FORESIGHT BIODIVERSITY REPORT

Biodiversity was one of twelve sectors in the National Research and Technology
Foresight Project run by the Department of Arts Culture Science and Technology. This project was designed to identify national priorities in the field for the first two decades of the new millennium.
Participants in the exercise were selected by a process of peer nomination, with
adjustment to correct for the biases of education, training and access to the forums of debate and development of the past. The work was done in a number of workshops comprising a series of predetermined development steps and methodologies tested in foresight exercises in other countries.
In the initial phases of the project, South Africa's current standing in the field of
biodiversity as it related to research and technology was assessed, and compared to
the global situation. Armed with this baseline information, the working group spent
time developing a set of statements that covered all aspects of the sector that should be addressed in terms of national priorities for wealth creation and improvement of the quality of life in the country. A set of 71 such statements, grouped in 13 categories, was formulated and incorporated into a questionnaire for a Delphi survey. The questionnaire was then circulated to almost 900 targeted individuals, and the responses analysed by the working group. This process led to a set of recommendations for the development of biodiversity as a national resource. These were identified as follows:
• Developing and maintaining a basic inventory
• Monitoring global change and its impacts
• Developing strategies for conservation and sustainable resource us
• Identifying and conserving biodiversity in a system of protected areas
• Developing nature-based tourism in South Africa
• Valuation and value addition
• Developing equity and access to biodiversity resources

• Reducing impacts of development on biodiversity
• Developing capacity for managing biodiversity
• Integration of indigenous knowledge systems
• Developing biotechnology products