On Wednesday 18 May South African citizens will vote in the 2011 Municipal Elections to choose the political parties and ward councillors that will represent their interests in Local Government.

WESSA (The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) strongly encourages voters to carefully review the green competencies and environmental standpoints of the candidates before casting their vote.

Much of the decision making that affects each voter's immediate living space is done at Local Government level, and voters should see the Municipal Elections as a vital opportunity to address their environmental concerns. They should choose party candidates and ward councillors that will keep environmental issues high on the agenda and that will involve the local communities in the decision making process regarding water, waste, land-use management, biodiversity and energy. Local Government must work together with civil society towards a sustainable and greener economy that will lead to improved human wellbeing and social equity, while confronting the threats of climate change and reducing environmental risks and the loss of biodiversity and natural services.

In addition to casting a vote for a political party that will represent them in their Municipal Council, voters will also cast a second vote in the election to choose their local ward councillor. Since these ward councillors are directly elected, voters can base their decision not just on the candidate's party political affiliations, but also on each specific candidate's environmental positions.

How 'green' is your ward councillor? There are many pressing local environmental issues on which voters should assess candidates' viewpoints. For example, do we want new nuclear reactors in the Western Cape? Do we want to sacrifice agricultural land for the sake of mining? Do we want to see commercial development on our local green spaces?

In the interest of offering a holistic understanding of the present environmental landscape in South Africa to our newly elected councillors, WESSA Western Cape will be running Green Governance Workshops with relevant expert input, starting Tuesday 26 July. The workshops will address the important connections between national and provincial environmental legislation, local bylaws and sustainable living within a municipal context. Workshop sessions will cover the issues of water, waste and land-use management, biodiversity and energy, and are intended to help councillors in achieving the sustainable development of our country with minimum negative impact on the environment.

WESSA also invites all councillor candidates to send a short statement to the organisation, indicating how they will bring environmental and sustainability concerns into their work. WESSA will summarise these responses before election day and publish them in the media and on our website: www.wessa.org.za. The statements should be emailed to westerncape@wessa.co.za.

If voters would like to get a greater understanding of the current landscape of environmental legislation and policy, they are invited to review WESSA's recent comments on the Climate Change Green Paper, the Integrated Resource Plan 2010 Revision 2 (IRP2) and the City Spatial Planning Development Framework (SPDF).

Contact WESSA at westerncape@wessa.co.za or call 021 701 1397.

WESSA (The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) is a key environmental education and conservation non-governmental organisation that has been actively working for 85 years to ensure environmental sustainability for current and future South African generations through responsive conservation action, innovative educational intervention and human capacity development that empowers people to make sustainable lifestyle and environmental management choices. WESSA addresses handson, the issues our planet is facing such as global climate change, the destruction of our natural resources, polluted and degraded water systems and biodiversity impacts.

WESSA's core mission is to promote public participation in caring for the Earth.