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Location South Africa, Africa
  • News The township caravan tackling South Africa’s femicide problem – the African way, positive.news (Jan 24, 2024)

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Networks, sustainability initiatives and community involvement[edit | edit source]

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21 Stories of Transition: Greyton Transition Town, South Africa
Authors: TransitionTowns, Nov 2, 2015
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South Africa - A Town in Transition, Global 3000
Authors: DW News, May 7, 2013
  • 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."
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]

Biodiversity[edit | edit source]

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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[edit | edit source]

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[1]

See also Germany, Open spaces

Arts, sport and culture[edit | edit source]

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Spark Hope
Authors: Makhulu Media, Aug 8, 2023

Food activism[edit | edit source]

Cape Town Food Grower's Initiative[edit | edit source]

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Cape Town Food Grower's Initiative
Authors: CTT Food Growers Initiative, Jul 6, 2021
  • 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.[2]

Resources[edit | edit source]

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

About South Africa[edit | edit source]

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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 62 million people, the country is the world's 23rd-most populous nation and covers an area of 1,221,037 square kilometres (471,445 square miles). 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 city, and site of highest court is Johannesburg.

About 80% of the population are Black South Africans. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White South Africans), Asian (Indian South Africans and Chinese South Africans), and multiracial (Coloured South Africans) ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 12 official languages, the fourth-highest number in the world. According to the 2011 census, the two most spoken first languages are Zulu (22.7%) and Xhosa (16.0%). The next two are of European origin: Afrikaans (13.5%) developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most Coloured and White South Africans; English (9.6%) is commonly used in public and commercial life, both reflect the legacy of Dutch and British colonialism, respectively.

Regular elections have been held for almost a century in the country. However, 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. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity, especially in the wake of apartheid. According to the 2023 V-Dem Democracy indices, South Africa is ranked the 51st electoral democracy worldwide and the 3rd electoral democracy in Africa.

External links[edit | edit source]

  • Wikipedia: South Africa
  • 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

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Shareable, May 21, 2018
  2. Shareable
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Keywords countries
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 6 pages link here
Aliases South Africa
Impact 802 page views
Created January 1, 2014 by Phil Green
Modified January 27, 2024 by Phil Green
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