About Us
The Flora & Fauna Publications Trust (IT3437/1992) was established in 1992 to raise sponsorship for the publication of popular, authoritative, affordable books on the indigenous plants of KwaZulu-Natal & and Eastern Region, with the object of stimulating greater care, awareness and understanding of our exceptionally rich environment. In 2008 the trust was renamed The Flora & Fauna Publications Trust to enable research and publication on fauna so integral to our flora. The Trust is a Public Benefit Organisation with registration no. PBO930013629
The eastern region of South Africa is home to over 10000 species of plants, one of the richest floral regions in Africa. Within this region three centres of plant diversity (CODs) or ‘hot spots’ were identified in a world atlas published by IUCN in 1994: Maputaland, Pondoland and the Drakensberg Alpine regions. A COD is an area of global botanical importance with high diversity and large numbers of endemic or threatened species with social, economic, cultural or scientific importance.
Extract from foreword by Professor Brian Huntley states that future generations might well refer to the 1990s as the ‘biodiversity decade’ – a period of unprecedented interest in and concern for the richness of life of Earth. The catastrophic loss of species throughout the globe, most especially in the moist tropics, has long been recognised, but it was not until the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 that meaningful action was initiated at an international scale. Over 170 nations have now ratified the Convention, committing their governments to effective programmes of conservation and sustainable use.
Past and present Trustees and Authors of the Flora and Fauna Publications Trust take the Convention of Biological Diversity seriously. Our books are not only a celebration of beauty and diversity of Flora and now Fauna, they are also testimony to the commitment of people throughout the South African regions covered in our other publications who contributed their knowledge, photographs, energy, together with support from both private and corporate to share the vision.
We ask you to share with us the vision of conservation of our unique flora and fauna
Trustees and Patrons, between 1992 and 2016
Richard Boon; The Late Radclyffe Cadman; The Late Keith cooper; Graham Cox; Robert Crankshaw; Jack Crutchley; Christopher Dalzell; The Late David Hatton; Prof Brian John Huntley; Michael Hyatt; Karin Goss; Rosemary Ladlau; Ronald MacDonald; Tony Norton; Christopher Saunders;Ismail Vahed; The Late Dr Roy Wise; Timothy Wood.
Current Trustees
Charles Botha; David Schaefer; Elizabeth Forsdick (Chairman);
Dr Elsa Pooley; Simon Read