Rejoice Mabudafhasi, Deputy Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, will lead the celebration of International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) at Mayflower Community Hall, Albert Luthuli Local Municipality, Gert Sibande District Municipality in Mpumalanga on the 23 May 2011.
The celebration will focus on the Oshoek Wattle Clearing Project which is clearing an estimated 200ha of wattle within the communal land and the area is earmarked for community subsistence crop farming supported by the provincial Department of Agriculture.
The project in the area has created employment for local communities and this contributes to the overall government objective of creating jobs and eradicating poverty.
The Deputy Minister will also launch the International Decade for Biodiversity. At the recent Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, the importance of biodiversity in contributing to poverty alleviation and job creation has been emphasised.
The United Nations has therefore decided to launch the Decade for Biodiversity in Tokyo on 22 May, and South Africa will follow by launching the decade for biodiversity one day later.
The media is invited to attend.
The details of the celebration are as follows:
Date: Monday, 23 May 2011
Time: 10h00
Venue: Mayflower Community Hall, Albert Luthuli Local Municipality, Gert Sibande District Municipality, Mpumalanga.
Enquiries:
Ernest Mulibana
Tel: 012 395 1770
E-mail: EMulibana@environment.gov.za
Lucky Sindane
Cell: 072 188 9216
E-mail: LSindane@environment.gov.za
