South Africa’s water security, biodiversity and climate resilience depend not only on healthy ecosystems, but also on the institutions and investments that protect them. The DSTI/NRF Chair in Governance and Economics for Ecological Infrastructure investigates how ecological infrastructure, including catchments, rivers and wetlands, can be valued, governed and financed in ways that are effective, equitable and socially legitimate. Led by Professor Martine Visser, the Chair combines environmental and behavioural economics to examine decisions about shared natural assets under scarcity, inequality and climate risk. Based in UCT’s School of Economics, it works through the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU), African Climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) and the international Natural Capital Collaborative.

The Chair’s research spans four connected areas: fairness, collective action and financing in urban water governance; the conditions under which ecological infrastructure and nature-based solutions can strengthen water security; decision- making under climate risk and uncertainty; and the integration of natural capital and biodiversity loss into economic and financial decisions. Its researchers use field experiments, household and administrative data, cost-benefit analysis, socio-economic modelling and engagement with policymakers and practitioners. The purpose is not simply to place a monetary value on ecosystems. It is to identify workable governance arrangements: who contributes, who benefits, how ecological investments compare with conventional infrastructure, and what makes environmental policies credible in unequal societies. The Chair’s socio-economic modelling has supported DFFE’s Biome-Level Implementation Plans for biodiversity and climate adaptation by comparing the economic, social and water-security implications of conservation and restoration measures. Although grounded in South Africa’s challenges, its evidence and methods have wider relevance across the Global South.