During the month of August 2017, over 40 political leaders from Ehlanzeni District Municipality, came together to learn about the value of wetlands and how they can assist municipalities with free service delivery to local communities as well as reduce the impacts of climate change.

The wetland awareness raising workshop was co-hosted by Ehlanzeni District Municipality and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and was held in Nelspruit. The workshop highlighted to the esteemed Members from the Mayoral Committee and distinguished Councillors present what wetlands are, what ‘eco-system’ services that they provide to the municipality, what the threats to wetlands are and what role government can play to protect wetlands.

During the key note speech at the end of the workshop, MMC Cynthia Hlophe was quoted as saying:

”We now know the extreme importance of wetlands. Now we must ensure that local governments and our local communities work together in order to make a difference.”

The workshop was held as part of the LAB: Wetlands SA project. The project is being implemented in 11 municipalities across South Africa and aims to raise awareness around the value of wetlands and mainstream biodiversity and wetlands into municipal land use planning. More information on the project can be found here.