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Workshops CANCELLED until further notice

In light of the Corona virus / Covid-19 threat and ensuing advice arising from the President’s address (15 March 2020), we regret to inform you that all the workshops (all focus areas) for the GRBR collaborative strategy development process will be cancelled until further notice.

These scheduled workshops include:

Town and land Use Planning
3 April 2020 (Knysna)
15 May 2020 (Jeffreys Bay)

Water pollution
24 March 2020 (Knysna)
8 May 2020 (George)

Education
18 March 2020 (George)
8 April 2020 (George)

We will communicate new dates once the threat has passed and apologize for the inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Bianca Currie
Chair
UNESCO Garden Route Biosphere Reserve

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Strategy Planning: Water Pollution – Workshop 1

Invitation to address water quality issues in the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve

Date: Tuesday 24th March 2020
Venue: Knysna Log-Inn Hotel, 16 Gray St, Knysna Central, South Africa
Link to venue: https://goo.gl/maps/gs7x3REvce29wWdr5 

Workshop Overview
The Garden Route Biosphere Reserve (GRBR) is undergoing a collaborative strategy development process, and as part of this process interested individuals and organisation are cordially invited to attend the first of two workshops to identify and contribute to tackling water quality issues within the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve. We hope that our approach will lead to a strong sense of action required at the landscape level, while learning from and working with specific project level work already underway. We are looking for tangible actions that can be taken to conserve our valuable water resources.

The purpose of the first workshop is to:
1. Identify and discuss major threats to water quality in the GRBR domain,
2. Identify existing water quality initiatives, where we invite participants with existing initiatives to give a short (5 minutes) introduction.
3. Ask how we as a community can come together to tackle some of the identified threats and to support existing successful initiatives.

The key outcomes of both workshops are to establish a working group to develop a programme to tackle Water Pollution, which the GRBR will ratify into a proposal document by June 2020.  The proposal will be used to leverage the GRBR as an overarching mechanism to raise funds for coordinated actions by stakeholders in the landscape which are aligned with the vision and mission of the GRBR.

Participants are encouraged to commit to and attend both workshops to ensure continuity and consistency in the development of ideas, knowledge and outcomes.  The workshops will be held on Tuesday 24th of March in Knysna and Friday 8th of May in George.

Registration for the Workshops
Please express your interest in attending as soon as possible, but not later than 19th of March 2020.

 RSVP email to Luzanne Visagie at admin@gardenroutebiosphere.org.za  (or Luzanne.visagie@mandela.ac.za)

Contact Person: Dr Louw Claassens
Email Address: kyss.louw@gmail.com

Please let us know if you would like to occupy a 5-minute slot to introduce your initiative.

Project Team: Bianca Currie, Louw Claassens and Ntombi Vundla

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Strategy Planning: Environmental Education – Workshop 2

Topic: 2nd Environmental Education Workshop (as part of Strategy Planning for the GRBR)

Date: Wednesday 18th March, 2020
Venue: Garden Route Environmental Education Centre, Garden Route Botanical Garden, George

Workshop Overview
The Garden Route Biosphere Reserve (GRBR) cordially invites the participation of all individuals and organisations that are involved in environmental education programs in the Garden Route to collaborate in developing a coordinated approach to youth environmental education within the GRBR. The biosphere reserve seeks to work together with stakeholders and actors in the landscape to collaboratively develop a programme for youth environmental education in the biosphere reserve.

The GRBR has already hosted the first of three workshops, which identified current successes and strengths which can be leveraged as well as gaps and needs in the education landscape that the GRBR youth programme can fill.

The second workshop will consolidate a workable program for the youth based on the success, gaps and needs analysis. The third workshop will be dedicated to finalising a programme and informing a budget as well as identify potential funders the GRBR can target a proposal submission to.

The key outcomes of the workshop series are to establish a working group to develop a Youth Environmental Education Programme which the GRBR will ratify into a proposal document by June 2020.  The proposal will be used to leverage the GRBR to raise funds for coordinated actions by stakeholders in the landscape which are aligned with the vision and mission of the GRBR.

Participants are encouraged to commit to and attend all the workshops to ensure continuity and consistency in the development of ideas, knowledge and outcomes.  The second workshop will be held on Wednesday 18th of March and the third on Wednesday the 8th of April in George at the Garden Route Environmental Education Centre.

Registration for the Workshops
Please express your interest in attending as soon as possible, but not later than 15 March 2020, by sending an rsvp email to Luzanne Visagie at admin@gardenroutebiosphere.org.za or Luzanne.visagie@mandela.ac.za

Contact Person: Monica Vaccaro
Email address: monica@landmarkfoundation.org.za
Project Team: Bianca Currie, Monica Vaccaro