grasslands.org.za Urban Gauteng

Activities in the urban sector will be undertaken in 3 streams:

Biodiversity toolkit (policy, guidelines and decision-support tools) developed for use by province and municipalities within urban areas. A biodiversity toolkit will be developed for use by provincial and municipal government and private sector associations such as environmental impact assessors and estate agents. This will strengthen the Record of Decision processes and instructions issued by planning authorities on development applications to address biodiversity priorities.
Capacity strengthened through targeted awareness, communication and training. Increasing the understanding of the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem services within the urban economy will be essential if conservation objectives are to be realised.
Priority sites secured as biodiversity refugia. The programme will work with the Gauteng provincial authority, residents’ associations and developers to secure refugia representative of biodiversity. Twelve priority sites having been agreed upon, which will be subject to different management arrangements with some classified as formal protected areas and others managed through conservation easements that circumscribe the types of physical development that may be permissible in future