South Africa Links

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LINKS TO MORE REFERENCE INFORMATION

4. About Southern Africa

SANBI

South African National Biodiversity Institute
The mission of SANBI is to promote the sustainable use, conservation, appreciation and enjoyment of the exceptionally rich biodiversity of South Africa, for the benefit of all people. Their web site provides information about South Africa's plants, botanical gardens (including Kirstenbosch) and herbaria.

Membership Society

Botanical Society of South Africa
BotSoc membership includes four journals "Veld & Flora" with the latest plant conservation news and sometimes articles about succulents. It also has adverts for SA accommodation, plant, seed & book lists. Post: Botanical Society of South Africa, Kirstenbosch, Private Bag X10, Claremont 7735, SA.

Botanical Artists

I enjoy seeing good botanical paintings and there are a number of excellent artists in SA. The Botanical Artists' Society of South Africa (BAASA) web site has few paintings alas, but does provide contact details for artists.

Conservation Programmes

The Biodiversity Programmes, Policy and Planning Directorate at SANBI is in charge of overall South African conservation policy and planning. See also the BGIS Conservation Planning Unit (CPU) for interesting reports and maps. In-situ conservation of plants is implemented through bioregional programmes, with funding from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and others.

Cape Action Plan for the Environment (C.A.P.E.)
Succulent Karoo Ecosystem Programme (SKEP)
Subtropical Thicket Ecosystem Planning (STEP)
Threatened Species Programme & CREW to facilitate the conservation of rare and endangered species.

Tourism Web Sites

Tourist Web Sites
Extensive government guide to web sites for tourists exploring South Africa (part of ENPAT). Namaqualand.com is also useful for tourist information.
SA Tourism Board Contacts
National and International South African Tourism Board Contacts (part of ENPAT).

AA Travel Guides: Hotels, Lodges, Guest Houses, B&Bs
When travelling in South Africa, I take this guide book. It is the best listing graded accommodation, published every other year(?). ISBN 0-9584316-1-2. Through the SA AA web site, you can search for and book accommodation on-line.

Accommodation in Namibia
Tourist accommodation in Namibia.

On-line Photo Travelogues

Tomáš Hájek & Jana Jersáková's photo gallery of Nature in South Africa 2005.
David Martin's 2004 photographic Haworthia tour.
Lawrence Loucka's 1995-2002 Haworthia trips (slow to load!).
Martin Heigan's high quality photos of stapeliads and succulents in the Richtersveld, Namaqualand and the Karoos.
Dries van Zijl's high quality landscape photos.
High quality photographic tour of Namaqualand in 1996. Who's?

On-line Environmental Overviews

South African Environmental Atlas
ENPAT atlas in plain language from the SA Government Dept. of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Covers a wide range including topography, geology, biomes, vegetation, rainfall for SA nationally and each province individually. Excellent, but A3 maps do take a while to download.
Namibian Environmental Atlas
Atlas for Namibia. Try the .gif maps, but full detail needs a GIS viewer e.g. DIVA.

Topographical Maps

South African Sheet Maps
Excellent printed maps are available, published by the Government Printer for the Chief Directorate of Surveys and Mapping, Post: Private Bag X10, Mowbray, 7705 South Africa. E-mail : cdsm@sli.wcape.gov.za. I always travel with 1:250,000 sheets so I don't get lost! The 1:500,000 sheets are also very detailed and a set costs less. Best purchased in person at a SA government office e.g. Mowbray, Cape Town to save postage costs.
Reader's Digest Atlas of Southern Africa
If you can't get the paper sheets above, this large atlas provides a set of the 1:500,000 sheets bound together, plus more. The index makes a good gazetteer. Heavy! First edition (1984) ISBN 0 947 008 02 0. Alas, even the second edition is no longer available as new.
Interactive On-line Map Websites
Listed on the www.safrica.info web site. These are slow to operate from the UK.

Geological Maps

SA Council for Geoscience
Select "Information" from the top menu bar, then select "Publications" and "Maps". 1:250,000 sheet maps are available, but full coverage of South Africa is not yet finished at this scale. Also available digitised. Office in Bellville, Cape Town. Expensive, but fascinating for plant explorers!

Vegetation Maps

On-line Vegetation Maps
This describes the vegetation types in each biome of South Africa, from A.B. Low & A.G. Rebelo (1998) ISBN 0-621-17316-9.
Vegetation Book & Digital Map
In 2006, an interesting, detailed, book "The Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland" was published as Strelitzia 19 at SANBI, by Mucina & Rutherford, ISBN-13:978-1-919976-21-1. This includes a CD with a digitised version of the new VegMap including a GIS viewer ArcReader. Worth buying.

Plant List

On-line Plants of Southern Africa (POSA) Database
A searchable version of the following book from the PRECIS database.
Plants of Southern Africa Book: an annotated checklist
List of plant names and distribution (expanded to include life-cycle, habit, height of plant and altitude, literature references, synonyms and regional distribution) by G. Germishuizen & N L. Meyer (eds). Strelitzia 14, SANBI, A4, pp. 1230. (2003) Hard cover: ISBN 1-919795-99-5.

Past & Present Weather

South African Weather Service
Has it rained on those Adromischus plants in habitat? Select "National Weather and Forecasts" from the top menu bar and try previous monthly "Rainfall Maps" towards the bottom of the page.
1stweather.com
Easy-to-use site to find the current weather in South Africa.

South Africa

Ananzi .ZA Search
Search engine and directory focussed upon the South African ".za" Internet domain name.
www.safrica.info
Extensive official gateway to SA Government and private web sites from their Marketing Council.
South African History
On-line chronology of South Africa, from San occupation through European settlement to the present.
SA National Parks
South African National Parks (SANParks) represent the indigenous fauna, flora, landscapes and associated cultural heritage of the country. Most parks offer remote accommodation.

Last Updated: Dec 2007