P Mjwara to open science symposium in Cape Town, 5 Apr

5 April 2006

The new Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology (DST),
Dr Philemon Mjwara, will officially open the 4th annual Science Symposium in
Cape Town on 5 April 2006. The symposium is hosted by the DST in conjunction
with the Copenhagen-based Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and
has been convened under the theme “The role of GBIF and other new technologies
in conservation and monitoring of biodiversity change”.

All media is invited to attend:
* Date: 5 - 6 April 2006
* Venue: BMW, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
* Time: 09h00 - 16h00
* RSVP: zama.mthethwa@dst.gov.za
or phone (012) 317 4506

This brings to South Africa (SA) and South African scientists an opportunity
to showcase the country’s rich biodiversity resource base as well as its
enabling technologies in facilitating international access to a range of
scientific datasets for the monitoring of trends towards the better
conservation and management of natural resources.

GBIF is an international, mega-science facility that aims at making the
world’s biodiversity data freely available on the Internet through
international collaboration. SA became the only African voting participant of
the GBIF in 2003 and established the South African Biodiversity Information
Facility (SABIF) in 2005 as the national node to this international network and
biodiversity inventory.

The Symposium will be attended by a number of leading international and
regional scientists, lecturers and graduate students, including, amongst
others, the Head of the GBIF Science Committee, Dr Woulter Los, the Executive
Secretary of GBIF, Dr Jim Edwards, the Tanzanian Wildlife Research Institute’s
Dr Simon Mduma, Dr David Obura from the Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian
Ocean (CORDIO) programme, as well as Dr Guy Midgley of the South African
National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

On the evening of 5 April, media is also invited to the Ebbe Nielsen Prize
Ceremony to be awarded by SA’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi
Mangena. This prize is awarded annually to the most promising researcher and
for the most innovative development and use of biosystematics and biodiversity
informatics technology.

The Science Symposium and Ebbe Nielsen Prize Ceremony form part of the
GBIF’s 12th annual board meeting programme held in Cape Town from 2 to 8 April
2006, in recognition of SA’s biodiversity wealth and technological research
contributions towards the globally sustainable use of natural resources.

SA is ranked as the third most biologically diverse country in the world,
containing between 250 000 and 1 million species of organisms, much of which
occur nowhere else in the world. While SA occupies about two percent of the
world’s land area, it is estimated that the country is home to 10% of the
world’s plants and seven percent of the reptiles, birds and mammals.

Enquiries:

Kristin Klose
Cell: 082 902 9503
Email: kristin.klose@dst.gov.za

Nthabi Maoela
Cell: 073 648 2876
Email: nthabiseng.maoela@dst.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
5 April 2006