Turn on the water tap in Cape Town, South Africa in March, and nothing will come out. For the Environment for Development researchers at the University of Cape Town, there’s nothing faraway about…
We used locally-sourced and other relevant information to value ecosystem services provided by South Africa's
terrestrial, freshwater and estuarine habitats. Our preliminary estimates suggest that these are worth at least
R275 billion per annum to South Africans. Notwithstanding benefits to the rest of the world, natural systems
provide a major source of direct income to poor households, and generate significant value in the economy
through tourism and property markets, as well as providing considerable non-market benefits. Higher values
This year the EfD annual meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from: October 27-30, 2017. It is hosted by the Environment and Climate Research Center (EfD - Ethiopia) and the EfD Secretariat…
Participation of local communities in management and utilization of forest resources through collective action has become widely accepted as a possible solution to failure of centralized, top-down approaches to forest conservation. Developing countries have thus resorted to devolution of forest management through initiatives such as Participatory Forest Management (PFM) and Joint Forest Management (JFM). In Kenya, under such initiatives, communities have been able to self-organize into community forest associations (CFAs).
Healthy natural landscapes such as veld, wetlands, rivers, and estuaries across South Africa generate value to the economy amounting to at least R275 billion per year, a new study by economists at the…
The Working Group in African Political Economy (WGAPE) is pleased to announce a special international meeting to be held January 26-28, 2018 at New York University-Abu Dhabi. Call for papers and…
If Cape Town’s urban surfaces are designed to be porous and water-catching, it could help meet many of the city’s water needs through recharging the Cape Flats aquifer, while also helping to manage…
PORT ELIZABETH: The collapse of the local squid fishery on the south-east coast of South Africa in 2013 has prompted an international body of scientists and policymakers to meet this September. The…
Africa is endowed with an incredible amount of natural resources of which
the extractive sector is a key component. Unfortunately, however, the continent
is characterized by a paradox of plenty or resource curse, depicting a situation
of abundant resources that have not translated into economic growth and
prosperity for the population. The potential role of the extractive sector is
further affected by global volatilities. This article reviews the importance of
the extractive sector to selected African countries. It identifies sources of
