GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Garden Route Environmental Forum (GREF) is hosting its annual key stakeholder report-back event on 13 December in Wilderness, where regional conservation and environmental management entities and individuals will provide insight on matters pertaining to resource management and land restoration.
According to Cobus Meiring of the GREF, the Southern Cape and Garden Route are experiencing rapid development and have to make provision to accommodate a fast-growing population.
"This more often than not generates friction and anxiety between authorities and landowners where legislation and capacity to, eg, process applications, hamper development, or where various sets of legislation are seemingly contradictory where for instance land rehabilitation and invasive alien plant eradication is of concern," he says.
There is a continued need to understand the linkages between ensuring a high standard of living in the Southern Cape and new development, and loss of biodiversity, destruction of wetlands and wildlands and unsustainable pressure on natural resources such as water, he says. Finding solutions for environmental challenges is increasingly relevant.
The Garden Route is already experiencing and recording evidence of rising sea levels and climate change.
"These are all the more reasons for those who share a concern for the state of the environment to make their voices heard and intensify the environmental debate. This will help ensure that sustainability and resilience of natural resources remain top of the regional agenda."
The GREF is a public platform and think tank for all those in the Southern Cape involved in active and ongoing conservation and environmental management efforts. Those interested in the event can e-mail Louise Mare at louisamare@gmail.com.
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