DST Centre of Excellence in Birds as Keys to Biodiversity Conservation at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute

This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Percy FitzPatrick Institute to the understanding of, amongst other things, biodiversity conservation. The research programme will be based on two inter-linked themes, understanding and maintaining biodiversity. The first investigates the composition and structure of biodiversity, the processes responsible for its generation and how relationships between organisms and their environments influence the form and functioning of biological systems.

The second builds on the strong theoretical and empirical foundation provided by the first to assess, predict and manage human impacts, with emphasis on understanding dynamic links that lead to biodiversity loss, developing effective strategies to stem this loss and discovering ways to use components of biodiversity sustainability to the benefit of South Africa.

Contact: Prof Morné du Plessis
Tel: +27 21 650 3290
Hosted by the University of Cape Town