We are a non-profit company designed to foster research and community action in the fields of biodiversity conservation and social development. We are composed of three departments which operate under six independent models that have overlapping missions.
The Citizen Science Department seeks to connect people with conservation- and development-related research projects and seeks to help orchestrate that research, disseminate the results, and support community action.
The Science Consulting Department seeks to promote rigorous research in conservation and development by providing technical and logistical support to the existing research community.
The Research Training Department seeks to train and build the capacity of research professionals across several rungs of the research ladder, including under-graduate students, post-graduate students, field assistants, and early-career scientists.
The Citizen Science Department links citizens who have an existing interest in biodiversity and development research with opportunities where they can volunteer on and contribute to long-term research projects. In the process of training and assisting students, providing immersive opportunities for informal researchers, and collaborating with local communities, our mission is to transform all stakeholders into citizen scientists.
As part of the Citizen Science Department, we run bird ringing expeditions in Africa, in which bird ringing enthusiasts can contribute valuable data to long-term ringing projects, whilst having an immersive bird ringing experience with African bird species. These expeditions are led by expert ringers at sites specially-selected in key African habitats. These expeditions combine citizen science with opportunities to explore some of Africa’s iconic bird species and habitats.
The Science Consulting Department assists the broader research community by providing technical and logistical support. Some of these services include statistical and quantitative consulting, manuscript editing, student mentoring and supervision, and field extension services. We also provide logistical support to local or international researchers seeking to conduct projects in South Africa. This service includes finding suitable field sites, negotiating research access, sourcing field assistants, providing accommodation, transportation, and field equipment, and providing research collaboration through our aforementioned technical support services.
The Research Training Department provides training and continuing education opportunities in the fields of quantitative analysis, citizen science, database management, academic writing and workflow, and ecological field research. This department creates these opportunities in the form of tutoring, workshops, traditional in-class courses, and distributed or online courses. We also provide fundamental training in conducting field research and we establish field sites by drawing on a considerable network of landowners and communities who want research to be done in their areas. We source local and international under-graduate students, post-graduate students, volunteers, and interns, to conduct research projects at those sites.
The Sustainability Department develops and sells off-grid mobile houses: PanGoPods. Our goal is to provide accommodation that is completely off-grid, healthy to live in, sensitive to the environment, affordable, and mobile.
Biodiversity Observations is an open-access journal that publishes biodiversity-related observations, often contributed by non-academics. It is free to publish in and free to read. We host an online repository of recent articles from the journal.