THE NATIONALARBORCITY AWARD COMPETITION
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY & FISHERIES
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
TOTAL SOUTH AFRICA
THE INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENT AND RECREATION
APRIL 2012
- Background
The Arbor City Award competition was reintroduced in the year 2002. The main aim is to regognise and provide incentives for town and cities for their greening efforts with the special focus on previously disadvantaged areas such as townships and informal settlements.
All local Municipalities are eligible to enter i.e.Metropolitan and the category B Municipalities. Since the year 2002 upto 2010, the competition was conducted in a particular province. In the year 2002 it was initiated in Gauteng, and thereafter other provinces following alphabetic order. At the end of the nine years cycle, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries gave a directive that the competition should be upscaled from being provincially based to a national programme.As from the year 2011 the Arbor City Award has been conducted as a national competition
- Objectives of the programme
The main objective of the programme is to encourage Municipalities to undertake greening initiatives. The other objectives include the following:
- To promote the development of provincial and local greening plans
- To extend greening in local Municipalities to previously disadvantaged areas
- To ensure compliance with relevant greening legislation
- Raise general awareness about the importance and value of trees in residential settlements
- To provide incentives for local authorities that go an extra mile to green their areas
- To provide a platform for diagnosis of challenges facing Municipalities regarding the greening function and discuss solutions
- Modus operandi
The programme is coordinated and facilitated by DAFF and the IERM. TOTAL South Africa is the main sponsor of the programme.Entry forms are sent to all Municipalities that are eligible to enter, with a deadline for entries. In order to increase the amount of participants, adverts will be placed in selected newspapers. The IERM will also ensure distribution of entry forms through their network of registered members.
Entries will be shortlisted according to the criteria provided and the shortlisted entries will be evaluated through visits to the specific Municipalities. During the visits Municipalities will be requested to make brief presentations and to show the panel of evaluators projects in the Municipality.
The winners will be officially announced during the National Arbor Week Launch event where the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will hand over prizes to the winning Municipalities.
- Summary of criteria for evaluation
The judging criteria focuses on the following aspects. The detailed judging criteria is attached as Appendix B.
–Greening policy and strategy
–The conservation and protection of existing trees
–Space for future tree planting , planning and development of wide sidewalks
–The development And conservation of greenbelts , natural assets in new and existing residential settlements
–Greening in (townships), low-income cost housing
–Public participation
–Future and current tree planting programmes
–Maintenance operations
–Tree administration
–Programmes on eradication of undesirable alien invasives
–Involvement in partnerships, national and provincial greening campaigns
–Use of trees to give the town/ city a definitive character
–Tree awareness and education
–Resource allocation to greening
- Entries
Briefing notes will be prepared for the entrants to provide explanation about the competition. Entries for the competition will be handled as follows:
5.1DAFF National and regional offices will send entries to Municipalities
5.2Adverts will be placed in selected newspapers
5.3The IERM will circulate entries via their network of member Municipalities
5.4Entries will be posted on both the DAFF and IERM website
5.5The closing date for entries will be 25 May 2012
5.6Adjudication will be finalized by 30 June 2012
5.7Entries for Metropolitan Municipalities should be as follows:
- Portfolio of evidence showing greening policy or strategy, tree register, maintenance plans and budget
- Portfolio of evidence in videos or pictures depicting projects, sites, special trees
- A narrativenot exceeding two pages indicating why the Municipality hopes to be the winner of the Arbor City Award 2012
8.8 Entries for Category B Municipalities should be as follows
- Portfolio of evidence showing greening policy or strategy, tree register, maintenance plans and budget
- Portfolio of videos or pictures depicting projects, sites, special trees
- A narrative not exceeding two pages indicating why the Municipality hopes to be the winner of the Arbor City Award 2012
- Evaluation panel
The evaluation panel will be composed as follows:
•DAFF national
•TOTAL SA national
•IERM national
•Department of Environment Affairs National(optional)
- The adjudication process
The first phase of evaluation will be done based on portfolio of evidence received from the Municipalities and the first shortlist will be done. The shortlisted Municipalities will then be further evaluated as follows:
•The Municipalities will give a presentation approx 45 min
•Selected projects will be visited
•Judges will complete scoring sheets
•An average score will be calculated to determine the winner
•The process is subject to ratification by DAFF(principals)
- Prizes
The competition provides for two categories of winners i.e. MetropolitanMunicipalities and Category B Municipalities. For each category the winner will receive prize money and trees to promote greening in their area.