The Developing a 30-by-30 Landscape Planning Tool for South Africa that Balances the Need for Conservation, Agriculture, and Renewable Energy project will use best science to support decision making towards South Africa’s 30-by-30 target by considering competing land needs for conservation, renewable energy, and agriculture. The project will create a spatial plan for achieving the country’s 2030 Renewable Energy Development Goals with minimal impact on biodiversity or the environment, and ensure that critical ecologically intact areas remain to meet the 30-by-30 targets. The project will develop a proactive national planning tool that considers different land uses to informs the placement of new protected areas as well as renewable energy facilities across the landscape. This will ensure a smoother transition to renewables while providing a model to achieve national 30-by-30 targets.

EWT will use several information products related to threatened species distributions, energy resource maps, and protected agricultural land maps to inform the spatial plan, to be made available as an online interactive tool. Clear guidelines for protected area expansion priorities will be articulated within a multi-stakeholder landscape to assist meeting the 30-by-30 target. By working closely with several partners, including the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, the planning tool will reach key audiences, including national government departments and businesses (Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers and Environmental Assessment Practitioners). As this tool has potential to be replicated in other African countries, the tool will be shared at several national and continental meetings, and targeted technical training for key African partners will be offered.

Dr. Ian Little is Senior Conservation Manager, Endangered Wildlife Trust and East and southern Africa regional chair, IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM). As a conservationist Ian has focused more than ten years of targeted effort at protecting threatened habitats and especially habitats critical for the conservation of less charismatic, threatened species including amphibians, reptiles, small birds, small mammals and invertebrates. Large charismatic species enjoy the attention of considerable conservation effort and resources but the majority of threatened species are not as well known, are difficult to locate or identify and are very often overlooked. These species form the core focus of Ian’s passionate and ambitious conservation efforts. South Africa is an ideal part of the world to focus this attention given it’s rich biodiversity (one of the ten most, and possibly even top three, biodiverse countries in the world). Little holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town.