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ARU collaborates with Zimbabwe on trans-boundary African mountains research

01 July 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Supplied

Bvumba1_read more — Breathtaking views of the misty Bvumba mountains.

While the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) will always have a core focus on the sustainable development of the Maloti-Drakensberg (Lesotho-South Africa), the Southern African region is also very important to the unit. The primary reason for this is that Southern African mountains – the most important water-production landscapes in our drought-prone region – have no collective voice for their sustainable management. As such, there is no regional science-policy-action pipeline to secure these mountains for interventions to ensure that they can still produce key ecosystem services under global change. This is in contrast to East Africa where there is a much better-established community of practice for the charismatic African giants such as Mount Kilimanjaro.

ARU-Southern African collaboration

To this end, the Director of the ARU, Dr Ralph Clark, revealed that the ARU has close links with academics, practitioners, and lay experts in Zimbabwe for the careful documenting of mountain biodiversity in the Manica Highlands. This is a trans-national mountain system critical for water supply to both Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Bvumba (‘mist’ in Shona) Mountains are situated in the centre of the Manica Highlands. The name Bvumba is derived from the regular mist covering these mountains.

“The Bvumba has a complex socio-political history extending far back, before the arrival of the Portuguese in the 1400s. Despite this history of human occupation, and despite a century of botanical exploration in the 20th century, a comprehensive list of plant species – including endemic species – has never been published for the Bvumba. Such basic lists are essential for foundational knowledge that can drive sustainable development and responsible management of natural resources,” Dr Clark said.

The ARU and partners have collaborated to compile records of the first comprehensive species list for the Bvumba. “This project was done in partnership with the Harare Herbarium, Belgium’s Meise Botanical Gardens, the Flora of Zimbabwe and Mozambique projects, the Biodiversity Foundation for Africa, and the UK’s Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. It was recently completed with a publication in the journal PhytoKeys.”

Bvumba’s hundreds of species

The Bvumba has a plant species complement of 1 127 native taxa in an area of only 276 square kilometres. “There is remarkable fern and orchid diversity in these mountains, with 137 fern species that is considered to be the richest fern locality in Southern Africa. There are also 125 orchid species that make it exceptionally rich for this group. The only local Bvumba endemic is a critically endangered epiphytic forest orchid. Six other near-endemic plant taxa occur in the Bvumba, all of which are endemic to the Manica Highlands from Nyanga to Chimanimani,” added Dr Clark.

Low levels of local endemism are likely to be an effect of the Bvumba having limited natural grassland compared to forest. “Second to fynbos, grassland is the most endemic-rich habitat in Southern African mountains. Montane forests are poor in local endemics by comparison, which is contrary to what many would suppose. As in mountains across Southern Africa, invasive species are a major risk to water security, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods. The Bvumba is no exception, with Australian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), ginger lily (Hedychium gardnerianum), and bee bush (Vernonanthura polyanthes) being the most problematic species of the 123 naturalised introductions. While the Zimbabwean side of the Bvumba is the best explored, the Mozambican side of Serra Vumba offers exciting opportunities for further botanical research,” he emphasised.

News Archive

Staff, students, learners and the public opened their hearts during R5 coin-laying ceremony

2012-07-19

Photo: Sonia Small
18 July 2012

Amidst a festive atmosphere on the Red Square in front of the Main Building on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), students, staff, learners and members of the public came together to make their contribution to stop hunger.

In celebration of former president Nelson Mandela’s birthday, the university collected money and food in the form of a coin-laying ceremony, the packing of food parcels, and a message delivered by Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu in aid of the university’s No Student Hungry (NSH) campaign and Bloemfontein Child Welfare.

Representatives from schools in Bloemfontein donated their R5 coins, together with university staff, students, members of the public, and employees of Pick n Pay Hyper. Money collected at the coin-laying ceremony will be shared between NSH and Bloemfontein Child Welfare.

According to Ms Grace Jansen and Ms Carin Buys, patrons of NSH, the more than R42 000 that was collected will be donated to Bloemfontein Child Welfare in an effort by NSH to give back to the community. “We are impressed by the number of people who showed up and by the fact that people opened their hearts and pockets to give,” said Ms Buys.

Thirty employees of Pick n Pay Hyper in Bloemfontein were also present and packed 1 833 food parcels (equivalent to 11 000 meals). This forms part of a Pick n Pay initiative in cooperation with Stop Hunger Now that is being held countrywide today.

In total, 88 000 meals will be distributed in six cities in South Africa today. The 11 000 meals in the Free State have been donated to the university and according to Ms Jansen a social worker at the UFS will distribute it to other needy students. These are students who do not receive bursaries from NSH at the moment. Every food parcel contains rice, dried vegetables, soya, and vitamin and mineral enriched powder.

The university was honoured to have Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu as the speaker at the event. He attended a dialogue in the Series of Dialogue between Science and Society today at the university where he took part in a conversation with Profs. Mark Solms and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela as part of the Global Leadership Summit.

He made a special appearance at the university’s Nelson Mandela Day festivities. His message was simple but inspiring: “Everyone has, just like Madiba, the capacity to change lives. I hope there are people present who can say that they want to improve someone else’s life. You have the chance to make South Africa a country where no one goes to bed hungry. Help us to make South Africa a country where we have compassion for each other and care for each other”.

The UFS would like to thank the following schools for their contributions:

Grey Kollege Primêre Skool
Grey Kollege
St Michael's School for Girls
Hoërskool Jim Fouché
Hoërskool Fichardtpark
Hoërskool Sentraal
Navalsig High School
HTS Louis Botha
Eunice High School

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