Local Biodiversity Management Workshops in South Africa
The months of February and March have seen Local Action for Biodiversity (LAB) facilitating workshops in three South African provinces: Western Cape, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, in an effort to raise biodiversity awareness and build local government capacity. Those who attended were given the opportunity to expand their understanding of biodiversity management and the importance of local action for global results, through expert speakers, local government case studies and discussions.
Despite the challenges that face our local departments, there is admirable groundwork underway and strong commitment to change. Communication between local governments and with biodiversity experts proved highly beneficial and, being the International Year of Biodiversity, this experience provides a perfect opportunity for local governments to take some significant local action for biodiversity in 2010 within their own municipalities.
Many thanks go to the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the Kingdom of Norway (Norad), as well as the Cape Winelands District Municipality, the City of Ekhuruleni and African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN).
The success of the workshops has seen requests for more of the same, but for now LAB hopes to see considerable progress within the provinces that were visited.
- Mayor Chaaban, of the Cape Winelands District Municipality, Signing the Durban Agreement
- Mpumalanga biodiversity
- Workshop presentations in Gauteng