Reginald Christiaan

Reginald Christiaan

Contact details: Email: Reginald.Christiaan@gmail.com Mobile: +27 79 3525099 Where am I from South Africa Languages Afrikaans 1st English 2nd I live in Soebatsfontein & Springbok, Northern Cape Province, South Africa Current and previous works Currently I am doing an internship with Conservation South Africa (Springbok / South Africa) 2011 - 12: Internship at Ditsong National Museums of Natural History (Pretoria / South Africa) 2002 - 2010: BIOTA Southern Africa as a para-ecologist (Soebatsfontein / South Africa) Type of work I do Conservation South Africa: Weather stations installations Downloading of data from weather stations Capturing climate data Co-ordinate participatory research activities in the Namakwa District with 15 EcoRangers on at least 1 communal farm, 4 private farms, and 1 national park Collect, capture and analyse EcoRanger data from 15 EcoRangers Communicate outcomes of data analysis to all research participants; all relevant CSA staff members; 2 meetings with local stakeholders; in 3 Veepos articles; and 1 article in a local newspaper. BIOTA Southern Africa: Assistant of BIOTA biologist researchers (since January 2002 till October 2004) and BIOTA Para-ecologist (October 2004 – April 2010): Documentation of biodiversity data Monitoring of plant phenology (monthly) Downloading of data from automatic weather stations Environmental awareness projects with school children Ditsong National Museums of Natural History: Curation and rebottling of Buthidae scorpions of the Lower Invertebrate collection Sorting of spiders My skills and expertise Computer skills: Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Power Point, Internet Explorer, email Entering phenological plant data into MS Excel database G.P.S (Global Positioning System) Installment and maintenance of automatic weather stations Monitoring and collection of plants and insects Use of digital photo and video cameras Taking of plant pictures for scientific purposes Identification of plants and plant names Ecology of succulents on quartz fields Facilitation of workshops Conflict management Special interests Habitat requirements of scorpions Collecting and identifying scorpions Habitat requirements of different plant species Botany and photography Ambitions and dreams During my work in BIOTA as para-ecologist my interest in nature and natural science has been strongly fostered. My particular interest lies in the collecting and identification of scorpions. I have closely cooperated with Dr Lorenzo Prendini from the New York Museum of Natural History who kindly identified the specimens for us and incorporated them into his scientific collection, and in the near future I want to specialize in the identification of Southern African scorpions. The experience gained during the internship with ARC/Ditsong has further increased my need to want to learn more about these creatures. I hope to continue to build my relationships with the researchers at these institutes. I feel the next step will be to be employed at one of these institutes in order to learn more and possible expand my knowledge into research. Publications Christiaan R, Kotze D (2007) Para-ekoloe in jou omgewing. Die Namakwalander, p 3. Contact for references Dr. Ute Schmiedel (para-ecologist programme coordinator and supervisor since 2003) Biocentre Klein Flottbek & Botanical Garden University of Hamburg Ohnhorststrasse 18 D-22609 Hamburg Tel. +49 - (0)40 - 42816-548 Fax +49 - (0)40 - 42816-539 Email: Ute.Schmiedel@uni-hamburg.de Ronald Newman (Conservation South Africa, Manager, Namaqualand Green Economic Demonstration) Conservation South Africa Springbok Tel: +27 27 718 1577 Email: r.newman@conservation.org Top