Background

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for "sustainable development" -- meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity. This pact among the vast majority of the world's governments sets out commitments for maintaining the world's ecological underpinnings as we go about the business of economic development. The Convention establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

In November, 1995 South Africa ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which emanated from the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. Signatories are obligated to develop a strategic plan for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.  Meeting these goals requires an intensive national effort.

In 1997 at the National Collection of Arachnida of the Biosystematics Unit of ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute initiated the “South African National Survey of Arachnida” (SANSA) to meet the requirements of the CBD.

SANSA is intended as a coordinating structure for arachnid research, with the overarching objective of describing and making an inventory of the arachnids of South Africa.