Making the environment a priority

Two recently released documents by the City of Joburg has caused iHlathi – Melrose-Birdhaven Conservancy to fight for the rights of Africa’s biggest urban forest.

The first document is a municipal planning draft which is aimed at replacing the old Transvaal Ordinances, in terms of which development planning has been undertaken since 1986. The second document pertains to Spatial Development Framework (SDF) currently being drafted which will define the City’s priority transformation areas.

Chairperson for iHlathi, Markus Scheuermaier, explained that the SDF, in particular, seeks to overcome the city’s large spatial inequalities inherited from the apartheid era, but also acknowledges the ‘increasing pressure on the natural environment and green infrastructure’ as a result of development and densification.

“However, there is a critical gap in the document,” said Scheuermaier.

“The city’s large urban forest is not considered a ‘critical biodiversity area’.”

Scheuermaier represented iHlathi at a hearing on 1 March, where he argued that the defining characteristic of the City of Johannesburg was its remarkable urban forest, underpinned by an extensive wetland system.

“Protecting our natural environment should not be done for the sake of conservation alone, but to make the city more sustainable, liveable and valuable,” Scheuermaier continued.

As acknowledged by City Parks and Zoo, the six million trees in Johannesburg play a major role in moderating rainstorm impact and droughts, while the overall cooling effect of our urban forest reduces wear and degradation of road surfaces. The sheltering and shading effect, alone, can save as much as 10 percent of annual energy consumption.

iHlathi is, therefore, lobbying for the city’s densification (particularly around Rosebank) to also be managed from an environmental point of view.

The following policies are proposed for both the Municipal Planning Bylaw and the SDF:

• Include wetland management zones, and introduce required mitigation measures for town planning purposes, as per the council’s Wetland Protection and Management Plan.
• Designate green corridors in appropriate locations (having helped plant new trees in 2015 on Oxford Road in Rosebank, iHlathi is now working with stakeholders on a ‘Green Meander’ from Melrose Arch to Rosebank).
• Incorporate a general tree policy, to preserve the existing urban forest. Specifically, iHlathi proposes that the City replicate Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Bylaw, which requires the Council to ‘approve removal of indigenous vegetation or site clearing, or felling, lopping, topping or otherwise damaging any tree that is either more than 6m in height or more than 500mm in diameter, other than for the removal of dangerous branches or bona fide pruning’.
• “Contact iHlathi if would like to receive a copy of the document, and help us make Johannesburg a truly ‘World Class Green African City’,” Scheuermaier concluded.

Details: ihlathi.johannesburg@gmail.com