Eco Minute 13:30

BULLETIN 17 March 1:30 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Eco Minute:

# The City of Johannesburg is set to host the second African Forum on Urban Forests in Bryanston from today until Friday under the theme, Green Horizons: Shaping the Future Resilience of African Cities through Urban Forests. The event will highlight the critical role urban forests play in tackling pressing challenges. Discussions will revolve around three key themes: climate-proofing African cities, equitable access, health, and well-being, and making the business case for urban forests. Deputy minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Bernice Swarts, will deliver the opening address.

# The wattled crane, the largest, rarest and most threatened of Africa’s six crane species, has been downlisted from critically endangered to endangered. Wattled cranes, a winter-breeding, wetland-dependent species, were listed as regionally critically endangered in 2015, with only 267 individuals recorded in the KwaZulu-Natal aerial survey of that year. African Crane Conservation Programme’s Damian Walters says the downlisting highlights the importance of collaborating when protecting a species and their grasslands and wetlands habitats that everyone depends on.

# And finally: Water and Sanitation minister, Pemmy Majodina, says her department will ensure the acceleration of the 5.7-billion-rand project to raise the Clanwilliam Dam wall situated in Olifants River, Western Cape. The project in the Cederberg Municipality is expected to be completed in 2028. Majodina says the project will not only determine the safety of the dam but will also bring economic spin-offs to the area:

Stay tuned for more news………….