest areas in southern Africa. Although it’s extremely dry, it is a centre of species endemism: many species […]
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Maintaining natural resilience for a sustainable future
By Prof Leon Hugo, former head of the Department of Geography at Pretoria University. First published in Environatics.co.za Nature maintains a delicate balance between growth and decay. For instance, trees in a forest perpetually grow, yet the total biomass of the forest remains constant. This chapter will delve into the control mechanisms, that serve as […]
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The quest for sustainability: understanding environmental degradation
by Prof Leon Hugo, former head of the Department of Geography at Pretoria University. First published in Environatics.co.za It’s a sobering reality that thousands, primarily children, succumb annually to dire environmental conditions and hunger in Africa. There looms a genuine threat of our planet’s production systems collapsing, potentially leaving us all without sufficient food. Since […]
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Biodiversity: A Reader
by GST Staff Biodiversity loss must stop by 2030 to protect Earth’s life-support systems BIODIVERSITY LOSS MUST be halted by 2030 to keep the Earth’s life-support systems stable, according to new research. Across species, ecosystems, and the natural processes that move water and nutrients, the study acknowledges the danger inside the systems people rely on […]
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