Our team of concerned Kensingtonians has been working before and through the Covid 19 pandemic to come up with a viable and practical plan to address the dying Kensington Tree Canopy. We knew that in order to be able to interface with the network of people, institutions and resources needed to achieve this project, that a proper institution would need to be established and managed. Thus the Joburg Growth Circle was born. Jules Newton, Roslyn Cassidy and Markus Bernatzeder are the three directors of the organisation, and the brains trust team that has been walking the journey so far are Fleur Honeywill, David Gardner and Nicola Coundourakis. We are hoping to attract more Kensingtonians with skills that can help us run the various environmental programmes we are planning over the next few years!
Fleur and her band of sturdy volunteers from Kensington and 36 Jeppe Girls spent many weeks trudging the streets putting together an audit to understand the real scale of the problem: where are trees ailing, how many are already stumps, which streets have more dead and dying trees, where are the healthy trees etc? She then put together a report that has been the cornerstone of the strategy and planning that has allowed various partners to engage and collaborate on solving the problems identified.
Jules and David have been working with the Department of Environment on Alien and Invasive species and small business development in their professional capacity for years, and also saw the problems of the trees in the streets, and the destroyed wetlands in the park, and wanted to work with a team to address those issues. David's background in urban planning has been really useful in helping us understand how we need to align with COJ and City Parks policies in order to design a programme that will attract their support.
Markus and Roslyn have been very involved citizens in the Kensington space, always working to see where they can use their strong management and stakeholder skills to the betterment of Kensington, coming into this project fresh off the back of their years of service on the KRRA and other civil society bodies.
Nicola has her own company that focuses on inner city food production and runs many inspiring projects connecting small scale food producers to markets, thereby impacting food security in the city. She has lots of experience working in partnership with City Parks in that capacty and has great appetite to help the team drive this project to success using her networks and experience.
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