A busy schedule of work and events is planned for 2014, in the same vein as in 2013 but with some new initiatives being added.
The year will start with a workshop, involving the management board and staff, to review the WCC’s strategy and work plan. So, watch this space for developments because there are sure to be changes arising from the input given by our new, strong board team!
WCC will continue with the monthly talks held for members and the public and is lining up an interesting list of guest speakers and topics. Increased engagement with members is seen as a priority for 2014.
The theme for 2014’s National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund Sustainability Awareness Project work is “Think globally, act locally, to become a sustainable community”. We will tell you more about what we mean by a sustainable community and how we could achieve it in future newsletters.
Throughout the year the WCC Eco-Schools programme will highlight different aspects of the sustainable community theme. We will do this this by taking educational and interactive exhibits to schools across the Overstrand (extended to include Grabouw and Caledon).
The Green House Awareness Centre will be further developed in line with the 2014 theme. We will run more workshops and courses, including courses for school educators, and mount displays and awareness material.
Our eco-learning staff will continue to improve their own qualifications by attending courses that will accredit them as SETA learning providers and assessors.
A big Sustainable Future Fair is planned at the Green House, in partnership with the Hermanus Business Chamber. A priority for 2014 is strengthening partnerships with other Overstrand civil society organisations.
The Water Research Commission Water-Smart funded educational “Amanzi Quiz” will be rolled out nationally during National Science Week in August.
We will devise activities and lessons, consistent with the 2014 theme, for special days such as Earth Hour, World Environment Day, World Oceans Day, International Coastal Clean-up, Arbour Week, Walk4Water, Penguin Waddle, Frog Day, and many others. A special Earth Hour celebration with an aspirational theme is being planned.
Two citizen-science projects – frog monitoring and shark egg case collection – will be expanded, funding permitting, to other areas of the Overstrand and beyond.
Of course, the eco-advocacy and eco-watch function will continue in the background, drawing strongly on the National Development Plan (NDP), the hierarchy of spatial development frameworks that detail provincial to local government responses to the NDP, as well as the provincial State of the Environment Outlook Report.