James was asked by TEEB (http:/teebweb.org/) and ICLEI Africa to present a paper and to assist in a training session for municipal managers and mayors based on the outcomes of work he did for the uThukela Local Authority in KwaZulu-Natal.

His presentation was entitled:

Mainstreaming ecosystems and biodiversity into local municipal action: An economic development approach

The abstract of his talk was:

Local authorities are faced with a major challenge – a challenge that can be described as a fine balancing act between doing what has to be done and that what needs to be done, on a single budget. Developing sustainable local municipalities in the face of poverty, and the demand to improve infrastructure, and environmental degradation is therefore among the most challenging assignments there could be. The uThukela District Municipality in South Africa is no different. This study assessed the relative importance of ecosystem goods and services delivered to this municipality and, following that, developed and inventory of incentive mechanisms from various sources which could assist the local authority. It was found that conservation budgets, and the support thereof, tends to be limited. The possibilities of, however, using an ecosystem services approach towards economic development by focussing on the provisioning of affordable and quality food, water and energy at a rural level, a myriad of environmental and economic objectives could be met. Additionally, various forms of financial resources, locally, nationally and abroad, exists which could be utilised to execute such a policy within a rural municipality. A suite of work packages were therefore developed to enable such implementation.

The outcome of this work was that James had to prepare a chapter for an upcoming book, jointly published by TEEB and ICLEI, on the abovementioned case study. He was also approached by several local authorities for assistance in this regard.

Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2011 Conference (http:/locs4africa.iclei.org/)