The Biodiversity and Land Use Project produced a number of resources either directly or through its implementing partners. These resources are now available and can be accessed through the following resources tables.
- Environmental Management Resources Table
- Planning and Land Use Management Resources Table
- Land Reform and Biodiversity Stewardship Resources Table
Resources Produced Across the Project
The Biodiversity and Land Use Project Also produced a number of documents and resources for the project with the aim of sharing information, lessons learnt, etc that was generated throughout the six year the project was being implemented.
This includes the following:
Independent Project Terminal Evaluation report: The evaluation to ascertain whether the project achieved its intended purpose and the extent to which the project achieved its deliverables started in August 2021 and concluded in November 2021. Overall, the project obtained a ‘highly satisfactory’ rating, the highest on the UNDP’s evaluation rating scale. Please click here to access the project’s terminal evaluation report.
Independent Midterm Review: At the end of November 2017, the UNDP concluded its midterm review of the project. The project obtained a ‘satisfactory rating’. This is the second highest rating on the UNDP’s rating scale for projects. Please click here to access the Independent Midterm Review report.
- Biodiversity and Land Use Project Factsheet (pamphlet).
- The Strategic Results Framework narrative, produced at project close out.
- Biodiversity and Land Use Project Gender Assessment.
- Suite of Case Studies
- Capacity development in the Biodiversity and Land Use project: A varied, persistent and pervasive approach
- More efficient water-use on farms: A positive outcome from the drought in the Western Cape
- Ecological Infrastructure Challenge Fund: Testing innovative municipal projects for ecological infrastructure
- Continuity and connections: Leveraged funding helps organisations make structural changes
- Mainstreaming biodiversity is a social process: Relationships are the basis for integrating biodiversity into other sectors
- Growing sustainability: Market pressure drives sustainability across value chains
- Incorporating biodiversity priorities into the National Spatial Development Framework
- Taking biodiversity into everyday work: Secondments as a tactic for mainstreaming biodiversity
- Strategic Water Source Areas: Progress towards increasing mainstreaming impact
- Biodiversity stewardship as a delivery mechanism to implement sustainable development
The BLU project also hosted a virtual dialogue themed ‘Partners for Sustainable Landscapes’ on 02 and 03 December 2020. The objectives of the dialogue was to: showcase how working in partnership and collaborating across government entities can deliver benefits for biodiversity and society; and to enhance our landscape value proposition through exploring different kinds of partnerships and how these can contribute to building resilient and sustainable landscapes. Presentations, videos and resources shared are available on the link above.
The project also produced a suite of short videos that communicates the various content areas of work the project transformed. Herewith a list of the short videos:
(a) The BLU project promotes the career development of young people in the sector as well as improving the capabilities of relevant government entities to make good decisions that protect priority biodiversity. As part of this commitment, the project has strategically placed young and mid-career professionals within relevant government entities.
- This is the personal journey of one of the project team members, Environmental Officer, Millicent Rosina Masango.
- The strategic placement of a Botanical Expert within DEADP’s Environmental Law Enforcement Directorate for region 2, has impacted not just the personal development of the Botanist but also the law enforcement work of the Directorate – Mr Phil McLean
(b) Through the Ecological Infrastructure Challenge Fund, the BLU project supports municipalities to invest in projects that restore and maintain ecological infrastructure (EI) especially where EI supports municipal infrastructure.
- The Donga rehabilitation and road improvements.
- The rehabilitation of the Mthinzima wetland demonstrates how ecological infrastructure can support the built environment
- In anticipation of a successful land claim, four Community Property Associations representing villages situated along the Mpumalanga escarpment chose to have their land included in the iconic Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve.
- Together with NCT, SANBI’s BLU Project developed the Sustainable African Forest Assurance Scheme (SAFAS). SAFAS will allow responsible plantation owners, communal and small scale growers, to access markets requiring certification in a credible and systematic way while addressing the key risks to sustainable forest management. SAFAS has been endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certificatiion international, the largest certification system in the world.
- The South African Forestry Assurance Scheme Value Based Platform
- This film tells the story of Ozwathini, a remote rural community situated in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, where people practice mixed farming and forestry on small plots between their homesteads. These activities provide subsistence and an income in an area where formal employment is virtually non-existent. The film explores the values, opportunities and challenges of living in a communal area in South Africa. It also contrasts this with the monoculture model of large scale commercial agriculture and questions why government support for such a sustainable, resilient and eco-friendly lifestyle is so hard to find. Its goal is to raise awareness around the need for infrastructure development and support in such areas to make them more supportive of people’s needs and aspirations.
- Waterdak: A story about farming, fish and flow on the roof of the Western Cape.
Project e-newsletters
- BLU Newsletter – 1st Edition for 2021
- BLU Newsletter – 3rd Edition for 2020
- BLU Newsletter – 2nd Edition for 2020
- BLU Newsletter – 1st Edition for 2020
- BLU Newsletter – 1st Edition for 2019
- BLU Newsletter – 2nd Edition for 2019
- BLU Newsletter – 3rd Edition for 2019
- 4th Quarter BLU project newsletter 2018