URBAN LOCKDOWN LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN AND EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN MUNICIPALITIES

The report advocates for the use of nature-based solutions (NBS) in South African municipalities to address the dual crises of COVID-19 economic devastation and climate vulnerability. It highlights that while national green recovery plans exist, they often require high skills and long lead times. In contrast, NBS—particularly urban tree planting and the removal of invasive alien plants—can provide immediate, low-skill employment for vulnerable populations while mitigating urban heat islands, managing flood risks, and improving public health. The document identifies significant barriers to implementation, including municipal funding shortages, difficulties in quantifying the economic value of natural assets, and rigid public procurement processes.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has severely strained municipal finances through a combination of increased public health spending and reduced revenues, while simultaneously exacerbating existing climate vulnerabilities such as droughts and flooding in regions like the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
• Economic recovery plans focused on the green economy may fail to provide immediate relief for the most vulnerable because they often require reskilling or technical expertise that low-skilled and informal workers lack.
• Nature-based solutions (NBS) are identified as a superior recovery tool for municipalities because they are labour-intensive and can create 'no-harm' jobs with short implementation times for low-skilled workers.
• Urban tree planting and the removal of invasive alien plants are the two most suitable NBS interventions for South African municipalities due to their low cost and high potential for improving social justice, public health, and social cohesion.
• There is a significant spatial inequality in the distribution of urban green spaces in South Africa; for example, in Johannesburg, affluent northern suburbs have a tree canopy coverage of 24.2%, compared to only 6.7% in the poorer southern suburbs.
• Implementation of NBS is hindered by the difficulty of quantifying the monetary value of ecosystem services, a lack of municipal capacity to assess financial viability against 'grey' infrastructure, and procurement regimes that prioritize initial cost over long-term outcomes.

APA

Gulati, M., & Scholtz, L. (2020). URBAN LOCKDOWN LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN AND EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN MUNICIPALITIES. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lessons_from_lockdown_greening_municipalities.pdf

Chicago

Gulati, Manisha, and Louise Scholtz. URBAN LOCKDOWN LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN AND EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN MUNICIPALITIES. WWF South Africa, 2020. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lessons_from_lockdown_greening_municipalities.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gulati |first1=Manisha |last2=Scholtz |first2=Louise |title=URBAN LOCKDOWN LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN AND EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN MUNICIPALITIES |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=2020 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lessons_from_lockdown_greening_municipalities.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gulati2020urban, author = {Gulati, Manisha and Scholtz, Louise}, title = {{URBAN LOCKDOWN LESSONS FOR SOUTH AFRICA: NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR A GREEN AND EQUITABLE RECOVERY IN MUNICIPALITIES}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2020}, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/lessons_from_lockdown_greening_municipalities.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }