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The Natural Science Collections Facility is a network of South African institutions holding natural science collections, established as part of the Department of Science & Technology’s Research Infrastructure Roadmap and co-ordinated by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Participating institutions are committed to collaborating to achieve the following objectives: 

Collections secured and accessible physically and virtually for research

Data from specimens in collections accessible and used for managing collections, research and decision-making

Research on collections and associated data addresses issues of national and global relevance

Collections and associated research provide services to identify natural science specimens for a range of stakeholders including in the agriculture, health, environmental management and academic sectors

Collections used for serving broader society through education, citizen science and public understanding projects with emphasis on inspiring young scientists and promoting South Africa’s unique biodiversity assets.
View Participating Institutions

Latest News

New species described from South African collections

Discovery of new species and records of rare African wasps

Simon van Noort, Research and Exhibitions Department, Iziko Museums of South AfricaThe ongoing exploration and documentation of the huge diversity of unknown wasp species in Africa has recently led to the description of new species of rare parasitoid wasp species,...

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New species of enigmatic African wasps

New species of enigmatic African wasps

As part of discovery and exploration of the extremely species rich, yet largely unknown wasp fauna in Africa, we recently described a number of new species of parasitoid wasps in the superfamilies Chalcidoidea and Ichneumonoidea, including the first records of two...

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Iconic specimens

Rare fly found in South Africa after 160 years

Rare fly found in South Africa after 160 years

Dr John Midgley, KwaZulu-Natal MuseumWe know very little about most insects, probably because there are so many species out there. Scientists are still busy discovering new species of insect, and some estimate that over 90% of the animals on Earth are insects!...

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Old Fourlegs

Old Fourlegs

Louanne Kirton, Photographic Competition Second Runner-up: The ugliest specimenOn 22 December 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the Curator of the East London Museum, received a call from the Captain of the Nerine fishing trawler, Hendrik Goosen. He had just returned...

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Gone but not forgotten

Gone but not forgotten

David Allan, Photographic Competition Winner: The most iconic specimenI describe the Dodo Skeleton as a first-hand view back into a lost past. It is one of the two most complete skeletons of the Dodo anywhere in the world. Did you know? Dodos were a type of pigeon....

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Use of Collections

Shale Gas Exploration SEA

Biodiversity Chapter of the Shale Gas Exploration Strategic Environmental Assessment. Data from plant and animal collections were used to identify which species occur in the area targeted for shale gas exploration, and to provide the localities from which they have been recorded.
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Barcode of Wildlife Project

South Africa participated in an international project that aimed to enable the use of DNA barcoding in investigation and enforcement activities for illegal harvesting and trafficking of threatened and protected plants and animals.
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Red List Assessments

South Africa is one of the leading megadiverse countries in terms of carrying out threat assessments for its species.
Red List of South African plants
Red List of South African animals
Collections List
Current Research Projects

Virtual Museum

The NSCF aims to increase the accessibility and use of natural science collections for research and also to secure collections.

One mechanism of achieving both these objectives is to establish a “virtual museum” which will take the form of detailed images of important specimens such as types, and to also provide digital access to documents such as historical field notes, old catalogue books and accession registers and other documents related to the collections.  Over the next two years we will initiate a project to digitise specimens and important documents and to make these available online. We also aim to show some of the collection store rooms online to provide a sense of the scope and scale of these for the public who rarely have the chance to see these hidden treasures.