By Lucille Davie
THE first-ever national congress on green spaces in cities starts today in Johannesburg, with a focus on how greening South African cities can contribute to their social, environmental and financial well-being.
The Green Cities, Sustainable Cities Congress takes place from Monday to Thursday in Midrand. The main objectives are to:
- Present the state of urban greening in sub-Saharan Africa;
- Develop an awareness of the need for green and sustainable cities and the benefits they bring;
- Develop strategies to share research on urban greening throughout Africa;
- Ensure the implementation of urban greening initiatives in southern Africa as a follow-up to the September World Summit.
Urban greening is defined as "an integrated, citywide approach to the planting, care and management of all vegetation in a city to secure multiple environmental, economic and social benefits for urban dwellers", according to a Congress background document. This includes street trees, parks or urban open spaces, trees in private gardens, nurseries, green corridors, and community and residential food gardens.
The congress is hosted bv the Institute of Environment and Recreation Management (IERM), Africa, Food and Trees for Africa, and the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. Congress partners are the City of Johannesburg, the South African Local Government Association, and Rand Water.
The IERM was established in the 1930s and has six branches throughout the country, with around 450 members including 50 municipalities.
The Congress is targeting several stakeholder groups: government, African urban greening experts, NGOs and CBOs involved in urban greening, civil society and academics and students.
Despite the fact that South Africa is increasingly urban - 66% of the population live in cities - urban greening is still in its infancy, and has a huge apartheid legacy to redress. Townships were poorly financed and developed, with little or no greening taking place. Attempts are now being made to catch up, but often greening is "still seen as a luxury rather than a necessity".
Social benefits of greening include "health, employment, education, recreation, aesthetic and landscape benefits, the building of civic pride and community spirit, and reduced crime". Urban greening has broader implications: climate and air quality improvement, reduction of global warming and carbon dioxide, re-use and conservation, and solid waste and land reclamation.
There are two pertinent concerns that the Congress hopes to address. Urban greening falls under local government jurisdiction and should be a part of their Integrated Development Plans and Land Development Objectives. However, priorities lie elsewhere for the immediate future - housing, drinking water, sanitation and other basic services - and greening gets limited financial support.
Secondly, a wide variety of service providers who could contribute meaningfully to urban greening are not being drawn into the local government planning process. These include national and provincial government departments, NGOs and Community Based Organisations. It is hoped these issues will be successfully addressed.
The Congress documents concludes: "The Green Cities Congress 2002 would be a most appropriate mechanism to share best practice and knowledge for South Africa, other African and international countries."
