Welcome to the Institute of Natural Resources (INR)

We are a team of passionate, professional people applying innovative science to catalyse change for a better planet.

Partnering with government, civil society, the private sector and other leading research organisations we develop cutting edge solutions to support the resolution of natural resource challenges; we provide advice to practitioners, researchers and policy makers; we integrate effort; we build the capacity of graduate professionals to operate effectively in the workplace; and we advocate an environmentally secure future for all. We are an independent, non-profit, public benefit organisation committed to serving the people of southern Africa.

The Natural Resource Report

The INR's Quarterly Roundup of Environmental News

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Latest from the INR

Advancing the Management of Wetlands in South Afirca

- Writes Ian Bredin, Wetland Specialist

Wetlands are unique ecosystems in the landscape that play an essential role in the functioning of the hydrological cycle (Department of Water Affairs (DWA), 2014; Bredin et al., 2019). They occur at positions in the landscape where climate, geology, topography and biology create suitable hydrologic conditions (Job & le Roux, 2019). Depending on the nature of the landscape in which they occur, they vary in their biophysical characteristics and environmental role. Different types of wetlands require different management and protection actions, and exhibit different levels of vulnerability to impacts and resilience to environmental change (DWA, 2014; Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 2018).

Monitoring South Africa’s “Water Towers”: The state of the Southern Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area

The Institute of Natural Resources (INR) has received funding from the Nedbank Green Trust to develop a monitoring and reporting framework comprising a range of key indicators to understand, monitor and report on the state of the Southern Drakensberg Strategic Water Source Area (SWSA) and to develop an internet dashboard able to share and exchange information regarding the health of our SWSA’s.

Institute of Natural Resources publish 2019 Annual Report

In this report, in addition to profiling our work in 2019, we reflect briefly on some of our more notable achievements over the past forty years. The report includes staff complement and extracts of audited financial statements.

Illegal sand mining on the rise in KZN

HAVE you ever wondered where your building sand comes from? If you are in the uMngeni catchment area, chances are it’s from an illegal sand miner. Read more…

Written by Nomcebo Myeza, a former environmental scientist at the Institute of Natural Resources

UKZN Scholarship Yields More Results

Dr Manqoba Zungu is the fifth Talent Excellence and Equity Acceleration Scholarship (TEEAS) recipient to be appointed as a lecturer at UKZN and the second recipient of this scholarship to become a lecturer in the School of Life Sciences. Read more…

Dr Manqoba Zungu was an intern at the INR in 2015 and went on to complete his PhD at UKZN.

Hydrology PhD Candidate Benefits from Academic Visit to the UK

UKZN Hydrology PhD candidate, Mr Mlungisi Shabalala, has returned from a two-month academic visit to the United Kingdom which, he says, reaffirmed the value of the education he has received.

The visit was part of the new Advanced Academic and Professional Development Programme run by the Institute of Natural Resources (INR) in partnership with the International Water Security Network (IWSN), the University of West England (UWE) and UKZN’s Centre for Water Resources Research (CWRR).

For the majority of the visit, Shabalala was hosted by Professor Chad Staddon, IWSN Chair based at the Department of Geography and Environmental Management at UWE in Bristol. He also spent three weeks at Cranfield University, hosted by Professor Tim Hess, a Principal Investigator for the work package that includes INR in a project investigating the resilience of the UK Food System funded by Global Food Security Programme. Read more…

Travel Grant for World Congress on Agroforestry for PhD Candidate

UKZN’s Mr Misheck Musokwa, who is pursuing his doctorate in the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, was in Montpellier in France to take part in the fourth World Congress on Agroforestry – thanks to a travel grant awarded by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the organising and scientific committees of the Congress. Read more…

Fulbright Scholarship for Environmental Science Graduate

Ms Samiksha Singh, a scientist at the Institute of Natural Resources (INR), is the recipient of a two-year Fulbright Scholarship that will enable her to pursue her PhD in the United States of America at the University of California Riverside (UCR). Read more…