THIS BOOK IS summarized in the paper on Durban's Local Agenda 21 in this issue. In 1994, Durban became the first city in South Africa to accept the Local Agenda 21 mandate as a corporate responsibility. Since then, Durban has been at the forefront of the Local Agenda 21 experience in South Africa. This book is a frank and open documentation of the lessons learned over the last seven years. The overriding message to emerge is that Local Agenda 21 ‘s implicit promise of a more sustainable future for all often obscures the difficulties encountered in reaching this goal.

This book initially explains the context in which this Local Agenda 21 has taken place, that is, global (the Earth Summit and Agenda 21), national (post-apartheid democratization) and local (the establishment of an Environmental Management Branch within the city council). It continues chronologically through the various stages of the process, starting with the assessment and prioritization stage (1994-1996). This phase identified a lack of knowledge regarding the city ‘s environmental status and, realizing that this would inhibit the goal of integrating social, economic and ecological concerns into all development and planning processes within the city, prepared Durban ‘s first State of the Environment and Development Report which was completed in 1996.

The next phase was policy formulation and planning, which took place in the period from 1997-1999. Several strategic projects were initiated during this phase to address the priorities raised during the previous stage. Significant projects included the Durban Metropolitan Environmental Policy Initiative (concerned with local government capacity and the need for restructuring); the Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Durban South Basin (developing sustainable development guidelines for an area where heavy industry and residential areas sited close together were causing concern); and the Design of a Durban Metropolitan Open Space System Framework (focusing on the protection and management of the rich natural resource base of the city).

The third phase was a transition and review phase from 1999-2000. It became apparent that a significant transition period was required for changes to be made to the development of Durban as a “unicity”. Five projects were initiated during this period. They were: the Cities Environmental Reports on the Internet (CEROI) project; documentation of the process as part of a report into Local Agenda 21 initiatives in Africa; a project on awareness and preparedness for emergencies at local level; an education and outreach initiative promotional event; and the creation of an interim environmental management structure.
The fourth phase, 2000-2002 which was still in progress at the time of writing, was concerned with the transition from a metropolitan to a Unicity administration consisting of a metropolitan council with metropolitan rather than local council sub-structures. This has considerably extended Durban ‘s borders. Three projects were initiated, building on those established in the previous phase, namely a review of environmental performance in local government, the preparation of a Unicity environmental services management plan, and the Cities for Climate Protection project.

The report ends with Durban ‘s lessons in the framework of UNESCO ‘s “wise practice” guidelines, 15 steps to guide the process of implementing sustainable development activity, from ensuring long-term benefits at the outset to documentation and evaluation.
This report will be of interest to anyone working with Local Agenda 21 issues as it gives a “warts and all” perspective of a long and difficult process from within local government, including sections at the end of each chapter on lessons learned.