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Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the Southeastern Atlantic Ocean (International Whaling Commission 'Breeding Stock B'--BSB) are distributed from the Gulf of Guinea to Western South Africa. Genetic data suggest that this stock may be sub-structured, but it remains unknown if this is due to reproductive segregation. This paper evaluates the spatial and temporal population structure of BSB humpback whales using a combination of maternally and bi-parentally inherited markers. The genetic differentiation that we identify in this study could be due to a combination of (1) spatial and/or temporal segregation on breeding grounds in the greater Gulf of Guinea, (2) the possibility of maternally inherited site fidelity to specific feeding grounds and (3) the use of two generalized but exclusive migratory routes (coastal and offshore) between feeding and breeding areas. Further, photo-identification and genetic sampling efforts in other areas of the Sub-Saharan Western Africa winter range and targeted deployment of satellite tags would help to clarify some of the apparent complexity in the population structure of animals biopsied in this region., Introduction Understanding the processes by which marine populations diverge or remain homogeneous remains a major challenge in evolutionary biology. The accurate description of population genetic structure over a species geographic [...]

Stewardship is a popular term for the principles and actions aimed at improving sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems at various scales and in different contexts. Participation in stewardship is voluntary, and is based on values of altruism and long-term benefits. At a global scale, 'earth stewardship' is viewed as a successor to earlier natural resource management systems. However, in South Africa, stewardship is narrowly applied to biodiversity conservation agreements on private land. Using a broader definition of stewardship, we identify all potentially related schemes that may contribute to sustainability and conservation outcomes. Stewardship schemes and actors are represented as a social network and placed in a simple typology based on objectives, mechanisms of action and operational scales. The predominant type was biodiversity stewardship programmes. The main actors were environmental non-governmental organisations participating in prominent bioregional landscape partnerships, together acting as important 'bridging organisations' within local stewardship networks. This bridging enables a high degree of collaboration between non-governmental and governmental bodies, especially provincial conservation agencies via mutual projects and conservation objectives. An unintended consequence may be that management accountability is relinquished or neglected by government because of inadequate implementation capacity. Other stewardship types, such as market-based and landscape initiatives, complemented primarily biodiversity ones, as part of national spatial conservation priorities. Not all schemes related to biodiversity, especially those involving common pool resources, markets and supply chains. Despite an apparent narrow biodiversity focus, there is evidence of diversification of scope to include more civic and community-level stewardship activities, in line with the earth stewardship metaphor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation targets are useful policy tools, indicating a degree of political intent and allowing purposeful conservation planning. However, target setting and implementation often occur at different scales. A largely unmet challenge is to establish mutual feedbacks between national-scale target setting and local-scale ecological realities and management actions., Freshwater conservation in South Africa has been advanced through the participatory setting of a freshwater conservation target (20% of each freshwater ecosystem type). This paper presents the response of a conservation agency, South African National Parks, to achieving the national target. In a first step, achievement of the national target was contextualized within the agency's mandate to conserve biodiversity through 19 National Parks. In the second step, information was scaled down further to reflect the relative contribution of an individual park (Tankwa-Karoo National Park) to freshwater conservation in South Africa., At agency level, national-scale data translated into several recommendations to influence the future expansion and design of protected areas, helped to articulate key messages regarding the organization's contribution to meeting national targets, and triggered the development of strategic objectives to promote in-house capacity for effective freshwater conservation. Park-level application of national-scale data informed recommendations for management, research and monitoring. At the same time, local-scale survey data highlighted deficiencies in the national data layers., Establishing feedbacks between top-down setting of conservation targets and bottom-up implementing of management actions is desirable and possible, but also intricate. To promote the establishment of such feedbacks, four generic insights are drawn from this case study: top-down targets and bioregional-scale biodiversity data have enabling utility; effective feedbacks can only be realized through systemic conservation governance; social factors are at least as important as technical advances; national-scale maps are not necessarily accurate but can still be used to facilitate co-learning and dynamic refinement., Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sense of place (SoP) refers to the meanings and values that people attach to places. The concept can be used to frame how people engage or form a connection with the natural environment. At a sensory level, SoP is influenced by people’s visual experiences, which in turn can be linked to the concept of viewsheds. Viewsheds can be transformed, either abruptly (e.g. by infrastructure development such as wind turbines) or more gradually (e.g. by non-native trees invading a landscape). In this study, we focus on the Garden Route National Park to explore the potential importance of viewsheds as a conservation feature, specifically in the context of non-native (especially invasive) tree species. Using mixed information sources, we explore the potential role of invasive trees on experiences of visitors to this protected area and speculate on how viewsheds may shape SoP associations and how such associations may inform protected area management. Our investigation shows that people’s experiences regarding natural and modified viewsheds are varied and intricate. Both SoP and viewsheds have the potential to inform conservation action, and these concepts should form an integral part of objective hierarchies and management plans for national parks. However, while legislation and park management plans make provision for the use of these concepts, associated research in South Africa is virtually non-existent. We conclude by proposing a conceptual model and research agenda to promote the use of viewsheds and SoP in the management of national parks in South Africa. Conservation implications: Viewshed and sense of place can be used as boundary concepts to (1) facilitate interdisciplinary research between social and natural scientists, (2) help understand the connectedness and feedbacks between people and nature and (3) promote communication between science, management and stakeholders regarding desired conditions of landscapes in and around parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

von der Heyden, S., Barendse, J., Seebregts, A. J., and Matthee, C. A. 2010. Misleading the masses: detection of mislabelled and substituted frozen fish products in South Africa. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 176–185.Mislabelling poses a threat to the sustainability of seafood supply chains and, when frequent, can significantly affect conservation efforts. Here we identify the most popular fish in the South African market through consumer and retailer surveys and data gathered by a sustainable seafood campaign. Of these species, we tested a number of widely available and generally high-market priced fish, utilizing mtDNA 16S rRNA sequencing. Tests of 178 samples revealed that about half of all fillets are mislabelled. Most problematic was kob, Argyrosomus spp., for which some 84% of fillets provided belonged to other species, including mackerel, croaker, and warehou. Phylogenetic analyses provided strong support that the fillets sold as barracuda and wahoo were probably king mackerel and that red snapper fillets included fillets of river snapper, Lutjanus argentimaculatus, which is a species prohibited for sale in South Africa. We also discovered substitution of yellowtail for dorado. From preliminary population genetic comparisons, some 30% of kingklip samples probably had their origin in New Zealand, rather than southern Africa. The research revealed a market conducive to mislabelling through poor consumer and retailer awareness, and highlighted the value of sustainable seafood campaigns to draw attention to this. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article focuses on seafood as the most traded global community and on the need for solutions to prevent over-fishing. One of these solutions is aquaculture, the cultivation or farming of seafood, which is considered as the fastest growing food production sector in the world. The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI), a project of World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-South Africa, has conducted several seafood campaigns in order to increase the awareness of consumers about making more sustainable choices. INSET: SEX CHANGE IN FISH..