The Grasslands Programme has been busy...

Biodiversity: Powering the Green Economy conference

The Grasslands Programme, in partnership with the Transnet Programme in Sustainable Development at the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF), hosted a two-day conference on “Biodiversity: Powering the Green Economy” at the GIBS Illovo campus in Johannesburg.

The conference was incredibly well attended and an overall success. Amongst the highlights was a panel discussion on ‘Competitiveness and the Green Economy’ between Andrew Donaldson, DDG, National Treasury; Ravi Naidoo, Group Executive, DBSA; Dhesigen Naidoo, CEO, WRC; Prof Mark Swilling, University of Stellenbosch; Dr Guy Preston, DDG, DEA Natural Resource Management; and facilitated by Dr Crispian Olver, of Linkd Environmental Services

Proceedings of the conference will be compiled and made available in due course. In the meantime, download the agenda, biographies of presenters and presentations from the Resources page on this website or visit the GIBS website for additional information.

You can also listen to Jeremy Maggs chatting to Joanne Yawicht, Chief Executive Officer of the National Business Institute, NBI about changing the way we do business in order to power the green economy – click here.

Finally you can continue reading for the press release and other articles in the press about the event.

Biodiversity: Powering a Green Economy in South Africa

Press release: Johannesburg, 20 October 2011

Managing biodiversity and ecosystems allows the opportunity to create thousands of jobs and deliver on South Africa’s new growth-path framework. This was mentioned by Kristal Maze, Chief Director of Bioregional Programmes, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) at the two-day Biodiversity: Powering the Green Economy conference, hosted by the SANBI Grasslands Programme in partnership with the Transnet Programme in Sustainable Development at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), this week.

“Biodiversity is about our vast wealth, and the development path of South Africa. It is about the variety of life, and it offers a suite of natural solutions in the face of climate change,” said Nosipho Ngcaba, Director General of the Department of Environmental Affairs. The need to demystify ‘biodiversity’ in people’s minds, and understand that it is not separate to economic growth and development in SA, but is critical to the sustainability of livelihoods and economic activities across the board was emphasized by Dr Tanya Abrahamse, CEO of SANBI. “Through careful science we have determined the areas that are important for sustainability – these are the areas that are most important to biodiversity and ecosystem services, using the least amount of land possible” said Kristal Maze, Chief Director of Bioregional Programmes, SANBI.

“Sustainability has never been more pertinent for business in SA,” said Donald Gibson, Director, Transnet Programme in Sustainable Development at GIBS. Complexity, uncertainty and unpredictability are a challenge to business and society, and there is a need to mainstream sustainability into business and society. “We need to explore the value creation opportunities and potential of the green economy – a smarter, more efficient, more effective and more resilient economy that will help up solve our development challenges” he said.

The green economy broadly refers to making use of ‘green’ products and services in contributing to overall economic growth, poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Traditionally, issues such as renewable energy and carbon emissions have taken precedence in debates and policy decisions, overshadowing an understanding of the importance of ecological ‘services and infrastructure’ in the economic space.

The importance of South Africa transitioning to a green economy in terms of improving its competitiveness, particularly in the face of a changing climate was the topic of discussion for panelists including Dr Guy Preston, DDG DEA Natural Resource Management, and Ravi Naidoo, Group Executive, DBSA who both emphasized that we need to take a long term view to see the benefits of better natural resource management today, and that there is consensus that decision-makers today need to take the future more seriously into account. Andrew Donaldson, DDG of the National Treasury emphasized that SANBI is a national treasure because they have a knowledge base that can be used to reduce the cost of business decision-making by providing greater certainty of where development will result in negative impacts and therefore should be avoided. Maze had made the point earlier that by managing catchments and planning in tandem we can get better return on investments for hard infrastructure, like dams and bridges.

Joanne Yawitch CEO, National Business Initiative (NBI) described “four essential elements to change the way we do business – firstly leadership and vision, secondly unless the financial personnel are on board the vision cannot be realised. Thirdly, green economy issues in a business context require the back up from technology to drive the roll out of different forms of support of the green industry, and lastly, policy and governmental support is a must.” “We see ecological infrastructure as offering the foundation for what could be exponential opportunity for entrepreneurship through things such as payments for ecosystem services, the use of biodiversity in the carbon economy, as well as opportunities in the area of ecotourism," Maze said. Saliem Fakir, Head of the Living Planet Unit, WWF, addressed the best way of unlocking private capital and pointed out that opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship can also create a sustainable tax base that could allow government to recoup costs it invests in stimulating those activities.

This conference was an important event in the lead up to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties 17 meeting, taking place in Durban next month. In the face of climate change, biodiversity based businesses and ecosystem based adaptation and mitigation are emerging as two of the most appropriate and cost effective solutions to developing sustainable green economic activities outside of the energy sector. Overall the conference highlighted the importance of partnerships and coordination, even though there are complexities.

Grasslands Programme Manager, Anthea Stephens, highlighted the important partnerships the Grasslands Programme was building with stakeholders in the forestry, coal mining, agriculture and urban economic sectors. She concluded that the need to engage better with business and political leaders through knowledge sharing, decision support tools and capacity building to mainstream biodiversity and ecosystems not only into CSI but into business strategy was acknowledged and SANBI was ready to do so.

Experts ask if the 'green economy' is oversold

Business Live article by: Gillian Brockell - 19 October, 2011 17:20

Government officials and environmental experts went on the defensive at a panel discussion on Tuesday when asked if the potential for "green economy" in South Africa had been oversold.

While they all conceded that thus far there had been more talk than action, several also argued that it is almost impossible to overstate their case.

"Are we promising too much and delivering too little? Where are the green economy jobs?" challenged policy expert Crispian Olver. "I'm not convinced there's enough on the table."

Ravi Naidoo from the Development Bank of Southern Africa agreed that there has been "a lot of talk and there needs to be more action," but also said investors need to take a long-term approach.

"We have to position ourselves in the long run, and that means environmental goods and services, and those aren't going happen in the next five years," Naidoo said. "We shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking if we don't do it in the next five years, [then] we should give up." SA should leverage off of massive infrastructure projects instead of waiting for international funding, he said.

University of Stellenbosch TK Mark Swilling raised the bar further, saying the coming green revolution wasn't just about jobs or one industry sector but a "completely new development paradigm". To invest in non-green technology would be a "gross misapplication of capital", he said.

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