The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across South Africa.
- For South Africa’s amaMpondo fighting to protect nature, ‘Everything is a being’, news.mongabay.com (Aug 19, 2024)
- South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases, theconversation.com (May 18, 2024)
- The township caravan tackling South Africa’s femicide problem – the African way, positive.news (Jan 24, 2024)
Networks, sustainability initiatives and community involvement[edit | edit source]
- Future Cape Town "is a leading platform in Africa promoting democracy about the future of cities.
- Through our online presence, research, and multi-stakeholder collaborations we work towards expanding public access to urbanism in order to promote a more visionary and inclusive city. We are an independent think-tank, advocating knowledge and citizen engagement to meet the challenges of our city. Future Cape Town is the founding partner of Our Future Cities, which also houses Future Johannesburg, Future Lagos and Future London."
- Transition South Africa (Transition in Action Social Network), Facebook
- UK-South Africa Dialogue
- Cape Town Together, (link not found 16:34, 20 April 2023 (UTC)), a rapid community-led response to Covid -19.
- The network was made up of thousands of volunteers coming together to form Community Action Networks or CANs. Over a 160 Community Action Networks, and growing. added 11:59, 22 February 2021 (UTC)
Cycling activism[edit | edit source]
- Bicycle Cape Town, community campaign to promote bicycle culture in Cape Town, Bike Bus, Cape Town
- Bicycling Empowerment Network South Africa
- Critical Mass Cape Town on facebook.com], added 11:41, 2 December 2023 (UTC)
Biodiversity[edit | edit source]
South Africa signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity on 4 June 1994 and became a party to the convention on 2 November 1995. It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which was received by the convention on 7 June 2006. The country is ranked sixth out of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries. Ecotourism in South Africa has become more prevalent in recent years, as a possible method of maintaining and improving biodiversity.
South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the 19th century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. black wattle, Port Jackson willow, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. W
Open spaces[edit | edit source]
The protected areas of South Africa include national parks and marine protected areas managed by the national government, public nature reserves managed by provincial and local governments, and private nature reserves managed by private landowners. Most protected areas are intended for the conservation of flora and fauna. National parks are maintained by South African National Parks (SANParks). A number of national parks have been incorporated in transfrontier conservation areas.
Protected areas may also be protected for their value and importance as historical, cultural heritage or scientific sites. W
Bottom Road Sanctuary: A Post-Apartheid Community Managed Nature Sanctuary
The area around Zeekoevlei lake, in South Africa, has had extremely high concentrations of threatened native plant species. This is partly because its northern bank was used as a garbage dump for many years. Then, in 2005, the city of Cape Town rezoned the area into parcels of land to be purchased by people who suffered through the Apartheid. The residents who moved in joined forces with nature conservation officials and local environmental organizations to restore the wetland. In practice, this meant residents largely left the space open and undeveloped. Some residents have actively removed invasive species, allowing a particularly threatened plant species, the fynbos, to thrive again in its natural habitat. The Bottom Road Sanctuary now has over 50,000 native plants, attracting many kinds of wildlife. It also has walkways, benches, and barbecuing spaces for nearby residents to share. Adrien Labaeye...Shareable, May 21, 2018
See also Germany, Open spaces
Food activism[edit | edit source]
Cape Town Food Grower's Initiative
- More video from CTT Food Growers Initiative, on youtube.com, added 18:05, 10 March 2022 (UTC)
- CTT Food Growers Initiative on facebook.com
Towards sustainable economies[edit | edit source]
Bergnek
Bergnek Community Projects is a community development initiative that was started to empower and uplift women and youth through sustainable business ventures. The program provides access to food, clean water, and reproductive health care for women and girls in school. The long-term aim of the group is to build a community health care center..Shareable.
Citizens data initiative[edit | edit source]
People's Assembly, "aims to promote accountability and bridge the gap between ordinary people and their elected representatives."
Public interest law resources[edit | edit source]
Centre for Environmental Rights, non-profit company and law clinic based in Cape Town
Maps[edit | edit source]
Cape Town Green Map - Joburg green Map
See also[edit | edit source]
- Topic overview and cosmolocal connections:
About South Africa[edit | edit source]
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 miles) of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of 1,221,037 square kilometres (471,445 square miles), the country has over 62 million people, Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital. Bloemfontein has traditionally been regarded as the judicial capital. The largest and most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and the busiest port city in sub-Saharan Africa, Durban.
Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the region over 100,000 years ago. The first known people were the indigenous Khoisan, and Bantu-speaking peoples from West and Central Africa later settled in the region 2,000 to 1,000 years ago. In 1652, the Dutch established the first European settlement at Table Bay, and in 1795 and 1806, the British occupied it. In the 19th century, the Mfecane ravaged the region and saw the formation of the Zulu Kingdom among others. The region was further colonised, and diamonds and gold were discovered, bringing a shift towards industrialisation and urbanisation. The Union of South Africa was created in 1910 out of the former Cape, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River colonies, becoming a republic in 1961. Though a system of non-racial franchise had existed in the Cape, it was gradually eroded, and the vast majority of Black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994.
During the 20th century, the black majority sought to claim more rights from the dominant white minority, which played a large role in the country's recent history and politics. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation. After a largely non-violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in the mid-1980s. Universal elections took place in 1994, following which all racial groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces.
External links
- Earthlife Africa, South African environmental and anti-nuclear organisation founded in August 1988, in Johannesburg. Initially conceived of as a South African version of Greenpeace, the group began by playing a radical, anti-apartheid, activist role. ELA is arguably now more of a reformist lobby or pressure group. Considered by some to be a key voice in the emerging environmental justice movement, Earthlife Africa has been criticised for being too radical, and by others for "working with traditional conservation movements" in furthering the environmental struggle. W
- Solar energy in South Africa