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Workshop Outcomes Report: Town & Land Use Strategic Planning

The final report for the Strategic Planning Workshop:

“Identifying and addressing drivers of urbanisation, land use and land use change and capacity building in the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve” is now available. 

DOWNLOAD / VIEW HERE

This report comes to you in the light of COVID-19 and as the Country remains in lockdown as a result of efforts to stem the impact of the virus on the healthcare system, and inevitably, on the population. In reviewing the report, please also note the following two quotes, the one from our President, Cyril Ramaphosa and the other from Arundhti Roy, author of the book ‘The God of small things’ (1997).

For billions across the world, and for us here in South Africa, the coronavirus pandemic has changed everything.  We can no longer work in the way we have before…as South Africans we will need to adapt to a new reality.  As we emerge from this crisis, our country will need to undergo a process of fundamental reconstruction.

~ President Ramaphosa, April 2020, second address to the nation regarding COVID-19 impacts.

…coronavirus had made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality’, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worst than a return to normality…. Pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice…our dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

~ Arundhti Roy, April 2020 (Author of the book ‘The God of small things’ (1997)).

We thank you for post workshop comments which we have hopefully captured successfully in this final report.

We ask that you re-read it in the light of COVID-19. We cannot resume the process of looking at the Garden Route without thinking of a new reality and how we must contribute to it. Please consider how we can prepare to engage the process of land use and land use change and capacity building in the terribly unequal world we are now leaving as we step through the portal Arundhti Roy talks of.

Kind Regards
Robert Fincham
Project Leader

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Draft Report: Town & Land-Use Planning – Workshop 1

The GRBR Strategic Planning Workshop ‘Identifying and addressing drivers of urbanisation, land use and land use change and capacity building in the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve’
was successfully hosted on 14th February 2020, with various governmental and non-governmental sectors represented.

A draft report has been prepared to capture the event’s proceedings and the outcomes of the discussions held. Please view here.

We would like to thank all who attended and contributed to the days conversations. Additionally, we would be glad if workshop participants can review this draft outcomes document and send their comments to admin@gardenroutebiosphere.org.za.

If there are any suggested changes, please communicate these by Friday, 20th March, 2020.

If no comments are received, the report will be shared on various platforms as the final product. Thank you.

Further enquires: admin@gardenroutebiosphere.org.za.

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Draft Program: Drivers of Rapid Urbanisation & Land Use Change

As part of the 2020 Strategy Planning for the Garden Route Biosphere Reserve, several workshops are being planned across the region.

The first workshop is this Friday 14th February titled:

 “Identifying and addressing drivers of rapid urbanisation, land use and land use change in the GRBR” 

Venue: Nelson Mandela University, George Campus, Conference Room 

The Draft Program is below (and available as pdf here):

 Time 

 Event 

Persons involved 
09h00-09h30  Arrival and registration; refreshments  Project Team 
09h30-09h45  Welcome and introduction  Bianca Currie 

Chair, Garden Route Biosphere Reserve 
09h45-10h00  Purpose of the workshop & agreement on the agenda 

. 

 Robert Fincham 

Project coordinator 
10h00-11h30  Identifying the drivers: Debate 1: All Participants  Facilitators: Project Team 
11h30-12h00  Refreshments & snacks 
12h00-13h00  Addressing the drivers: Debate 2: All participants  Facilitators: Project Team 
13h00-13h30  Outcomes and way forward 

Finger lunch 

 Robert Fincham 
Departure
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Strategy Planning: Town & Land-Use Planning – Workshop 1

We cordially invite interested individuals and organisations to a series of 3 workshops to identify and contribute to tackling key drivers of rapid urbanisation, land use and land use change in the GRBR. The purpose of these workshops is to develop a framework to understand, and a strategy to address, these key drivers and the challenges they pose for government and other institutions of civil society.

In pursuit of the purpose and framework of the workshops, a bottom up, collaborative approach is envisaged. This approach should lead to a strong sense of actions required at the landscape level, while learning from specific project level work already underway. 

The outcome of the workshops is to establish a working group for the GRBR to address these challenges and their resolution in the medium and long term.

The workshops will be held on:

Friday 14th February in George;

Friday 3rd April in Knysna and

Friday 15th May in Jefferey’s Bay.

A key output of the workshop series will be a strategy ratified in a proposal by June 2020. The proposal will be used to raise funds for coordinated actions by stakeholders in the landscape, aligned with the vision and mission of the GRBR. 

Participants are encouraged to commit to and attend all three workshops to ensure continuity and consistency in the development of ideas, knowledge and outcomes. 

Registration for the Workshops 

Please express your interest in attending as soon as possible, but not later than Monday 10th February 2020, by contacting Luzanne Visagie [luzannev@mandela.ac.za]