Members in Action: Mlu Nsikani

Mlu Nsikani is a Researcher at the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town, South Africa, and a Research Associate at Stellenbosch University. He is co-chairing Events Committee (with Elise Gornish) for the 9th World Conference on Ecological Restoration. The Events Committee is responsible for building an interactive and engaging virtual events program for SER2021, including a suite of virtual field trips; the first Make a Difference Week volunteer event; and conference social, networking, and arts events.

What projects are you working on right now?
I am currently coordinating the work on analyzing the risk of alien and invasive species to inform their management in terms of South Africa’s National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEM:BA; Act 10 of 2004). Furthermore, I am involved in numerous research projects on restoration ecology and invasion science. Most notably, detecting new invasive species, eradicating invasive species that have small ranges, scaling-up restoration to real world applications, advancing restoration priorities in Africa, and overcoming barriers to restoration of desirable plant communities in previously invaded areas. For SER, I am co-chair of the SER 2021 Events Committee, an Ambassador for the International Network for Seed-based Restoration, part of the steering committee for the newly formed Africa chapter and SER’s Program Committee.

What do you find most rewarding about working for your organization?
Most of my work lies in the science-policy interface, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the shaping of South Africa’s environmental legislation. Furthermore, mentoring the next generation of scientists is close to my heart, and doing this as part of my work has been very rewarding.

How long have you been a member of SER? What’s your best experience thus far?
I have officially been a member of SER for over a year now. In fact, I became interested in restoration by accident. After finishing my Honors degree, I was eager to continue working with birds and become an ornithologist. While I was looking for a Masters degree supervisor, I mistakenly contacted a professor of invasion science, who then informed me about a lab looking for students to work on restoration. “What’s that?”, I asked. After finding out what exactly restoration is, I never looked back. I still love birds, but just love them more when they are on a restored site. My best experience thus far has been organizing SER 2019 that was held in Cape Town, South Africa. That was officially the best week of my life!

What was your childhood dream job?
When I was young, I wanted to be the President. Not for the fame, but to make meaningful change to people’s lives. Maybe I’ll be the next President, who knows?

What’s your favorite moment of your career so far?
If I were to pick one, it would be when I graduated for my PhD in 2018. Being the first in the family, it was such a momentous occasion, and I could see the pride in my parents’ eyes.

Why would you encourage others, particularly young people, to get involved in this field?
Our world is reeling from significant global biodiversity losses, disrupted ecological functions and altered ecosystem services due to human activities. The need to mitigate and reverse these impacts has therefore never been greater, and ecological restoration is the premier tool for achieving this. Therefore all of us, particularly young people, need to get involved in this field because our future literally depends on it.

Guilty pleasure: What can you not live without?
Does Twitter count? – it’s definitely Twitter. By the way, my handle is @mlungele 😊