One Planet Action Planning in Durban …. the week that was
Last week was a busy week for me … in an exciting way. On the afternoon of Saturday 4th June I presented on One Planet Living and the Durban One Planet City project, to activists on the Durban Leadership Programme. I had been invited by Crispin Hemson who is the Director of the International Centre of Nonviolence at Durban’s University of Technology (DUT) and who runs the Leadership Programme there. The Programme draws on staff from different faculties at DUT and from ACCORD, the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes. In 2019 there have been 30 participants on the Programme, some of whom are students at DUT and some who are community-based activists, working primarily in environmental community-based organisations. The Leadership Programme includes a series of sessions that address theory and reflection, including talks by young leaders; reading and written assignments; and project work that is undertaken by five project groups. The underlying philosophy is that of servant leadership, rather than individual career advancement. Crispin himself is a great example of this, as he is an unofficial custodian of Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve in Glenwood, just because he loves wild and natural places and knows the importance of protecting them in our increasingly urban world.
I gave a short presentation on One Planet Living and the One Planet Cities project, then participants were tasked to create a simple Action plan for the particular project they were working on. This ranged from managing a nature reserve, to working with local communities to clean up and manage a river system, to managing a school property. Most found the afternoon informative I believe, and the One Planet framework easy to work with and use. I will be meeting again with one of the groups to determine how we can further interact. Citizen action is a potent tool for change I believe, so I look forward to seeing where this goes.
And on a balmy evening on 9th June, we bought forward the usual monthly Green Drinks meet-up to convene on the beautiful rooftop garden managed by the precinct and infrastructure management division of eThekwini municipality, i-Trump, in Monty Naicker Street, central Durban. A shame more folk could not join us but I think the photos speak for themselves as to what an oasis we have in Durban, in this beautiful rooftop garden.
With the ICC just opposite, how lovely the view of the garden must be from there and we all realised how valuable the rooftop garden space is, apart from the benefits it brings — see the wonderfully comprehensive article here by Jane Troughton of Gorgeous Greenhouse fame, in Durban North, who has written an Action Plan for her home which also has a rooftop garden. And a useful reference for those who might try their hand at creating a rooftop garden themselves: Etekwini Guidelines Document. I know Mr Price Group has, and the City Engineer’s building — reducing the heat island effect of buildings in cities is important as climatically our world heats up. Quite apart from that, they create great places for people to meet and relax at lunchtimes or after work … as we happily found out.
