How did SANBI become involved in the B-Cubed case study?

The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is mandated by national laws to monitor and report on the status of biological invasions and their management in South Africa every three years (the ‘status report’), to support biodiversity management and meet national and international reporting commitments.

Since the regulations took effect in 2014, SANBI has produced three reports (2017, 2020, and 2023), with a fourth due at the end of 2026. The reports cover the introduction and spread of alien species, their status and impacts, the extent of invasions at sites and their combined impacts, and the effectiveness of interventions in South Africa.

While preparing the fourth national status report, we recognised the need to improve how biodiversity data were integrated, analysed, and translated into policy-relevant indicators. The B-Cubed project provided an opportunity to test innovative biodiversity data workflows within a real national reporting process, making the status report an ideal end-user case study.

How did B-Cubed help solve a problem?

A major challenge was consolidating thousands of biodiversity records from multiple sources into a reporting system that is efficient, transparent, reproducible, and aligned with emerging international frameworks, especially Target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

B-Cubed helped us address these challenges in several ways. Standardised biodiversity data cubes and documented analytical workflows transformed how we access and analyse species occurrence data. Processing large biodiversity datasets that previously took weeks now takes hours, while maintaining consistent data quality standards and full reproducibility. The project also supported the revision of our national biological invasion indicator framework by improving the alignment of indicators with international reporting requirements and strengthening the mobilisation of both spatial and impact data.

These improvements have made the production of South Africa’s national status report more efficient, transparent, and scientifically robust. Equally important, the documented workflows mean that future reporting cycles can be updated more easily, ensuring consistency through time and strengthening confidence in the evidence used to support biodiversity policy and management.

The B-Cubed project also developed new tools and methods to improve future status reports. These include approaches to predict where invasive species are likely to spread, estimate their impacts, and report on the confidence in observed patterns. Although these tools are not yet part of South Africa’s national reporting system, they offer valuable opportunities to strengthen future assessments and support better planning and management.

What were the most interesting challenges and findings?

Participating in B-Cubed reinforced an important lesson: developing innovative analytical tools is only valuable if they can be integrated into real-world policy processes. Working closely with researchers throughout the project enabled us to shape workflows and indicators to address practical reporting needs rather than purely technical objectives.

The collaboration also highlighted ongoing challenges. Biodiversity data remain incomplete for many taxonomic groups, monitoring effort is uneven across South Africa, and sampling bias can influence biodiversity indicators if not properly accounted for. Rather than just identifying these limitations, B-Cubed provided practical solutions through standardised workflows, biodiversity information standards, uncertainty assessment methods, and open-source software that can be progressively incorporated into future reporting cycles.

The greatest outcome has been demonstrating how biodiversity observations can be transformed into policy-ready information. Through this collaboration, we have strengthened South Africa’s national reporting on biological invasions, improved the transparency and repeatability of our assessments, and established workflows that can continue to evolve as new data and analytical tools become available. We also believe the approaches developed through B-Cubed provide a practical model that other countries can adapt to strengthen biodiversity monitoring, reporting, and evidence-based decision-making.