​Dr Ernst Baard, Executive Director: Conservation Operations of CapeNature, gave an overview of career options in conservation science to the BScHons-students in the Department of Botany and Zoology on Friday, 4 March 2022.

CapeNature is the provincial conservation agency of the Western Cape. Dr Baard gave the talk in his capacity as a member of the Faculty of Science's Advisory Board, established in 2016 to bridge the gap between academia and industry and to create opportunities for networking and collaboration.

Dr Baard, who graduated with an MSc from SU's Department of Botany and Zoology nearly forty years ago, started his career at CapeNature as a herpetologist, stationed in Jonkershoek. In 1990, he completed his PhD, also at SU.

He described how the field of conservation science has changed from the 1970s – from scientists specialising in individual species of animals or plants, with little of that specialist biodiversity information being translated into conservation management, to the field of conservation science today, which brings plants, animals and ecosystems together.

Today's conservation scientists are, however, also faced with the reality of climate change: “Thirty years ago we started reading about climate change. But I never thought that I will witness it in my own lifetime," Dr Baard said.

Today's conservation scientist is especially engaged with systematic conservation planning (such as Cape Action for People and the Environment), long-term monitoring (such as 15 years of data of frog populations in high mountainous areas) and surveillance of threatened species and ecosystems at landscape level .

“Conservation scientists today play a critical role in the transfer of scientific knowledge into and within the organisation. Since 2002 scientists at CapeNature have produced four State of Biodiversity Reports. We are involved in cutting-edge conservation planning, as well as protected area management planning. All this information feeds into a strategic adaptive management approach: if we do not achieve the envisaged conservation outcomes, we know we have to adapt our management style and strategies until we succeed," he explains.

Many of CapeNature's conservation scientists are involved with international bodies such as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and contribute to projects such as the IUCN Southern Africa Red List.

“It takes a lot of complex science to classify a species as endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild or completely extinct. Without that classification, however, we cannot plan or manage effectively."

Other potential government employers of conservation scientists are the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, the South African National Parks Board, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, the Department of Water and Sanitation, the nine provincial conservation agencies. Students can also consider  non-government organisations such as BirdLife South Africa, the Endangered Wildlife Trust, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Cape Leopard Trust, and several more, including the game industry. There are also many opportunities to work as an Environmental Impact Practitioner.

​Prof Theresa Wossler, head of the Department of Botany and Zoology, said they are grateful for the role that advisory board members such as Dr Baard plays in preparing students for the world of work.

On the photo: In the middle of a group of BScHons-students are Dr Ernst Baard from Cape Nature and Prof Theresa Wossler from SU's Department of Botany and Zoology. Photo: Wiida Fourie-Basson