Welcome

GreenMatter was born from the need to effectively and urgently address Biodiversity Human Capital Development for South Africa.

We are the engine for growing Biodiversity Skills, developing the right people at the right time for the green economy.

We will be making the transition to our new website www.greenmatter.co.za in January. Watch this Space.

Biodiversity Human Capital Development Vision

A socially equitable and suitably skilled workforce of biodiversity leaders, professionals and technicians to optimally implement the biodiversity sector’s expanding, dynamic and increasingly complex mandate.

Background

In 2010, government’s Economic Cluster convened the first Green Economy Summit, to map out a green growth pathway that creates jobs while reducing pollution and using South Africa’s natural resources wisely. There is growing recognition that economic growth cannot be at the expense of ecosystems, as reflected in Strategic Priority 9 of the Medium Term Strategic Framework for 2009-2014: Sustainable use and management of natural resources. Ministerial Performance Agreements include the protection of environmental assets and natural resources. To deliver on these imperatives, it is recognised that our country needs biodiversity skills and historically skills development in this area excluded the majority of our population.

Consequently, the Biodiversity Human Capital Development Strategy (a joint initiative by the South African National Biodiversity Institute-SANBI- and the Lewis Foundation) in support of a green economy has a strong focus on transforming this sector.
 

A number of organisations in the environmental sector have similarly developed or are in the process of developing national strategies to develop greater human capital. These include the the Environmental Skills Sector Plan and HCD Strategy (Department of Environmental Affairs), the Global Change Grand Challenge HCD Strategy (Department of Science and Technology), the Draft Training and Education Strategy for the Water Sector and the HCD Strategy for Natural Resource Management (WWF-SA).

All these strategies highlight the need for sector wide platforms to deliberate the common challenges in the HCD pipeline and to collectively work on solutions.

While the domain name reflects a focus on skills for organisations involved in biodiversity conservation and research, the site features information and opportunities that are also relevant to the broader environmental sector.

Biodiversity Careers

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