COMMITTEE
Conference Chair: Mari de Villiers
Mari holds a Masters’ Degree in Environmental Management, and has 13 years’ experience as an environmental assessment practitioner. She has undertaken several courses to further her career in climate change and greenhouse gas quantification, the most notable being several courses in ISO 14064 Parts 1, 2 and 3 (greenhouse gas inventories, validation and verification), amongst others. Mari is passionate about environmental management and climate change, especially about integrating climate change mitigation and adaptation considerations into environmental assessment processes. She is committed to making a difference by contributing to the research and best practice in this field, and in finding practical solutions to climate change-related challenges. She is the Director of Integro Carbon Consulting, a Stellenbosch-based company with a vision to facilitate informed climate change impact decision making as part of environmental assessment and planning processes. She is also a Senior Environmental Assessment Practitioner and project reviewer at Cornerstone Environmental Consultants, also based in Stellenbosch.
Vice-chair & Financial: Sabelo Nkosi
Sabelo B Nkosi is a Senior Environmentalist at eThekwini Municipality in the Biodiversity Impact Assessment Branch of the Environmental Planning & Climate Protection Department. His work focus is mainly on private EIAs and various Town Planning applications with the aim of protecting the municipality’s biodiversity assets and the ecosystem goods and services it provides. He holds a BSc Honours degree in Entomology & a BSc degree in Botany & Entomology from UKZN. Sabelo is a member of both IAIA and IAIAsa having served in the IAIAsa KZN Branch Committee for several years. He is part of the IAIAsa NEC and Co-Chair of the IAIAsa 2017 Conference.
Past Conference Chair: Danielle Sanderson
Danielle is an environmental and social sciences consultant with almost ten years of experience. She has worked with a variety of sectors, including renewable energy, infrastructure, mining and industrial. Danielle has managed, and been integrally involved in, numerous environmental management projects, specifically related to environmental impact assessment, social and socio-economic impact assessment, and waste management. Danielle is currently self-employed, with a focus on social assessment.
Secretary: Anel Dannhauser
Anèl holds a Honours Degree in Environmental Management and Analysis, and has 9 years’ experience as an environmental assessment practitioner. Her interests lie in water related and sustainability projects. She is passionate about practically integrating environmental solutions to improve environmental quality. Anèl works as an Environmental Assessment Practitioner for JG Afrika, based in Pinelands, Cape Town.
Entertainment Logistics & Awards: Melissa Groenink
Melissa is an environmental attorney, with over seven years’ experience in environmental and land use planning law. She holds a BSc (with distinction in Environmental Science) and a LLB (also with distinction) from Rhodes University. Melissa is a Senior Associate at Cullinan & Associates Inc. and a Consultant to EnAct International. She holds the Law and Policy portfolio on the Western Cape branch committee of IAIAsa.
Sponsorship & Marketing: Karin Neethling
Karin graduated from Stellenbosch University with a BSc Degree in Conservation Ecology in 2005, and obtained her MPhil Degree in Environmental Management (with distinction) from the University of Cape Town in 2008. Karin is currently studying towards a LLM (Professional) in Environmental Law (part-time) at the University of Cape Town.
Karin has seven years’ experience as an environmental practitioner and is currently employed at Withers Environmental Consultants. Karin’s key work experience includes project management of environmental projects, environmental impact assessments, due diligence assessments and compliance audits.
Sponsorship & Marketing: Robin Swanepoel
Robin has 20 years’ experience and has been involved with large scale infrastructural developments with projects exceeding a value of R 850 Billion.
His core expertise has been managing the implementation of the Environmental Management Programme (EMPr), environmental authorisation (EA) and applicable legislation during the design, planning and construction phase of these developments.
He is currently studying towards his MTech Environmental Management.
Stewardship: Grete Simanauskaite
Grete holds an Honours Degree in Ecology from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters Degree in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from the University of Cape Town.
She has been working as a quality an environmental specialist at Abengoa, a sustainable infrastructure company, since August 2014. Her focus is on the management and implementation of quality and environmental management systems (ISO9001 and ISO 14001), management of environmental compliance and environmental performance in solar projects as well as sustainability reporting and carbon management.
Grete also has experience in conducting carbon footprint assessments in South Africa and research into marine spatial planning in the United Kingdom.
Social media: Abulele Adams
Abulele has been working as an environmental assessment practitioner at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) since January 2014. She holds a Master of Science in Geography from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. Her undergraduate degree was a BSc in Environmental Science with Honours in Geographic Information Systems. She also completed a year of courses in the Sustainability Economics and Management Masters programmes at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany.
Abulele has worked on the Strategic Infrastructure Projects including the National Wind & Solar PV Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Electricity Grid Infrastructure SEA as well as the Square Kilometre Array SEA which were commissioned by the national Department of Environmental Affairs.
Social media: Kelly Stroebel
Kelly graduated from Rhodes University with BSc Honours in Environmental Science, and is currently studying an MSc in Environmental Science through Stellenbosch University. She has been working as an Environmental Consultant at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch since 2014. Kelly’s key areas of work include EIA’s for the oil and gas industry and Strategic Environmental Assessments in South Africa. She is also a project manager for the DEA’s “Special Needs and Skills Development Programme” which is being commissioned by CSIR, providing pro bono environmental services to disadvantaged SMME’s in South Africa. Kelly is passionate about water conservation, sustainable agriculture and energy in South Africa and globally.
Students: Kusasa Sithole
Kusasa holds a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Sciences, and is currently completing his Masters degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Concurrently, he is an intern at the Institute of Natural Resources, Pietermaritzburg. Kusasa also serves as the national student representative in the IAIAsa NEC, through which he has been involved in developing provincial student branches and the IAIAsa Student Mentorship Programme. His key professional skill is geospatial analyses of natural resources. He has a keen interest for interdisciplinary research which addresses issues of climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainable development and food security. Kusasa enjoys being involved in marketing, organizational leadership and community development.
Programme Director: Nigel Rossouw
Programme Director: Paul Lochner
Paul Lochner is an environmental assessment practitioner at the CSIR in Stellenbosch, with over 25 years of experience. His particular experience is in the renewable energy, oil and gas, desalination, wetland management, and industrial and port development sectors; and he has been closely involvement in the research and application of Strategic Environmental Assessment in South Africa. For the past 9 years, he has been the manager of the Environmental Management Services group at CSIR. He has a B.Sc. Civil Engineering (UCT) and M.Phil. Environmental Science (UCT) and has served 3 years on the IAIA Western Cape branch committee including being the branch chairperson.