South Africa has created a network of facilities to store hundreds of thousands of samples of biological material from plants, animals, bacteria and fungi. The samples are currently held in biobanks in the country. The aim is twofold: to ensure researchers have access to all available samples, and to establish common policies, procedures and standards for biodiversity biobanks. This is important if the country is to keep pace with advances in research.
The South African National Biodiversity Institute’s Professor Michelle Hamer, who heads the Biodiversity Biobanks South Africa project, spoke to The Conversation Africa.
