Maintenance of public and private urban green infrastructure provides significant employment in Eastern Cape towns, South Africa

《Maintenance of public and private urban green infrastructure provides significant employment in Eastern Cape towns, South Africa》

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作者: A. King;C.M. Shackleton

来源: URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING,Vol.54,Issue1,Article 126740

语言: 英文

关键字: Formal employment;Informal employment;Gardeners;Green collar;Urban green infrastructure;Wages

作者单位: Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa;Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

摘要: Urban green infrastructure (UGI) provides numerous environmental, social and economic benefits through direct and indirect use of ecosystem services. The maintenance of UGI also provides work opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers in the public and private sectors, so-called green collar jobs. However, the extent and benefit of such employment has rarely been examined, especially in a developing country context where unemployment is often high. We quantified the number of green collar jobs and wage levels across all green collar categories in 12 towns of the Eastern Cape via means of questionnaires and interviews. Overall, we enumerated 17 429 jobs, receiving approximately ZAR503 million (US$37 million) per year. The number of jobs was strongly linked to town size, but the number of jobs per unit area was inversely related to the level of underdevelopment or deprivation per town. Two-thirds of the jobs were in the informal sector in the form of low-skilled workers acting as gardeners to middle- and upper-income households. The remainder were split more or less equally between the formal private and public sectors. The nature of private and public sector jobs varied in relation to the broader macro-economy of each town. Thus, the provision and maintenance of UGI in towns and cities of the developing world can be seen as not only an investment in environmental sustainability and liveability, but also an investment in economic welfare and poverty alleviation, especially in situations where unemployment is high.