Conservation and Environment, Mr Khabisi Mosunkutu, at the Ma-Tshepo Khumbane
(MTK) Awards ceremony, Atteridgeville Community Hall, Tshwane
19 September 2007
Programme Director, Doctor Wynton Rabolao
Members of Mayoral Committees and councillors present
Senior management and officials from all spheres of government
Our guest of honour, Ma-Tshepo Khumbane
Teachers and learners present
Invited guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I feel honoured to be part of this public introductory gathering of the
Ma-Tshepo Khumbane (MTK) project. It indeed is also a pleasure to have this
opportunity to officiate at what also amounts to a formal recognition of
pioneers of the MTK project.
We are gathered here to formally acknowledge individuals and groups of
people who have elected to dedicate time, space and energy to a programme whose
outcome will immeasurably benefit not only the present generation, but also the
generation that is not yet born.
Environmental mismanagement has become a global issue. Multinational forums,
including the United Nations, are prioritising discussions, and taking
resolutions on numerous programmes that are aimed at ensuring that we intensify
our use of natural resources.
The objective of these initiatives, not unlike the primary purpose of MTK,
is to encourage reduction of the negative effects of decades of environmental
mismanagement. Simultaneously, the initiatives are aimed at ensuring that we
all continue to eke a living from our common heritage, the natural resources.
One such initiative, featured in a report to the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), filed on 17 September 2007, invites countries to submit
details of programme that will practically contribute to the battle against
climate change.
Examined superficially, the primary purpose of the MTK project is to
contribute towards fighting poverty through sustainable management of natural
resource. A closer examination of the project will show that there is a dynamic
relationship between its objectives and the battle against climate changes.
A study, called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, commissioned by the
United Nations and carried out during between 2001 and 2005, confirmed the
existence of a complex relationship between plants, animals, other micro
organisms and non-living organisms. The study revealed that this relationship
provides, to the human race, provisioning services, an example that comes to
mind is the ground yielding crops for our sustenance. Another service derived
by human beings from this complex ecosystem are regulatory services with
wetlands, as an example, regulating the quality of water that we drink and also
retarding the ferocity of storm water. Forests and rivers also allow us to
derive recreational services.
Through numerous scientific studies we know that unsustainable management of
natural resources has resulted in the phenomenon of melting of the arctic
glaciers, the retreat of the ice cap, and the global rise in sea levels. In
fact a report, released during the second week of November 2005 in the journal
Science, shows that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are
increasing and sea levels are also rising more rapidly than they have in the
past thousand years.
It is quite important to note that mankind, through unsustainable usage of
natural resources, is responsible for the swiftness of this global
environmental degradation, including the consequential climate change. It is
equally important to note is that it is these actions that are threatening our
ability to derive provisional, regulatory and recreational services from the
environment. Crop production in our own country and other Southern Africa
countries have declined because of drought, because of unsustainable use of
natural resources.
It is therefore important to note that the longer we continue to abuse
natural resources, the more intractable the challenge of fighting poverty
becomes and the more incalculable the human suffering associated with this
process and the destruction of invaluable wildlife and natural resources
becomes.
The MTK project has, as its primary purpose, mobilisation of civil society
to manage these environmental factors more sustainable. I do, therefore, think
there is a link between what the MTK stands for and the United Nations'
initiative that I spoke about. I would therefore urge organisers of this event
to find more information about this initiative. I do think that, together and
working in conjunction with our municipalities and other national government
departments, we too can make a compelling submission to the United Nations on
what MTK can and is doing to alleviate the negative impacts of climate
change.
In conclusion, allow me to commend our pioneer participants in the MTK
project and to assure them all that their participation in the project makes
them all winners. Their contribution is, indeed, invaluable to both the present
generation and to the generation yet to be born. I also wish to call on all
present to join us in mobilising more of our communities, especially those in
the business sector whose operations are a threat to our survival, to join us
in the quest to use natural resources more reasonably.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment, Gauteng
Provincial Government
19 September 2007
