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“Internships for mentoring should be resourced and countries encouraged
to make the best use of the expertise in the region. Internships must be
needs-driven and focused toward the production of SABONET products which
illustrates the relevance of the capacity built.”—Timberlake & Paton
(2001), SABONET Mid-Term Review.
The objective and value of internships
Centres promoting the documentation and conservation
of botanical diversity should promote and encourage partnerships within
a network, which can include project administration, grant provisions, joint
publications, and internships (Rose 1999). Internships are probably the
most effective way for herbaria and botanical gardens to share equipment,
laboratories, libraries, and most importantly, skills. Research, conservation,
and management tutoring will best serve the long-term interests of herbaria
and botanical gardens. Personal exchange of information and interaction
with skilled staff provide the best understanding of principles, practices,
and approaches. By sharing available knowledge and technology we can spare
others costly mistakes and the duplication of efforts.
The process
To initiate this activity within the region, the Regional Office set about
developing procedures to aid the participating institutions in applying
for funds and implementing an internship. In this way botanists were given
some exercise in organising and initiating projects themselves. All correspondence
was between the intern and the particular herbarium or botanical garden.
Once all arrangements and agreements were in place, the participating institutions
would request funds from the Regional Office via the Quarterly Reports.
At first this process was a bit chaotic, but with time it proved a very
useful approach.
Initially the participating institutions were wary of
making use of internships. After a few successful “forced” internships,
however, there has suddenly been a wave of applications. Between 1 March
2001 and 28 February 2003, SABONET has assisted 63 botanists from the region
to undertake internships to other herbaria and botanical gardens in southern
Africa. Internships are linked to specific project outputs, which means
that herbarium staff are only eligible for funding if they are to work on
priority outputs, such as National or Poaceae Checklists. Botanical garden
staff are only supported if their visit to another institution would benefit
their Threatened Plants Programme. On completion of an internship, a report
is submitted to the Regional Office. Articles in popular newsletters are
also encouraged (Archer 2002; Parker 2002; Nkoloma 2002; Mannheimer 2002).
To enable an institution to benefit from the programme
they could either
(1) send their staff member to another institution to work with experts
in a specific field, or
(2) invite an expert in a required field to visit their institution and
work with their staff.
The internship programme has been limited to citizens of the ten SABONET
countries. Each participating country was allocated US$ 5,000.00 for herbarium
internships and US$ 2,500.00 for garden internships.
Herbaria have been much more active in this programme,
because they receive more funding over a longer period. Herbaria tend to
invite experts and send their own staff to other institutions in the same
degree. Botanical gardens prefer to send their staff to work with experts
in other institutions in other countries. The most plausible explanation
for this is that horticulturists still need to familiarise themselves with
the other gardens in the network, whereas courses, workshops, and meetings
have afforded many taxonomists the opportunity to visit other herbaria in
the region. South Africa and Botswana have the most active herbarium internship
programme and Zimbabwe the most active programme for gardens.
This year will probably be the most productive in achieving
the planned impact. Internships hold the key to a successful outcome. The
Regional Office has been given the green light to coordinate internships
to enhance the quality and delivery of publications during 2003. Editors
and authors of SABONET funded publications should look upon internships
as a tool to meet their goals. The preparation of the Checklist of Lesotho
Grasses is probably the best example of a high quality product that was
produced over a short time by making use of internships (Kobisi & Phillipson
2002).
