Date: 07/04/2010
Source: The Department of Science and Technology
Title: SA: Pandor: Speech by the Minister of Science and Technology, at the official visit to the national zoological gardens, Pretoria (07/04/2010)

The President and CEO of the National Research Foundation, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld. The Director of the National Zoological Gardens, Dr Clifford Nxomani.

Ladies and gentlemen

The NZG plays a major role in ex-situ conservation of wildlife, maintaining one of the largest animal collections in the continent, made up of over 7000 individual animal specimens representing over 600 species. These are managed across 4 sites stretching into 3 provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo and North-west. The animal collection is comprised of about 70% African and 30% global species representation.

As a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA), the NZG participates in several dozen endangered species management programmes and successfully breeds several endangered species of both continental and global significance. Through maintenance of the animal collection and cooperation with other zoos globally, conservation organizations, agencies and authorities aim to make research/science based contributions to conservation of wildlife biodiversity.

Prior to 2004, the NZG was a declared cultural institution residing under the Department of Arts and Culture. In 2004 the NZG was undeclared as a cultural institution, transferred to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and declared a National Research Facility to function under the auspices of the National Research Foundation (NRF), subject to the provisions of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Act. This declaration of the NZG into a National Research Facility brought about a new mandate for research that lead to the establishment of a research department in 2005.

The NZG originally had a separate veterinary department with its focus being primarily on clinical aspects of the animal collection. In an attempt to be in line with modern world zoo trends a new and exciting initiative resulted from the combining of the research and veterinary departments into a single Department of Research and Scientific Services.
The Centre for Conservation Science was officially opened in March 2009 and the long term vision is to develop it into an overarching Centre of Excellence with two principal components; conservation medicine and conservation biology. This Centre will now conduct, coordinate and facilitate biodiversity research as a cross-cutting function within the NZG. In addition, the Centre will include research that is conducted on the public interface in cooperation with the Commercial Services & Business Development and Conservation Education & Public Engagement departments. This specific research will enhance the NZG's ability to engage with visitors.

The establishment of this Centre marks a milestone in the history of the NZG and places it amongst a select few zoos that have dedicated research capacity. The Centre's focus on conservation medicine and conservation science places it in the forefront of innovation in zoo-based research. As a component of a National Research Facility, the Centre will afford access to equipment and a well managed animal collection to the research and student community. This Centre will contribute to the NRF's vision of its 2015 strategic plan by providing a first class platform for biodiversity conservation research. The aim is to build professionals of the future that contribute to biodiversity conservation knowledge on a national and international level.

The general public visiting the NZG will be encouraged to walk through the Centre and view researchers at work. This will enable the NZG to contribute to the mandate of creating an awareness of science and promoting careers in science.

The NZG undertakes science awareness and education activities focused on support of the Life Sciences and Environmental Education curriculum. Every year about 200 000 learners visit the zoo every year; 700 educators attend Life Science Education workshops, the zoo outreach vehicles reach over 5000 learners during visits to schools, 150 youth are supported through the ZooClub, a dozen learnerships in nature guiding are completed and lately a dozen DST interns have been allocated to work at the zoo. On an annual basis the zoo supports undergraduate students to undertake projects for their degrees and to assist the zoo: about 90 art students do projects at the zoo, 99 engineering students undertake 23 projects and ±25 Veterinary Science students from Onderstepoort spend time at the zoo in support of their study programme.

With all of the above-mentioned activities and capacity, the NZG is contributing to generating new and applied knowledge but, with the continued support of the DST and the NRF, the NZG will be able to grow its outputs and achieve new heights.

Thank you