20 March, 2007

Consultant services required by C.A.P.E. ...

General Procurement Notice:
Consultant Database Listing
C.A.P.E. Fine-scale Biodiversity Planning Project

C.A.P.E. is a partnership programme, hosted by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), that seeks to conserve and restore the biodiversity of the Cape Floristic Region and adjacent marine environment, while delivering significant benefits to the people of the region. Component 5 of the C.A.P.E. programme, which deals with establishing the foundations of the biodiversity economy to enhance conservation stewardship in key lowland landscapes, consists of four sub-components. This project constitutes sub-component 5.1, i.e. Undertaking fine-scale biodiversity planning in five broad priority areas namely the Riversdale Coastal Plain, Nieuwoudtville, Upper Breede River Valley, North West Sandveld and the Saldanha Peninsula. The Fine-scale Biodiversity Planning Project is a four year project, (May 2005 – December 2009), funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). CapeNature has been appointed as the lead implementing agency for the fine-scale biodiversity planning project and will be working in close partnership with the South African National Biodiversity Institute and other project partners such as provincial departments and agencies, local authorities, planning and environmental consultants and local conservation NGOs.

The services of a number of consultants will be required during the production of these English and Afrikaans land-and resource-use guidelines which are to be associated with these conservation maps and plans. These services include:

A Guidelines Manager: To produce land-and resource-use guidelines to be associated with the conservation plans and maps;
A Guidelines Text Editor;
A Guidelines Designer; and
An English/Afrikaans translator.

Interested consultants are invited to register their interest in any of the above short term contracts related to the project by providing CV’s indicating relevant skills, qualifications and experience together with a covering letter to the Project Co-ordinator, Kerry te Roller at teroller@sanbi.org by 26 March 2007. Specific Terms of Reference will be provided after registration.

Impact of livestock on the environment ...


I recently listened to a podcast, 'theWatt, episode 70' that dealt with the impact of livestock on the environment, icluding energy issues of producing various foods. This is an interesting podcast dealing with energy issues.

They mentioned a very interesting report, 'Livestock's long shadow', on the subject.

Summary: This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation. The assessment is based on the most recent and complete data available, taking into account direct impacts, along with the impacts of feed crop agriculture required for livestock production.
The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
Livestock’s contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost.

By the way my other favourite podcasts include the NewScientist podcast and Scientific American podcast and on a lighter note More Hip than Hippie

17 March, 2007

Talk by Sir Nicholas Stern ...

On Thursday last, as the provincial representative on the National Climate Change Committee, I was lucky enough to attend a talk at the DBSA, Midrand, by Sir Nicholas Stern

A really interesting talk and very interesting discussion with the audience afterwards

You can download the actual report and associated reviews here


Passing through Johannesburg International Airport (O.R. Tambo Airport) was the evidence of last weekend's Cape Argus Cycle Race - boxes and boxes of bicycles transported free by SAA on the new cut rate airline Mango

This year just over 30 000 cyclists from around the globe participated in the world's largest timed cycle race, including familiar names and faces like Nicholas Laidler, Francois Pienaar and tandem partner, Lucas Radebe, as well as Tour de France greats, Greg LeMond, Jan Ullrich and Steven Rooks.

10 March, 2007

Whatever you do don't mention Polar Bears ...

American censorship of science, particularly of climate change, is still alive and well.
See the latest daming report on the NewScientist blog.

08 March, 2007

Short course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedures ...

Rhodes University: Short course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedures

Course dates: Monday 7 May to Friday 11 May 2007

Rhodes University's Departments of Environmental Science and Botany, in conjunction with Coastal & Environmental Services (CES), are offering another short course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedures at Rhodes University, Grahamstown during May 2007.

For more information on this course, please obtain a brochure (in pdf format) and registration form (Word document) from the contact person below.

Please forward this information to anybody you feel may be interested in attending a course in Environmental Impact Assessment procedures.

Should you have any queries about this EIA short course, please contact :

Lisl Griffioen
Short course coordinator
Coastal & Environmental Services

lisl@cesnet.co.za

P O Box 934
Grahamstown
6140, South Africa
Tel: 046-622 4455
Fax: 046-622 6564
www.cesnet.co.za

07 March, 2007

Draft guideline on biodiversity offsets - comments requested

In December 2005 the Department of Environment Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) commissioned the preparation of a provincial guideline on biodiversity offsets. A draft guideline was produced in June 2006 (www.capegateway.gov.za/eng/pubs/guides/P/133948/2 ) but, due to a number of issues, was not finalized.

In January 2007, the Department appointed Susie Brownlie (deVilliers Brownlie Associates), together with Mark Botha (Botanical Society of South Africa), Nick Helme (Nick Helme Botanical Surveys) and Hugo van Zyl (Independent Economic Researchers), to strengthen and finalize the draft guideline.

Drawing on a focused biodiversity offsets workshop, and input from a number of stakeholders, the draft guideline has been revised. This revised draft will be available for comment by interested and affected parties on DEA&DP's website [(www.capegateway.gov.za/eadp) from Friday 9 March - please go to 'publications' and then 'guidelines', and look for the 'biodiversity offsets' guideline].

Should you have any comments on the revised draft guideline, please send them to Susie Brownlie (email: dbass@icon.co.za) by the very latest 20 March 2007.

Please contact Susie Brownlie [021-6744 253] should you have any queries.