DRAFT WESSA Strategic Review Narrative Report June 2022

Advocate

Our advocacy work should be firm but restrained and properly aligned to information rather than emotional opinion. Education and awareness raising, development of decision support tools, coordinated collective action, and demonstrating and implementing place-based solutions will help with this. WESSA offers ways of resolving complex problems, not just critique.

Why Advocacy? Advocacy will be an overarching objective and guiding principle in our work. By identifying the audience, we would aim to target and take each of our stakeholders on a journey of change from Educate to Advocate to Action as per our Theory of Change. • The low gains made by the environmental movement over the last 50 years clearly indicate that to be effective strategy and focus are needed. • Preaching “sustainable living” is not enough. • There is a global leadership crisis. • There is increasing division between different sectors of society and misinformation. • Corporate ‘Greenwashing’ is rampant. • There is a sense of helplessness among the public and there is no meaningful common understanding of the term ‘advocacy’. • What will be the role and priorities of environmental NGOs in 2022 and beyond? Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, colour, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. In South Africa – this is built on the back of our excellent constitution and the right to a healthy environment; Section 24. (though these tenets are not widely appreciated or fully applied) Further to this, we also need to think in global terms, or at least regional (Southern African) when considering that most of our major issues are part of the picture of global grand challenges and will not be resolved through national objectives alone. Another consideration is the increasing divide in global north vs south and the fact that the South (more vulnerable communities) will pay most of the social costs for the climate crisis (warming) and are expected will have to compromise on development as a result. Through our strategic plan, WESSA’s role in this is as follows: Our Advocacy Model The organization wants to grow WESSA’s status as a leading, trusted voice on environmental issues. WESSA needs be a thought leader, champion, expert and a leading voice for a healthy biosphere where human resource-use is sustainably- managed. We want to be involved in critical areas where we can deliver measurable outcomes backed up with a fundraising strategy.

To achieve our Theory of Change we will: • Be a respected and trusted people’s voice for the environment. • Be a source of reliable information. • Develop action projects and support action based on our advocacy work

• Provide the tools to empower people to protect themselves as per Section 24 of the RSA constitution. • Provide reputable representation of the global South in the drive for social and environmental justice. • To support citizens in their understanding and response to our environmental rights. • To attract members/supporters to be amplifiers and ambassadors. • Seek financial support for advocacy work via our education programmes and from civil society via carefully designed and targeted campaigns. • Develop clear position statements within our priority focus areas, supported by reliable evidence provided by experts we are already familiar with, academic partners and supporters. • Monitoring our activities to demonstrate outcomes or impacts and inform adaptive management. • already familiar with, academic partners and supporters.

Advocacy will be an overarching thread in our work.

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Action

Action will flow out of the Education and Advocacy Workstreams, it is the culminative effect of the work done through Education and Advocacy. This includes mitigation, protection and stewardship, rehabilitation and transformation and the key actions we will advocate for. As an example, one of the key concerns we want to address is our failing protected areas system and while there is certainly a requirement for some long-term pressure (advocacy) on government officials (the politicians) – this is where the Friends groups not only provide opportunity for some temporary relief of sorts, but also put WESSA in a strategic position to be an organisation which each of these parks will lean on later, when things improve and new management models are looked at.

This could start for instance with identification of the “top 10” provincial parks in distress and a strategy be developed to set up volunteer Friends groups near those parks to support them. Very much like the model used by Honorary Rangers too. This strategy could be led by the sharing of some best practice examples from our Friends Groups that are working including aspects of joint management structures, permissions, skills required, focus areas, funding etc.

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