Tomorrow, 3 September 2013, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson will attend Arbor Day celebrations at the eThekwini Municipality at Mpumalanga stadium in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal.
The event will be hosted by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in partnership with Total South Africa, eThekwini Municipality and the KZN Provincial Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs.
The National Arbor Week campaign is celebrated annually from 1 to 7 September under the theme “Our Forests – Our Future”. The launch will see the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson and her counterparts physically establishing 150 food gardens and distributing more than 3 500 vegetable and seed packs, and 3 000 trees.
Media is requested to be at the Botanic Gardens at 8h30 for a short briefing on the day’s events
Projects that will be visited on the day are:
Botanic Gardens – About seven trees will be planted in honour of women leaders since we recently celebrated Women’s Month.
Priority Zone Rooftop Gardens – The Priority Zone Rooftop Gardens is a social project established to address greening and issues of food security in areas where there is no space to establish gardens in the city centres. The gardens were established, using recycled products, including old tyres, drums and pallets. Produce from the gardens is donated to the needy.
Minitown (Hammarsdale) – As part of the legacy projects for eThekwini about 150 households will receive vegetable seedlings and seed packs as the first phase of the household food security project in Minitown.
Details of the launch:
Date: Tuesday, 3 September 2013
Time: From 8h30 there will be site visits. A formal programme begins at 11h00 at the Stadium
Venue: Mpumalanga Stadium, Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal
Please RSVP to Ms Piwe Mbiko on 072 937 2337 or e-mail piwem@daff.gov.za
Trees of the Year
Every year Arbor Week celebrations highlight two or three specific trees. The trees are selected from commonly found tree species and the rare tree species. This year the following three tree species have been selected as Trees of the Year:
- Barringtonia racemosa: Common names: Powder-puff tree (Eng.); poeierkwasboom (Afr.); iBhoqo (isiZulu);
- Grewia occidentalis: Common names: Cross-berry (Eng.); kruisbessie (Afr.), Mokukutu (Setswana), Mogwane (Sepedi), Ilalanyathi (isiZulu);
- Virgilia oroboides: Common names: Common wild elder, blossom tree (Eng.); keurboom (Afr).
