
Martin de WitStellenbosch University | SUN · School of Public Leadership
Martin de Wit
Doctor of Commerci (DCom)
About
147
Publications
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Introduction
Martin de Wit is Head Environmental Management at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University. Martin teaches environmental governance, environmental and ecological economics. His research includes integrated ecological-economic assessment and modelling, climate communication, municipal waste systems, urban river restoration and the relationship between persons, environmental governance and social order.
Additional affiliations
January 2007 - April 2022
ASSET Research
Position
- Managing Director
January 1998 - March 2005
January 1998 - March 2005
Education
January 2014 - April 2016
Regent College, Canada
Field of study
- Theology
January 1997 - April 2001
September 1994 - June 1995
Publications
Publications (147)
a b s t r a c t Investing in urban natural assets can leverage relatively high economic value in city economies. It is not only the case for highly developed cities, but could also be the case for rapidly developing cities. This is the key message from a case study for the City of Cape Town in South Africa as presented in this paper. It was calcula...
Studies addressing the economic impacts of invasive alien species are biased towards ex-post assessments of the costs and benefits of control options, but ex-ante assessments are also required to deal with potentially damaging invaders. The polyphagous shot hole borer Euwallacea fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is a recent and potentially dam...
The Sandveld region in the Western Cape is a low rainfall area dominated by agricultural production using groundwater resources. The rise in agricultural production in the Sandveld has led to questions regarding the region's ecological sustainability. We developed a system dynamics model for the Sandveld system which captures land-use change, agric...
This study interrogates the conventional understanding of and practice within mediated climate change communication (CCC) as a forum where transformative ideas on sustainability practices are shaped. Besides the dominance of non-African contexts and epistemologies in literature analyzing the media-climate change and public nexus, there is little at...
This chapter extends the literature on climate change communication beyond the Global North, focusing on selected African contexts and the role of news media in shaping public opinion on climate change policy. A broad overview of existing knowledge on media representation of climate change in Africa is provided, along with evidence from an analysis...
This study aimed to describe the disposable diaper usage, disposal practices and quantity estimation in a specified rural setting within a developing, sub-Saharan country, South Africa. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to collect primary data, which included survey research, focus group discussions, participatory thema...
The 2021 COP26 meeting presented South Africa with an $8.5 billion deal to reduce its heavy reliance on coal, sparking a renewed public debate about transforming the country's coal-fired energy system to address emissions, energy deficits, and declining services. This paper examines public opinion on this important energy transition initiative as e...
This paper explores the political dimension of mediated climate change communication and the role of climate journalists in it. While the increasing plurality of actors engaged in mediated ways of sensemaking around climate change is well documented, the role of journalists in facilitating engagement between actors is less clear, especially in Afri...
Municipal waste management is a major challenge for local governments in South Africa and Namibia, as in other developing countries. The circular economy concept in waste management is an alternative sustainable development framework that has the potential to combat resource depletion, pollution, and poverty while achieving the SDGs. The purpose of...
Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remains highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in middle-income cities to inform municipal climate response strategies. Building on a capital-ba...
If municipal solid waste (MSW) is not properly managed, harmful environmental consequences are imminent. MSW materials are rarely wasted in many affluent countries, but rather are kept in the economic cycle through circular economy models. While in many developing countries, MSW materials are discarded with little to no effort of repairing or recyc...
Estimating the economic risks of climate shocks and climate stressors on spatially heterogeneous cities over time remain highly challenging. The purpose of this paper is to present a practical methodology to assess the economic risks of climate change in developing cities to inform spatially sensitive municipal climate response strategies. Building...
Few economic assessments have been developed to inform national priorities on the management of high-impact, early-stage invasive alien species (IAS). Economic assessments are biased towards ex post assessments of the costs and benefits of control options and are in need of refinement to deal with potentially vigorous invaders with considerable unc...
In Africa and elsewhere, climate change is a socio-political challenge. The required changes linked to addressing climate change risks in terms of mitigation and adaptation measures relate to decision-making processes as found in socio-political systems where debate and discourse are unavoidable. There is a burgeoning literature on media representa...
The South African economy has been on a downward growth path since the rebound after the economic crisis of 2008. South Africa’s economy has not succeeded in dealing convincingly with poverty, inequality or unemployment, identified in the National Development Plan as a “triple challenge” to be overcome by 2030. Unemployment has reached a high of 29...
The quest to understand defines our humanness. Since time immemorial it has given rise to art and literature, philosophical reflection, religious practice, myths, metaphor, and allegory, as well as, in more recent history, disciplined scientific inquiry. Seeking understanding is a lifelong journey towards a goal the parameters
of which change as ou...
The financial and ecological crises are still creating havoc on the planet. The emerging risks, costs and benefits of relatively rapid climatic changes as well as other planetary boundaries on economies and society are challenging economists on how to think about natural resources and the environment. Yet, it was the financial crisis that has led t...
The linkage between the environment and livelihood practices such as agriculture which is dominant in many African societies exemplify the vulnerability of peoples and communities to physical stressors amplified by the impacts of climate change. In Africa, availability, access and utilization of food is particularly threatened by increasing impacts...
In Africa and elsewhere, climate change is a socio-political challenge. The required changes linked to addressing climate change risks in terms of mitigation and adaptation measures relate to decision-making processes as found in socio-political systems where debate and discourse are unavoidable. There is a burgeoning literature on media representa...
Current proposals on the governance of the Anthropocene are deficient on the explicit role and relevance of the human person. The idea of the human person need to be part of an adequate response to planetary crises, without succumbing to the polarized political choice between autonomous and free individuals or enforced planetary limits. The objecti...
The scientific narrative on planetary limits is on collision course with the socio-political narrative of human identity,-values and-freedom. National populism is a pervasive movement that pushes towards the national and local, while the idea of planetary governance extends and supports the idea of universality of reason towards the global scale. T...
Economic growth has been seen to be accompanied by surges in natural resource extraction rates or levels of pollution and waste. As such, many suggest that the pursuit thereof may lead to environmental degradation through increased waste generation and pollution, given a country’s technological constraints and environmental assimilative capacity. I...
Die teorie van omgewingsregeerkunde berus op kernaannames oor wat orde beteken en hoe mense besluite neem. Die dissipline van omgewingsregeerkunde maak egter toenemend van die moderne ekonomiese benadering van aansporings en instellings gebruik en rolspelers konsentreer hoofsaaklik op optrede wat ekonomiese doeltreffendheid en uiteindelik ook oorle...
Integrated energy-economic modelling is needed to support the development of energy and climate policies. This study asserts that it is important to consider a system dynamics modelling approach that includes dynamics, endogenous treatment of uncertainty and risks, and both aggregate economic and disaggregate technical or engineering levels of anal...
This special edition of the African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics contains a series
of papers that utilise systems dynamics to examine various issues relating to the costs and benefits of
controlling invasive alien plants (IAPs) and subsequently restoring the land in South Africa. Of the
8 750 exotic species that were introduced in...
The wide acceptance of economic approaches to environmental management and policy, masks increasing heterogeneity in the field. This editorial addresses the question whether the economic approach is still warranted and under which conditions. A broad outline of the trends in both orthodox and heterodox economic approaches is also presented. The tra...
Required: An acknowledgment of the fact that:
Farming methods, irrespective of the scale, that have a high environmental demand and are largely dependent on external inputs are leading to the depletion and degradation of natural resources; this is unsustainable and irresponsible,
If the health of the natural resources, especially soil, is compromis...
The current development of a Conservation Agriculture (CA) policy for South Africa is a positive step for the country, as it moves to a sustainable agriculture regime. It should be recognized, however, that the conditions of a transition towards more sustainable agriculture and food system are a matter of intense debate and of utmost importance to...
http://www.sagreenfund.org.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sustainable-Farming-in-SA-Lit-Review-Asset-Research.compressed.pdf
In South Africa arable land and permanent pastures account for 10–12% of land, while agriculture uses 63% of the country’s water resources. South Africa has a debilitating water deficit with no surplus water available for future development. It is therefore of utmost importance to identify and promote production systems with a high water-use effici...
System dynamics modelling is a technique that is widely used in business, environmental and ecological applications. In the field of economics, however, it is less frequently used, and those that do use it are usually not professionally trained economists. One of the reasons for this is the perceived ideological differences between system dynamics...
South Africa, as an upper middle-income, resource-intensive developing country with an open economy, has to find innovative ways to combat poverty, promote economic growth and reduce the intensity of resource use, simultaneously. One option is to explore the plausibility of achieving a double dividend by levying a tax on water and energy and recycl...
Since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 there has been a surge of interest in ecological restoration (ER) to recover biodiversity, re-establish ecosystem functioning and connectivity, and reactivate the delivery of ecosystem services. In policy spheres, there have also been repeated calls for expansion of restoration ef...
The environmental economic response to mainstream neo-classical economics’ disconnect
from the natural world was to value external environmental costs and include
those into decisions about human welfare. The ecological economic response, heavily
influenced by systems ecology, brought the concept of ecological scale or carrying
capacity, as a limit...
The degradation of ecosystems, mainly driven by human-induced land transformation, has reached
unprecedented levels at a global scale and has been well documented (Wake and Vredenburg 2008;
Estes et al. 2011; TEEB 2011). Various studies have indicated the unsustainability of the prevailing
situation and the need for a rapid, sustained and large-sca...
The growth in world aquaculture required to meet the demands of society will result in ever-increasing pressure upon aquatic and terrestrial resources. There are also potential consequences on the environment and on biodiversity, as well as inevitable societal impacts. There is growing adoption of aspects of the ecosystem approach to aquaculture (E...
Economics, beauty and harmony Slide 1: Title The economic culture in which we live is not known for its spontaneous yielding of Beauty or Harmony. Efficiency is more than often a key driver in rational economic choice with a focus on getting the most out of one’s resources rather than economic choices informed by concepts such as Beauty and Harmony...
The ecological crisis, as well as a limited ethical response, forces a reflection on the transformative potential of Christian ethics on an idolatrous society largely shaped by a dominant economic culture. The aim of the article was to explore how the concepts of creation order and eschatological hope may be helpful in the understanding and formula...
This paper describes the design and application of a benefit-cost model to the city of Durban’s (South Africa) climate change adaptation options. The approach addresses the inability to compile an accurate damage-cost function for economic prioritizations at the local level. It proposes that uncertainty over climate impacts and the efficacy of adap...
The purpose of this chapter is to show how double dividends could be obtained from using market instruments to tax water use in a developing country. The double dividends are namely environmental (water conservation) on the one hand, and poverty reduction dividends on the other. We apply a water tax on selected industries in South Africa to reduce...
Can markets assist by providing support for ecological restoration, and if so, under what conditions? The first step in addressing this question is to develop a consistent methodology for economic evaluation of ecological restoration projects. A risk analysis process was followed in which a system dynamics model was constructed for eight diverse ca...
Integrated energy-economic modeling is needed to support the development of energy and carbon policies. We propose that a systems dynamic modeling approach is needed; one that includes (a) dynamics (b) endogenous treatment of uncertainty and risks, and (c) both aggregate economic and disaggregate technical or engineering levels of analysis. To supp...
The Agulhas Plain is a low-lying coastal area within the Cape Floristic Region. It is heavily invaded by alien vegetation that infringes upon the sustainable supply of ecosystem goods and services provided by the native fynbos vegetation. Alien clearing and natural capital restoration is expected to recover these ecosystem goods and services and in...
The question of how to approach practical, ‘messy’ problems when these problems are not
well-defined remains very real. The ongoing financial and economic crisis, as well as an emerging
ecological crisis, present opportunities to reflect on deeper questions, such as how to approach and
inform decisions in the real world. Reflecting on fifteen years...
Growth in aquaculture production in Southern Africa has not kept pace with
trends worldwide. Part of the reason for this decline includes significant barriers
to entry for new aquaculture development, including problems with site selection
and carrying capacity. Information on these constraints on aquaculture production
in the region have so far be...
How can we understand the global crises? What are the implications for economics?
Learning from the city of Cape Town coupled with some trends in interna8onal work on the external costs of landfills
• How do we solve the tension between affordable and sustainable energy? • How do we solve the choice between renewable energy systems and increased efficiencies of conventional energy systems? • Do these tensions and choices matter for human wellbeing?
Context and Transitions The World Situation and EROI South Africa and Transition Pathways
Undernourishment is a large-scale problem in southern Africa – about 95 million people (40%) are undernourished (2004–2006).
Undernourishment is one indicator of food insecurity and exists when individual caloric intake is below the minimum dietary energy requirement. Across the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the rate of increase in...
Dealing with the adverse effects of climate change on agricultural production and food security in the region will require dismantling obstacles to regional trade to increase the flow of agricultural commodities between countries in the region, says a report on hunger and food security in southern Africa.
• Start with complex reality, resist urge to simplify too quickly
• Intellectual pluralism wanted; not surpressed
– Better science not necessarily better decision making
• Focus on understanding human activity and human behaviour
• humans and their institutions are the agents of change
• Engage with society on uncertain, disputed problems with larg...
This article presents an approach that couples coastal ecosystem modeling with inte- grated environmental assessment methodologies to support coastal management. The focus is to support the development of an ecosystem approach to aquaculture man- agement including interactions with watershed substance loading. A Chinese bay, with intense aquacultur...
The new waste legislation in the country is an important driver for change in waste management systems. The question what the economic implications of this new legislation will be has been scarcely addressed though. The City of Cape Town has started with a process of evaluating alternative service delivery mechanisms in waste management. As part of...
The question how to approach practical, messy problems where problems are not well-defined remains actual. The recent financial and economic crisis, as well as an emerging ecological crisis, is an opportunity to reflect on deeper questions on how to approach and inform decisions in the real world. The expectation is that we do not only learn on how...
The RCCP aims to contribute to the achievement of Southern Africa's climate change adaptation needs, socioeconomic development and poverty alleviation objectives, including the Millenium Development Goals. Climate change in the SADC region impacts mainly on agriculture and water The study, undertaken by the Regional Climate Change Programme (RCCP),...
Why and how can a focus on ecosystem services help cities achieve their goals? This manual guides practitioners and decision makers in a stepwise approach towards counting on a city’s natural capital - and making it work for you. The concept of ‘ecosystem services’ is key to this.
This manual builds upon the report TEEB – The Economics of Ecosystem...
It was not for nothing that Nelson Mandela fought for permission to grow a garden on Robben Island. In his words: “To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a small taste of freedom.” The simple act of gardening he...
• Biodiversity and ecosystems goods and services (EGS) • Economic value of EGS in City of Cape Town • Business case for investment and economic development
Sustainability in its shortest definition is the capacity to endure. To endure one does not
only need material goods, but also a mental and spiritual resilience and set of skills on
how to cope. When the quality and quantity of our material goods and biophysical
environment starts to change, when our fellow South Africans are sick and dying
prematu...
Presentation of high-level scenarios on potatoes farming in Sandveld, South Africa. [In Afrikaans]
Many ecosystems have been transformed, or degraded by human use, and restoration offers an opportunity to recover services and benefits, not to mention intrinsic values. We assessed whether restoration scientists and practitioners use their projects to demonstrate the benefits restoration can provide in their peer-reviewed publications. We evaluate...
Hunger is a large‐scale problem in SADC. The latest available estimations from the FAO are that 95
million people in SADC are undernourished. Overall, the rate of increase in the number of people
who are undernourished has slowed down from very high levels in the early 1990s. Countries that
have made the least progress in this regard are the DRC an...
This paper presents a Modeling Approach to Resource economics decision-maKing in EcoaquaculTure (MARKET model). The MARKET model was developed as a scenario-testing tool to provide insights on the ecological and economic interactions, which is a critical issue for sustainable aquaculture management. As a case study, the model was applied to simulat...
Cumulative effects assessments have been defined as environmental assessments done well. However, socioeconomic studies within the EIA process seldom adequately address cumulative effects. One of the reasons for this is that the socioeconomic tools used in the EIA process have not been evaluated and, where necessary, updated to address cumulative e...
The City of Cape Town’s natural assets – land, coast, biota, atmosphere and waterbodies –
are under pressure. Without a sustainable decoupling between economic and population
growth, and the use of resources and the pollution of the environment, pressures on natural
assets are likely to continue in a developing city such as Cape Town. The municipal...
IWM By-law objectives • To separate waste at source as far as practically possible. • To ensure that services are delivered by a legitimate Waste Management Service Provider. • To regulate all entities involved in providing waste management services or generating waste. • To enforce the law to prevent degradation of and impact on the environment an...
Due to market failure the cost of externalities, such as air pollution, is usually not internalised in the price of the produced commodity or the compensation either to employees suffering from occupational hazards or to individuals affected due to exposure. The health and accompanying social cost of asbestos mining in Prieska is a clear-cut exampl...