Mainstreaming biodiversityKey principles from the Grasslands Programme

Biodiversity managementsecured in coal mining sector

4 Tools developed & 1st tool to have national impact

>250 people trained in 6 events & more training planned

Reactive biodiversity stewardship piloted with one coalmining company = 119 ha important wetlands

Proactive biodiversity stewardship on9200 ha in upper Pongola River catchment, a strategicwater source area

Stimulating a broader catchment initiative which willeventually have benefits throughout the major PongolaRiver system and delivers significant ecosystem servicebenefits to a large number of people

The forestry sector directly contributes to biodiversity

conservation objectives in thegrasslands biome

1st in the Programme toImplement tools & protect new areas

20 866 ha declared or in process of beinggazetted— a further 12 000 ha in the pipeline(including in a global biodiversity hotspot)

0 ha of new plantation development inbiodiversity priority areas

Developed Conservation Planning Tool now used to bettermanaged >270 000 ha unplanted forestry company owned land;another 60 000 ha on the way

3 small-scale timber grower pilot projects implementingsustainable forest management practices and certification towardsensuring opportunities for sustainable rural development

Industry certificationsystem and standardbetter incorporategrassland biodiversityobjectives

Enabling environment for biodiversity conservation in p

25,860 ha grasslandecosystems and thespecies that live inthem protected

25 Partnersgcontributing throughparallel or in-kindco-financing

Grasslands progr a

>14 Platformssharing learning &strengthening capacity

Provided policy advice on agriculturallaws and policies & developed rangeland

management toolbox and red meat standard

Catalysing a ‘veld-raised’ association

Approx. 187 000 ha where biodiversity managementgood practice is being implemented by farmers

Biodiversity stewardship = lever forimplementing better management

KwaMandlangampisi is the 1st ProtectedEnvironment in SA

>95 000 ha declared or gazettedwith intent to declare and

20 000 ha on the way

Biodiversity agreements with 2 land reformcommunities finalised in isiZulu & English

Grasslands programme hasworked to mainstream

biodiversity conseravationobjectives into agriculture

Grassland biodiversity managementobjectives mainstreamed into urban

economy in Gauteng

22,100 ha grassland ecosystemsand the species that live in

them protected

7 Tools & 1 toolkit for betterplanning and mainstreaming

1st to draft bioregional plans for allmunicipalities in the province

n production landscapes in the grasslands biome is strengthened

28.6% of thegrassland biomecovered by biodiversitysector plans (orbioregional plans)

r amme in numbers

Direct footprint

Indirect footprint

Grassland Biome

Beyond the biome

No footprint

The Grasslands Programme is a partnership between government, non-governmental organisationsand the private sector to mainstream biodiversity into the Grassland Biome, with the intention ofbalancing biodiversity conservation and development imperatives in a production landscape.

Catalysed through an $8.3 million investment from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), managedby the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and implemented by the South AfricanNational Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), the Programme relies on partnerships to mainstreambiodiversity objectives into the major production sectors that operate in the Grassland Biome.These include agriculture, forestry, coal mining, and urban economies, as well as the enablingenvironment.

Investing in the future

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Mineral Resources

Water Affairs

Environmental Affairs

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries

Launched in 2008, the Grasslands Programme was the first majorconservation investment in the Grassland Biome on a nationalscale.

The Grassland Biome holds more species per unit area than theFynbos Biome, boasts three World Heritage Sites, iconic landscapes,mountains and wetlands that are a source of water for millions, anda range of production sectors that underpin economic development.

Widespread habitat loss, poor planning and management as wellas weak enforcement have led to the over-utilisation and degradationof this valuable biome. The inevitable trade-offs between competingland uses made plain the need for urgent, strategic and focusedaction supportive of sustainable development.

Through the UNDP, an $8.3million GEF investment focused onmainstreaming biodiversity into production sectors as the best wayof managing these pressures, and as a complementary conservationstrategy to protected areas in this highly productive workinglandscape. Through partnerships with role-players in productionsectors, the approach was to strengthen the enabling environment,as well as innovate, pilot and mainstream new models for biodiversitymanagement into agriculture, forestry, urban development and coalmining sectors.

Having established solid foundations for long term biodiversitygains, the interventions catalysed through the GEF investment willcontinue to deliver social and environmental benefits through on-going partnerships, enhanced capacity and new initiatives, deliveringenduring returns on this 5-year investment.

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The Grasslands Programme was planned and implemented throughpartnerships with major role-players in production sectors whorecognised the importance of this initiative.

In the five years of implementation, notable achievements havebeen in securing areas important for biodiversity conservation,influencing policies and regulations, strengthening institutionalcapacity, and catalysing pilot projects that demonstrate biodiversitygains across sectors.

Practical testing of tools or approaches in pilot projects has beencritical to the lessons learnt and progress made. Through theprocess of piloting, the Programme and its partners was able toinnovate and adapt. Constraints and opportunities across multiplesectors were identified, barriers overcome through adaptivemanagement with partners, capacity strengthened through learningby doing, and in some cases, influenced public and private sectorpolicies.

Through this experience, six key ingredients emerged ascommon when biodiversity was successfully mainstreamedinto production sectors. These were:

The pages that follow highlight achievements that resulted whenthese principles were integrated into the biodiversity mainstreamingapproach of the Grasslands Programme.

Key principles for success

Providescience-basedpolicy advice

Convenefocused

discussionplatforms

Strengthencapacity tomainstreambiodiversity

Make thecase for

biodiversity

Deliver highquality tools

Providescience-basedleadership and

expertise

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Mainstreaming is challenging. Providing leadership and expertisethat is science-based and amounts to best practice on particularissues was regularly cited as key to the achievements of theGrasslands Programme. Understanding an industry’s practicesand policies, being able to negotiate, and putting best practice andscience to work are core to mainstreaming.

South Africa’s robust scientific foundation for biodiversityconservation was an essential starting point and is recognised byproduction sectors as a credible basis to work from. With the helpof good leadership on the part of sector-focused coordinators withstrong scientific grounding and capable of cross-disciplinarythinking, the Grasslands Programme has established strongpartnerships, successfully piloted innovative projects, anddeveloped high-quality science-based tools to integrate biodiversityinto production sector decision-making.

Provide science-based leadership and expertise

Leadership in forestry

The Grasslands Programme usedsector coordinators capable ofbuilding strong relationships and withthe expertise and ability to adaptstrategies to overcome barriers tomainstreaming biodiversity. In theforestry sector, the Programmesupported a Forestry Coordinatorposted in Forestry South Africa, whowas able to identify sector needs,respond to emerging threats, andchampion interventions to promotemainstreaming in partnership withother stakeholders.

In this way, the Programme hasachieved the incorporation ofgrassland biodiversity objectives intonational standards to promote bettermanagement of unplanted land, formalconservation of high biodiversity areaswithin the forestry estate, and avoidednew plantations in biodiversity priorityareas. It also worked withcommunities to promote sustainableforestry management.

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Well organised co-ordinators were capable of building strongrelationships with partners to deliver on agreed outcomes. Addedto this, it was through bringing in necessary specialist expertise,and drawing on knowledge and expertise of those in the sector,that the Programme has been able to tackle and overcomeknowledge gaps, anticipate challenges and risks, manage andmitigate those risks to result in some significant successes for theProgramme.

Meeting farmers needs

Leadership and innovation have alsobeen at the fore of pilot projects andinterventions in the Wakkerstroomdemonstration district with red meatfarmers. An agriculture-biodiversityspecialist has been providingbiodiversity advice for integration intomanagement practices of red meatproducers. Farmers willing to set landaside under biodiversity stewardshiphave been offered specific extensionsupport to assist the mainstreamingof biodiversity into their productionpractices.

Landowners are starting to changetheir grazing and fire managementpractices (e.g. smaller camp sizes inhigh altitude areas to manage impactsof sheep grazing), and even hand overgrazing land for species conservation.

Wetlands rehabilitated for the onlybreeding pair of Critically endangered

Wattled Crane in the district.

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Another key ingredient of the Grasslands Programme’s successeswas the development of high quality, integrated and demand-ledbiodiversity mainstreaming tools to provide decision support thatis specific to sector needs.

Deliver high quality tools

Market-based mechanisms with a future

Building on the knowledge gained through biodiversity-friendly red meatpilot projects, a red meat standard and rangeland management toolboxwere developed. The environmental standard for red meat has beendrafted for industry approval and the toolbox offers farmers practicalmeasures for strengthening the biodiversity component of rangelandmanagement.

In parallel, a ‘veld raised’ industry association body is being catalysed,which can be integrated into the existing red meat industry bodies tosupport consumer awareness, advocacy for a new rating system for veldraised meat, and implementation of the principles of the standard. ThroughConservation South Africa’s (CSA) Meat Naturally Initiative, theenvironmental standard is intended to become essential criteria for a‘grass fed/veld raised’ protocol.

A key lesson from the Grasslands Programme’s market-based pilotprojects has been the bottom up approach to the red meat initiative, whichhas received more support than previous approaches relying on directmarket incentives.

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Working together we can do more

The Mining and Biodiversity Guideline is formally endorsedby the Ministers of both Environmental Affairs and MineralResources, as well as the CEO of the Chamber of Mines. Itprovides a user-friendly decision support tool and singlereference point for both industry and regulators to ensurethat biodiversity issues are consistently incorporated intothe decision making processes for mining projects.

The Guideline is a product of the collaboration with themining sector and the Chamber of Mines has committed itsfull membership–69 major mining companies–toimplementing the Guideline. “We have to work togetheracross sectors, as it is only by working together that wecan do more” says Minister Molewa.

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Gauteng shows how it is done

The Grasslands Programme invested heavily in developing integratedtools for biodiversity mainstreaming that meet the needs of planners anddevelopers in Gauteng. A Gauteng Biodiversity Mainstreaming Toolkit,being developed in partnership with ICLEI, summarises the tools andinformation for different users.

All the tools use Gauteng’s biodiversity plan as a base, which hasinformed provincial plans and municipal Bioregional Plans. Gautengstands ready to become the first province in the country in which eachmunicipality has a published bioregional plan. These plans are at theforefront of ensuring the province’s nationally and globally significantbiodiversity is integrated into the development future of the province.

These and other tools developed by the Grasslands Programme inGauteng are a significant mainstreaming achievement. They contributetowards an integrated and efficient policy framework that integratesbiodiversity conservation into the urban economy.

A”step in the rightdirection” - MiningWeekly

A key characteristic of the biodiversity tools is that they are demand-led, meaning that they are being developed with, and often at therequest of a profit-oriented production sector.

Mainstreaming biodiversity is essentially about convincing people–farmers, government officials, or the CEO of a company– thatbiodiversity is important. People need to understand whybiodiversity is important to themselves, to their work and beyond,if there is to be real uptake and integration into policies, practicesand plans.

For the Grasslands Programme, this involved understanding thepriorities and needs of stakeholders and identifying the ways thatbiodiversity and ecological infrastructure relate to these. Becausevalue is subjective, it is only in understanding what is important toothers and making the link to this that the value of biodiversity canbe understood–and mainstreamed.

Make the case for biodiversity

Biodiversity and business

For the mining sector, the commercialvalue of integrating biodiversity intodecision-making is through themanagement of business risk. Theeffectiveness of the ‘case’ made forthe mining sector is evidenced by theresponsiveness of the mining industryto the integrated tools that are underdevelopment, through co-financing,active involvement in theirdevelopment, and, in a few cases,voluntary implementation.

For example, mining companiesrequired a better way to identify highpriority wetlands within the coal richHighveld grassland area of SouthAfrica. In response, CoalTech (anindustry research group) co-financedthe creation of a new fine-scalewetlands map that is being used bymining houses and regulators.

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“Ecological infrastructure”

In 2011, the Grasslands Programme convened a national dialogue on therole of biodiversity powering a green economy. A display and living artinstallation at the UNFCCC COP 17 in Durban highlighted the linksbetween biodiversity, development and climate change, creatively shapingbiodiversity communications.

In 2012, a follow up dialogue explored how investments in ecologicalinfrastructure can support development and job creation. By targetingleading decision makers and key institutions in national planningprocesses these dialogues have mainstreamed the concept of investingin ecological infrastructure into national policy and planning, and havegarnered traction with engineers, development planners, well aspoliticians.

Taking the concept into demonstration, the Grasslands Programme hascatalysed a project to investigate how to improve the delivery of waterand sanitation services for a major downstream city on the edge of awater crisis by investing in ecological infrastructure in the greater uMngenicatchment.

These initiatives have laid the foundation for a 19th Strategic IntegratedProject (SIP) determined by the Presidential Infrastructure CoordinatingCommittee. The SIPs are social and economic infrastructure projectsthat work to fast-track development and growth. The proposed 19th SIPwill be the only one on ecological infrastructure and–with a prioritydevelopment project in the President’s Office focusing on the rolebiodiversity and ecological infrastructure play in the nation’s watersecurity, this will represent a massive biodiversity mainstreamingachievement .

“Call made to fully integrateecological infrastructure into

National Development Plan” ~Engineering News

Convening focussed platforms that bring conservation andproduction stakeholders together provided a neutral space thatenabled the identification of mutual needs, the development ofcollective vision and shared objectives. Proactive and constructiveengagement of stakeholders is crucial for developing capacity,strengthening partnerships, sharing knowledge and overcomingbarriers to mainstreaming biodiversity.

It is predominantly through the open, collective and collaborativeefforts of these cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary groups thatthe Programme remains resilient and manages shifting prioritiesin line with the outcomes the programme hopes to achieve.

Although the immediate benefits of bringing people together toshare, learn, and discuss are often hard to quantify, they wereregularly cited by stakeholders as positive and this ultimately resultsin sustainable change.

Convene focused discussion platforms

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Adaptability and strengthin numbers

Task teams or working groups withmembership from the public andprivate sectors, as well as civil society,were focused on particular issues thathelped align objectives acrossinstitutions, improve coordination,deepen knowledge and learning andprovide leadership. They served toreach out to stakeholders andbenefitted from their advice andexpertise. Through informationexchange and generating new ideas,these groups demonstrated flexibility,an ability to learn and adapt, and wereable to address barriers and mitigaterisks.

This ability for adaptive managementenabled the Programme to engagewith rapidly changing economic,institutional and political landscapes,particularly in the urban and miningenvironments.

“Having a clear task and outcome allowed different role players toengage in focused discussion aimed at developing a product” ~

Urban Task Team member

The implementing agency of the Grasslands “Programme, SANBI,is” recognised a critical component of the success of theseplatforms and partnerships. SANBI is viewed as a non-partisanorganisation with convening power, a mandate to influence policy,and a track record of credible science and technical capacity.

It is perceived as a credible organisation that is sufficientlyindependent that government departments, private sector and civilsociety are comfortable engaging on issues where a commonagenda has yet to emerge.

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Bringing people together

In the mining sector, deeperengagement on biodiversity andmining issues was enabled throughthe South African Mining andBiodiversity Forum (SAMBF) - asector-based forum, under theauspices of the South AfricanChamber of Mines. The value of theseplatforms is in bringing peopletogether around issues of jointinterest at the interface ofmainstreaming.

Chamber of Mines CEO Bheki Sibiya with

Water and Environmental Affairs Minister

Edna Molewa

“SANBI is a champion that canbe a leader in a sector where noother leaders are jumping up”~ Nic Opperman, Agri-SA

Convening power

Sufficient capacity is a critical element for successful mainstreamingand is of vital importance in the long-term to reduce institutionalbottlenecks, strengthen multi-sectoral processes, and promotepolicies and plans that support good decision-making. TheGrasslands Programme has focussed on enhancing capacitythrough a variety of systemic interventions.

• The development of biodiversity tools, standards and guidelineshave increased capacity at an institutional level through expanding the resources available for improved planning, management and decision-making.

• Institutions and stakeholders have received training on the useof these tools. Workshops have raised awareness, increasingknowledge of biodiversity tools and shifting attitudes about how to integrate biodiversity objectives into production.

• Institutional capacity has also been enhanced through increasingthe staffing complement in conservation agencies, forging stronger partnerships in support of shared learning.

Strengthen capacity to mainstream biodiversity

Ozwathini sustainablecommunity forest project

The Programme is working toward asustainable community forestryproject in the rural village of Ozwathiniin KwaZulu-Natal, where there is highunemployment and locally ownedplantation forestry is a vital source ofhousehold income.

The Ozwathini project demonstrateshow a healthy plantation industry canlead to socio-economic and ecologicalbenefits in a rural landscape.

Over 145 local timber growersoperating over about 3500 ha areimplementing sustainable forestmanagement.

Mentorship and training on alien plantcontrol, fire management, health andsafety and good silviculture practicesis offered to these timber growers.

The fire breaks burnt in 2012 throughthe Programme’s training savedpeople’s property, plantations, andprevented human injury when arunaway wildfire came within metresof Ozwathini homesteads.

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Biodiversity stewardship is the most direct way that the GrasslandsProgramme has secured biodiversity benefits.

Biodiversity stewardship enables the legal protection of biodiversityon privately owned land and is ideal for production landscapes likethose in the grasslands. The legal basis for biodiversity stewardshipis in the Protected Areas Act.

With the implementation of stewardship underway in only one ofthe grassland provinces, the Grasslands Programme catalysedtwo new programmes in other provinces. The Programme alsohelped to strengthen capacity for biodiversity stewardship byfunding stewardship posts within provincial agencies.

The result has been 6 jobs directly created, more than 200,000 haof newly or soon to be protected areas across sectors from forestry,to agriculture, to urban areas and within community owned lands,and the foundation for sustainable rural development linked toconservation and tourism.

Launch of the KwaMandlangampisi

Protected Environment–the first

declared in South Africa.

Biodiversity Stewardship - A tool for mainstreaming

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This is one of the greatestlegacies of the GrasslandsProgramme.

Providing science-based advice into policies that influence theimpact of production sector activities and secures biodiversity isone of the most systemic strategies of the Grasslands Programme.

The Programme’s institutional home within SANBI, which has amandate to provide biodiversity-relevant policy advice, combinedwith aligning with institutional mandates of partners, has beenfundamental to providing sound policy advice. The combinationof mandate, credibility, convening power and scientific capacityhas enabled the provision of policy advice that is integrative andbased on practice.

The Programme’s careful review to identify the policies that wouldbe most strategic to influence, the key points of likely influence,and where to focus efforts has provided strategic direction for theProgramme and other initiatives. Influencing policy, however,requires a long term strategy to yield results on the ground.

Provide science-based policy advice

Practice makes perfect

Practical testing of tools that areinfluencing policies in South Africais often accomplished through pilotprojects. The Grasslands Programmehas engaged in a wetland offsetsproject with a major Mpumalangabased mining house in wetlands ofhigh biodiversity importance to do justthis.

Biodiversity offsets are conservationactivities that compensate forbiodiversity losses in this case due tomining. The Grasslands Programmeestablished the pilot to testmethodologies for offset siteselection, compensation ratios,hectare equivalents and options forsecuring offsets through conservationservitudes, as well as the requiredmonitoring and evaluation systems.This allowed for the practical testingof broader concepts that will beincluded in the wetland offsetguidelines.

By allowing time for refinement andbroad buy in, the result is a guidelinethat will be formally endorsed by theDepartment of Water Affairs and hasinfluenced the national policy onbiodiversity offsets–one more tool inan integrated approach tomainstreaming.

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Healthy intact grasslandecosystems provide asignificant array of ecosystemservice benefits.

Many of South Africa'sstrategic water source areasare in the grasslands. Someare in protected areas, butmany important grasslandecosystems are on privateland.

Across the majority of theGrassland Biome, grasslandbiodiversity and theecological infrastructure forwater services are oncommunal and commercialland.

These working landscapesneed better management,including rehabilitation, aswell as provision of extensionservices and more directincentives to motivate forboth.

The primary governmentintervention towards naturalresource management inthese working landscapes isthe public works fundedWorking for Programmes.

The only market mechanismto ensure cost recovery forwater provision is containedin the Water Pricing Strategy,which could recover fundsfor catchment rehabilitation.

The Programme has provided input into policies of government and production sectors to influencedecisions and actions that impact on biodiversity across production landscapes.

Landscape issues Policy support

Influencing policy to better protect biodiversity assets throughprotected areas, to better plan and manage activities in workinglandscapes and to rehabilitate degraded areas is a three-prongstrategy core to South Africa’s mainstreaming that helps to unlockbenefits for society from more resilient, multi-functional landscapes.

Supported development of BioregionalPlans to ensure provincially identifiedbiodiversity priority areas areaccommodated in municipal level land-useand development plans and policies.

Input on incentives in Income Tax Act insupport of biodiversity stewardship onprivate land - thus securing grasslandecosystems

Developed a Biodiversity StewardshipBusiness Case to motivate increasedfunding for stewardship implementation atscale.

Technical input in support of a bilateralengagement between governmentdepartments to improve alignment betweenconditions of water, agriculture andenvironmental authorisations on clearingindigenous vegetation or development closeto water resources.

Developing an industry approved standardfor red meat production that incorporatesbiodiversity management objectives.

Influencing provincial and national policyon biodiversity offsets that compensate forbiodiversity losses

Input into redesign of criteria and processfor prioritising where Working forProgrammes work to restore ecosystems.

Input into the Water Pricing Strategy (andthe National Water Resources ManagementStrategy 2) to promote effective calculation,recovery and re-investment of the WaterResource Management Charge into therehabilitation of ecological infrastructureunderpinning water services.

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The Grasslands Programme was designed with sustainability asa fundamental principle of operation.

With a long term vision and strategy in place, the catalytic,incremental investment from the GEF necessitated planning andimplementation in the first five years with the future in mind. Thisphase has laid solid foundations for a good return on investment,with early indications of biodiversity gains and socio-economicbenefits, both direct and indirect.

The programme has:

• Delivered results at both the foundational level (tools, capacity,and partnerships) and at the impact level (hectares protected, better managed production landscapes, ecological infrastructuredelivering valuable services to people).

• Ensured biodiversity management is not an ‘add on’ but is aligned with production practices.

• Managed risk through adaptive leadership, flexibility and innovation.

• Scaled up projects and shown replication of interventions in other areas.

• Shown the value of a focused strategy and a consultative and reflective process to plan for sustainability.

• Provided science-based policy advice that has catalysed systemicmainstreaming for improved investment in and security of biodiversity and ecological infrastructure.

• Shared lessons learnt with local, regional and international audiences.

Reap the rewards over the long-term

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The true value offering is the return on investment in mainstreaming biodiversity over the longterm. If done right, mainstreaming allows gains at a scale not easily found in other biodiversitymanagement investments. It adds value to the ‘business’ of partners – integrating biodiversityinto decision-making reduces business risk, ensures regulatory compliance, and opens up newmarkets.

Investing in biodiversity and ecological infrastructure, like other public goods such as educationor health, has numerous positive spill-over effects, ensuring that benefits for society areunlocked, maintained and sustained well into the future.

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A team of innovators

The Grasslands Programme TeamThe Grasslands Programme Teamand Steering Committeeand Steering Committee

This team of innovators has worked with passion and dedicationover the past 5 years to make the achievements profiled in thisbooklet a reality.

A mix of practitioners, regulators and specialists – these peoplecame together to tackle the range of sector-based mainstreamingbiodiversity challenges that have emerged since 2008. It is throughtheir hard work and know-how that the Grasslands Programmehas been able to drive successes forward and adaptively managerisks and opportunities. Champions in their own right, they workeddeterminedly to bring about changes in policy and practice, toforge partnerships that enabled sharing and developing ideas, andto provide leadership capable of navigating a range of social,political, economic, institutional and environmental barriers.Working together in focussed discussion platforms (like theSteering Committee, the Task Teams and the Reference Groups),they have shown remarkable ability to adaptively manage complexand dynamic circumstances, innovate in the face of adversity, andmake strategic decisions with the long-term outcomes in mind.

These people represent some of the social capital that has beenbuilt through the UNDP managed, GEF-funded first phase of theGrasslands Programme, and the social capital that will endure intoits second phase. Without the vision and commitment of the peoplein this photograph (and others not photographed here) thesuccesses achieved and the lessons learnt would not havebeen possible.

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Synopsis of tools and policies impacted by theGrasslands Programme

The Grasslands Programme, with its partners, hassupported the development or amendment of numeroustools to assist planners and decision-makers inmainstreaming biodiversity. These include:

• Grasslands Research Database• Biodiversity Stewardship Business Case• Annual Plan of Operation for a Protected

Environment• Biodiversity-Friendly Red Meat Standard• Rangeland Management Toolbox for Biodiversity-

Friendly Red Meat• Grassland Ecosystem Guideline• National Biodiversity Grazing Guideline• FSC Standard• FSA Environmental Guidelines for commercial

forestry (including grassland management guidelines)

• Conservation Planning Tool• Biodiversity Screening Tool• Bioregional plans• Gauteng Protected Areas Expansion Strategy

(PAES)• Gauteng Biodiversity Stewardship Strategy

• Biodiversity Offsets Guideline and Strategy• Green Servitudes Regulatory Tool• Gauteng Lifestyle Estates Guideline• Criteria for Sustainable Development Guideline• Mining and Biodiversity Guideline• Mining Landscape Primer• Mpumalanga mining decision support tool• Wetland Offset Guidelines• Revised Wetland Rehabilitation Guidelines

The Programme has provided policy advice withrespect to a number of different laws, policies andregulations to address systemic barriers affecting theoptimal management and mainstreaming of grasslandsbiodiversity in a range of sectors. These include:• National Water Resources Strategy• National Water Pricing Strategy• Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act• National Biodiversity Offsets Policy Framework• National Environmental Management Act

amendments• Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development

Act amendments• Input on tax incentives which has resulted in a

submission to National Treasury to change IncomeTax Act in support of biodiversity stewardship