Jacques van der Merwe is a qualified Town and Regional Planner with more than 24 years of professional experience and he has academic qualifications in town and regional planning and the social sciences. He has extensive experience in regional, metropolitan, city, town, village, urban and rural settlement planning and design, settlement-making and regeneration, community participation and consultation approaches, processes and facilitation, as well as protected areas planning and management.

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Jacques obtained a Bachelor Degree in Town and Regional Planning (Cum Laude) from the University of Pretoria in 1993, and a Bachelor Degree in Social Sciences (Psychology and Sociology) from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (formerly known as the University of Port Elizabeth) in 1985. Other academic courses included Architecture, Civil and Transport Engineering, Economics, Anthropology, Philosophy, Political Science, and Statistics. Jacques lectured on a part-time basis at the Department of Town and Regional Planning of the University of Pretoria from 2002 to 2003 and from 2007 to 2009 as a Professional Town Planner.

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He has managed projects, facilitated and compiled various integrated development plans. Strategic planning, management frameworks, spatial development frameworks, settlement planning, development and design strategies, programmes, plans, layouts and projects, urban and rural settlement regeneration strategies, programmes and projects, central business district and precinct planning, development and revitalisation strategies, programmes and plans, as well as protected areas management plans in South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius. He is focused on providing innovative and appropriate urban and rural space, structure, form and management solutions to the developmental challenges faced by governments, communities, settlements and protected areas.