The Local Action for Biodiversity: Wetlands South Africa (LAB: Wetlands SA) Project was presented with its second award this year on 18 October at the 2017 National Wetlands Indaba. The project won the Biodiversity Gold Award at the 2017 Eco-Logic Awards in June.
The National Wetlands Awards are South Africa’s most prestigious awards presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions to wetland work within the country. The award for ‘Education and Skills Development’ received by the project applies to individuals, projects or institutions who have made a significant contribution towards wetland education skills development in South Africa, be it through institutional and professional capacity building, training, collaboration, stakeholder engagement, development of education tools or outreach and awareness raising work.
This National Wetlands Award is the second award granted to the project since its inception in 2015. In June 2017, the LAB: Wetlands SA Project was awarded the Biodiversity Gold Award at the 2017 Eco-Logic Awards held at the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria. The project was selected as the winner of this notable award from a pool of five nominated finalists. The Biodiversity Award is one of 13 awards granted annually at the Eco-Logic Awards and is given to an organisation or project consistently working towards protecting, rehabilitating and/or managing biodiversity.
In recognition of the collective hard work of the eleven LAB: Wetlands SA Project municipalities, who have made the project such a resounding success, ICLEI Africa awarded each of the municipal representative Certificates of Recognition.
The eleven project municipalities include nine Districts, namely Amathole, Bojanala Platinum, Eden, Ehlanzeni, Frances Baard, iLembe, Overberg, Waterberg and West Rand; and two Metropolitan Municipalities, the City of Ekurhuleni and Buffalo City.
The LAB: Wetlands SA Project, which is implemented by ICLEI’s Africa Secretariat and Cities Biodiversity Center, seeks to raise awareness of the value of wetlands, build capacity at a local government level and mainstream biodiversity and wetlands into land-use planning and management.
Project partners include the South African Department of Environmental Affairs, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and Working for Wetlands.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has generously provided funding for the LAB: Wetlands SA project.
Watch our LAB: Wetlands SA video here.
