SER Africa launch 2021
The African Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-Africa) has been established as the African Chapter for the international Society for Ecological Restoration. They held their inaugural Board Meeting on 28th September 2021, with the eleven Board Members gathering online from different parts of Africa.
We are looking forward to all African countries having representatives within the SER- Africa Chapter.
As evidenced in the map below, there presently exists limited representivity. This shortfall crafted the first, and most obvious target:
Target 1: To obtain SER- Africa representivity across all 54 African countries.
To join the SER Africa Chapter, please contact africa@ser.org
English will be the language for communication for now
The issue of language was an obvious point of discussion, since the total number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000!
Arabic and Swahili will take you a long way in communicating in Africa, but since all founding Board Members are fluent in English, it was determined as the language of communication at this time.
SER Africa hope to host in-person conferences and online gathering opportunities
Studies indicate that around 22% of the African continent has access to the internet (although the African Union has set the goal of connecting every individual, business, and government on the continent to the internet by 2030).
SER Africa gatherings online are therefor a possibility for some, but not for all. We are optimistic that the future will include both in-person conference opportunities, mixed with online virtual gatherings.
This Chapter is being formally constituted through South African legal processes
The administration necessary to formalise the African Chapter for the Society for Ecological Restoration, is taking place within the South African administrative system.
Home-grown solutions for local issues
The SER Africa Chapter will serve to further the work of the global SER community: advancing the science, practice and policy of ecological restoration to sustain biodiversity, improve resilience in a changing climate, and re-establish an ecologically healthy relationship between nature and culture, in Africa.
The inaugural Board Chair, Mlungele Nsikani, proposed that this African Chapter should develop and showcase “African solutions for African problems” amongst scientists and practitioners in Africa, and beyond.