Sustainable Stellenbosch is an initiative of the University of Stellenbosch, in partnership with the Sustainability Institute, TSAMA Hub and Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies, to promote sustainable development in the wider Stellenbosch through close collaboration with the Stellenbosch Municipality (through the Reinventing Stellenbosch partnership), community and business sectors. The focus of the initiative is to leverage the knowledge and experience within the University of Stellenbosch to support the local community of Stellenbosch through several research and action programmes. The University of Stellenbosch is promoting sustainability both on campus and in the wider Stellenbosch community through its core activities of research, teaching and community interaction. Read more for an update on this year's activities submitted to the Rector in July 2009.

 

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The Stellenbosch Landfill is Full - Stakeholder Workshop, 9 July 2009, Sustainability Institute

In response to the realisation that the Stellenbosch landfill is full, and as part of the Science and Society initiative within the Sustainable Stellenbosch Programme, the Sustainability Institute convened a workshop that was attended by 75 people from Stellenbosch Municipality, the University, NGOs, businesses, community representatives, ratepayer groups, informal waste  pickers living on the landfill, welfare societies and recycling organisations. The Stellenbosch landfill is not only full, if it is closed down it could cost Stellenbosch up to R2 million per month to transport the waste elsewhere, but it cannot be assumed that other local authorities will allow Stellenbosch to fill up their rapidly filling landfills. Everyone needs to pull together to resolve this problem.

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At his installation in 2007 Prof Russel Botman, Rector and Vice-Chancellor, alluded to his vision of a ‘pedagogy of hope' and a new positioning for Stellenbosch University (SU) as an institution of excellence in the 21st Century. After more than two years of planning and consultation this ‘pedagogy of hope' started taking form in the University's Overarching Strategic Plan (OSP). The OSP consists of internal objectives and commitment of funds to realise 5 key themes (combating poverty, promoting human security, human dignity, democracy and environmental sustainability) through 21 OSP Projects.

The Food Security Initiative (FSI) is one of these 21 OSP Projects. The FSI “contributes to the emergence of a resilient, sustainable food system for Southern Africa, by reconceptualising the food security challenge, and creating new models of practice in the food system, through the integration of findings from in-depth research on key issues in the food value chain, collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, capacity building, and systematic impact assessment.” This project initiative is being coordinated by Prof Jimmy Volmink of the Faculty of Health Sciences.
As one of the projects within the OSP Food Security Initiative, the Sustainability Institute has been awarded funding to research food security in the Greater Stellenbosch.

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Professor Tarak Kate from India arrived in the Lynedoch Village last week for his annual two month visit during which he teaches the sustainable agriculture modules, participates in the research programme and visits organic farms around the country (which is his greatest love). On his first day here he immediately visited Eric Swarts' farm and was thrilled to see the six oxen pulling the plough. This marked for him the culmination of a dream that started when Eric visited Tarak in India for a month and learnt from the Indian farmers how to drive a team of oxen. On 27 July Tarak started teaching the Biodiversity and Sustainable Agriculture module which is a highlight of the masters programme each year. Last month the Programme Coordinator for the Sustainable Agriculture Programme, Candice Kelly, presented a paper at the annual conference of the International Association for Sustainable Development Research in Delft, Holland. Her paper brought together the themes she explored in her masters thesis, namely a critique of 'green revolution' technologies and how these are being applied in Africa today with mega-funding from the large American foundations. At the same time, the SI is making great progress facilitating the negotiations between the Stellenbosch Small Farmers Trust, Stellenbosch Municipality, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to secure grant funding for the land reform project located near Lynedoch and which the SI has helped to develop over the past 10 years. To add to this, Stellenbosch University has allocated R500 000 to support research on food security in Stellenbosch and to reinforce land reform - this is part of the University's multi-million rand strategic research focus on food security. Also, as part of the SI's Science and Society programme for Stellenbosch, a workshop of food security was organised for a wide range of stakeholders in government, civil society and the private sector. This will gradually lead to the strengthening of the local Stellenbosch food economy which also happens to be the research focus of a masters thesis that Jess Schulschenk is completing. So, in short, lots is happening at the SI in the sustainable agriculture field at the research, teaching and applied project levels. Watch this space.