Mbeki and Gordhan at WWF’s first Living Planet Conference

This year, WWF introduced an exciting new addition to its calendar: The Living Planet Conference, which has added value to the organisation's Annual General Meeting and attracted an audience that included board members, trustees and corporate members as well as other interested stakeholders.

The conference was characterised by outstanding presentations and many thought-provoking discussions around efforts to manage our resources on nature's terms and on nature's scale while being cognisant of our socio-economic reality and drivers.

Two highly distinguished speakers attended the inaugural WWF Living Planet Conference on 16 November at Erinvale Golf Estate in Somerset West. Former President Thabo Mbeki and the current Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan added their unique perspectives to the conference proceedings, which also featured input from a number of WWF’s thought leaders on critical conservation themes.

The address by former President Mbeki focused on what humans are doing to perpetuate the negative practices inimical to the protection and preservation of our ecology; and therefore, what we needed to do to achieve a veritable “about turn” with regard to the critical matters. Most importantly he noted that our continent holds many of the resources needed to stimulate the larger global economy (video here).

Minister Gordhan, too, shared insightful thoughts on green growth, fiscal policy and the National Development Plan, offering these as a basis for South Africa’s continued development, with specific reference to energy (video).

There also were incisive presentations on climate change and the insurance industry, independent power producers, transport, illegal rhino horn trade, economics and ecosystems, and the development of our future environmental leaders, capping a dynamic conference that explored and reflected upon the environmental challenges all South Africans face.

A record of the presentations are available in the links on the right-hand side of this article. Links to videos of the presentations can be found below. We encourage you to engage with us on this content, as it provides a snapshot of the many opportunities available for engagement with WWF-SA and the current thinking informing our work.

Living Planet Conference presentation video clips:

Former President Thabo Mbeki
Minister Pravin Gordhan
Dr Deon Nel
Thabo Mthembu
Manisha Gulati
Louise Naudé
Dr Jo Shaw
Lameez Eksteen and Justin Pharma
Dr Glenda Raven