Editorial

A reflection about the recent Koedoe publications (Volume 64, No 1, 2022)

Abel Ramoelo

Copyright: © 2022. The Author(s). Licensee: AOSIS.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Welcome to Volume 64, 1 (2022) of Koedoe: African Protected Area Conservation and Science Journal! It has been a privilege for me to oversee, edit and manage the collection of such astounding journal outputs. Koedoe continues to be a premier open-access journal supporting and publishing research on the conservation of natural and cultural assets in protected areas, especially in Africa. It is within the thrust of the journal to acknowledge the human and biophysical dimensions of many conservation issues by combining every relevant natural and social science discipline, especially interdisciplinary investigations and perspectives. As it was established in 1958, Koedoe aims to provide a forum that facilitates the integration and sharing of learning about protected areas that have become increasingly important for maintaining habitats, species and ecosystem services and for ensuring socio-environmental resilience at many levels.

It is still true that the management of conservation or protected areas cannot be successful without biodiversity monitoring and a holistic understanding of the system. The current issue provides yet another series of research outputs that are critical to inform decision-making processes pertaining to conservation management. A short communication, seven original research articles and two review article were published. The collection of published papers is mostly about the state of the ecosystems for the South African National Parks’ conservation assets, with one paper reporting research results from one of the private game reserves. In the quest to understand river systems, evidence in the geomorphic characterization of Sabie River through mapping geomorphic patterns and change, sediment dynamics and mobility as well as dating periods of sediment deposition (Knight & Evans 2022), diversity and distribution of benthic invertebrates, which are crucial for bio-monitoring (Majdi et al. 2022), and the enigmatic floodplain water snake’s phylogenetic placement (Keates et al. 2022) were presented. These three papers presented results covering broader biodiversity topics, including molecular, species and ecosystem levels for diagnosing the state and condition of the river systems.

The authors found residues of tebuthiuron arboricide in the soils of Mokala National Park, which were postulated to be phytotoxic to the woody and grass species. The latter study provided information that could explain the failure of the natural recruitment of vegetation in sections of the park, where arboricides were applied and degraded woody plants more than a decade ago. Looking at ecotourism, the potential for frogging (frog conservation) through ecotourism was explored. Last but not the least, sustainability of solid waste management in protected areas was presented, focusing on the challenges and opportunities. It was evident that the implementation of solid waste management has the potential to contribute to pollution prevention, community upliftment and other secondary benefits, which could enhance conservation efforts.

Finally, the reflections of over 60 years of research on herbivore exclosures in the Kruger National Park (KNP) were reported. Herbivore exclosures are global research platforms that enable the training of ecologists, veterinarians and field biologists. They provide an opportunity to understand savanna dynamics that would otherwise have been hard to gain. The authors recommended continued use and support of exclosures as learning tools in complex African savannas.

I hope you will enjoy reading this collection of original research, short communication and review articles, and I invite you to consider submitting your scientific papers to the upcoming issue. Please distribute this issue within your networks. Everyone at Koedoe: African Protected Area Conservation and Science, including editors, reviewers and publishers, appreciates the support you as readers are giving us and providing an opportunity to offer the premier open access scientific outputs.

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