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The article outlines the evolution of the Thicket Forum as a social learning institution in the thicket biome in South Africa. It highlights the recent research findings and future research directions, with a focus on new insights into how thicket functions and what has been done to conserve it. It also bridges the research-implementation gap in the thicket biome through the forum. Further, it reports on the outcomes and upshots of the forum's 2006 meeting. Other significant information relative to the matter is presented.

Relevé data were used to compare species-area curves for the western and eastern parts of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR). Observed differences related more often to vegetation heterogeneity than to the geographical position of the localities. However, when separating plant species according to their distribution ranges, CFR endemics contributed greatly to diversity values in the west. CFR non-endemics, on the other hand, boosted species richness in the east, many of them appearing as 'pseudorares', owing to the greater diversity of vegetation types, which include formations with marginal intrusion into the CFR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the principal challenges to conservationists in South Africa. Inadequate accounting for ecosystem services; 1995 workshop on ecosystem valuation; Goals of the workshop; Factors affecting the level of knowledge about fynbos; Examination of the use of cost-benefit analyses in reaching development decisions.