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SCB'S 2007 ANNUAL MEETING -- 1-5 JULY, PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA

The 21st annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology will be hosted by the Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa from 1-5 July 2007, with support from SCB's Africa Section. The theme of the meeting, One World, One Conservation, One Partnership, emphasizes the need to move away from national, regional, and disciplinary territoriality in support of a joint effort to conserve the world's biodiversity by uniting towards a common goal.

Port Elizabeth and two neighboring towns, Uitenhage and Despatch, form a large metropolitan area, Nelson Mandela Bay. The Bay provides an outstanding ecological context for the meeting. It is surrounded by spectacular marine and terrestrial ecosystems, including fynbos vegetation. South Africa is renowned for its "big five" game reserves and there are a number of such reserves within an hour's drive from the venue. For more information, contact Graham Kerley, Convenor and Chair (graham.kerley@nmmu.ac.za), Margot Collett, Project Manager (margot.collett@nmmu.ac.za), or visit the meeting Web site, www.conbio.org/2007.

For people visiting southern Africa, the choices of "entertainment" are seemingly endless. If you are planning a trip to the 2007 annual meeting in Port Elizabeth, you will have the trip of a lifetime. However, you will need to plan ahead for two reasons. Firt, things move slowly in Africa, so making choices should take some time. Second, there is so much to choose from that if you don't want to miss the "best," you must think ahead.

I spent the majority of 12 years living, working, and traveling in southern Africa and East Africa. In my opinion, South Africa offers a sampling of all that Africa has to offer, from the Big Five (elephant, lion, water buffalo, rhino, and leopard) to coral reefs (great white sharks, too) to rain forest to desert to rocky coastline to mangrove estuaries, and more. The tourism industry is well appointed, diverse, affordable. and eager to please.

The subcontinent includes a number of nations, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, and Botswana, all of which are part of a region that cooperates in transportation and commerce.

The distance between Cape Town and East London is about 1000 miles and takes two days to drive without stopping, but the scenery almost certainly will compel you to stop again and again. The distance between Durban and Port Elizabeth is even longer, but, fortunately, South Africa has an efficient and affordable internal airline system. Some discount airlines offer competition to the main carrier, South African Airways. Although car rental and the highways are easy and friendly, unless time is no problem you would be better advised to rent and drive locally rather than to cover extensive distances yourself.

The northeast provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga contain Kruger Park (possibly the world's largest managed park) and a series of private reserves, whereas Kwazulu Natal holds the Hluhluwe / Umfolozi Parks and a series of smaller private camps. At Richards Bay are magnificent reserves for coastal life, wetlands, and coral reefs. In Botswana, there is the Okavango Delta and Moremi Game Reserves. And in Namibia and Botswana are the Kalahari Desert and Skeleton Coast, where diamonds wash up on the beach (but you cannot reach them). These sites are distant from Port Elizabeth, but visits can be arranged in concert with your travels either before or after your participation in the 2007 annual meeting.

Ron Abrams

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