Programme Director;
Honourable Premier of the Eastern Cape, Noxolo Kiviet;
Your Worship the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality; Cllr Benson Fihla;
Councillors;
Women from Working for Water programme;
Distinguished Guests;
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Historically South African women have played a major role in the management of the country’s natural resources. During the apartheid years and still today, while our men went to work on the mines and in the cities, it was left mainly to our women, children and elders, to look after the crops and cattle in the rural areas.
With very little formal extension services available, these women produced food and cared for the cattle on the land. More often than not due to apartheid laws too many people were cramped onto too little land. It does not matter how well these rural women, elders and children managed the stock, overgrazing took place resulting in land degradation with major erosion events.
Generally land degradation takes place in one of two ways. Very often when land is being disturbed or neglected it allows invasive alien plants to establish themselves, outcompete the natural vegetation, reduce the grazing capacity and available water, and threaten our biodiversity and natural resilience.
The other form of degradation as already mentioned leads to desertification, the loss of our top soil, which leads to sedimentation of our rivers and dams while, like in the case of invasive alien plants also threaten our biodiversity.
Since the advent of democracy in our country the South African government has taken significant strides to correct these wrongs of the past, not only in the former homelands, but across the country where land degradation has taken place.
The first of the now well-known Working for Programmes, Working for Water focusing on invasive alien plants, was launched in October 1995 by the late Professor Kader Asmal, the then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, with what we then thought was a big budget of R25 million. The success of Working for Water led to the establishment of a number of other Working for Programmes, including Working for Wetlands, Working on Fire and recently the sub programmes Working for Land and Working for Forests.
A few weeks ago some staff from the Departments of Environment and Water Affairs and I started working on the idea of a Working for Rivers programme. I am very excited about this potential programme as it will make significant contributions to improving water quality and quantity in our rivers and dams.
When it comes to improving our natural resources the government did not only promise but has delivered. Since its inception, the Working for Water programme has treated more than two million hectares of invasive alien plants. If it was not for this investment and the introduction of biological control South Africa’s biodiversity and to some extent food security could have been under major threat.
Since 1995 more than R7.5 billion was invested by the Departments of Environmental and Water Affairs in the control and containment of invasive alien plants.
Furthermore the departments through Working on Fire invested more than R2.2 billion since its inception, supporting land users to contain more than 9 700 wild fires over an estimated area of more than 4.6 million hectares in order to secure life and livelihoods.
Working for Wetlands invested more than R560 million in the restoration and protection of wetlands since its inception in 2005.
One of the newer additions to the Working for Stable, Working for Land, already restored more than 5 000 hectares of the Albany Sub Tropical Thicket, a highly degraded biome with more than 800 000 ha degraded in the Eastern Cape alone.
We are not here to talk about our achievements alone though. We are here especially to talk about the role of women in these programmes and the contribution they are making to the restoration and maintenance of our natural resources.
Nearly 52% of management and administrative staff in the Environmental Porgrammes branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs are female. Working for Water alone has created the equivalent of more than 174 000 person years of employment since its inception creating opportunities to an average of more than 26 000 people per year. Of these nearly 54% are women. So, like in the past, again women are taking the lead in looking after and restoring our natural resources.
Something the department is very proud of is the achievements of the Working on Fire programme. It is generally accepted that very seldom do women comprise more than 15% of fire fighters in any fire management services across the world. At the moment more than 35% of the Working on Fire, fire fighters are female. Women are at the forefront of our natural resource management programmes and making history. But we need to do more.
Some of the Environmental Sector Expanded Public Works programmes still have challenges with the rates of employment of our beneficiaries. Especially in the case of female headed single parent households, the target audience of our programmes, the programme beneficiaries need improved livelihood security.
Poor households are especially very dependent on a repeatable reliable income to survive. To ensure a repeatable and reliable income our female beneficiaries are dependent on regular opportunities to earn an income. This can only be assured through more sustainable work opportunities. One of the very exciting initiatives in the Department of Environmental Affairs is the Eco-Furniture Programme where we are producing furniture for other government agencies. This is an ideal opportunity to create semi and skilled employment opportunities for our young women while contributing to the control of invasive alien trees in our rivers and other accessible areas. We are hoping to establish 18 of these across the country.
I would like to congratulate all the women in our departments and those in our deep rural areas that are working to restore and maintain our future by restoring the foundation of our economy, our natural resources. You are not merely earning a wage or salary, doing just another job. What you are doing is a noble job, a strategic one that secures our future. You are making a very significant contribution to the all-important food, water, and energy nexus so important for the survival of human kind. It is all about securing livelihoods not only in our rural areas but also for the downstream users of water and food in our towns and cities.
To conclude, we did not only deliver in the past, we are also planning to deliver in the future. The Department of Environmental Affairs is planning to create the equivalent of more than 34 000 full time jobs during 2013/14 through its Environmental Protection and Infrastructure, and Natural Resource Management Programmes.
The aim is for 55% of the 65 000 employment opportunities to go towards women and the same target for the youth. We are hoping to give training to these beneficiaries adding up to a target of 184 000 person days. We are hoping to produce the equivalent of around 19 000 school desks supporting our sibling departments in government.
The country has loads of challenges facing us, amongst others unemployment and a lack of development in our rural areas. Investing in the restoration of our natural resources can create as many as 230 000 jobs. To achieve this though the private sector will have to take hands with government and invest as well.
There are very significant opportunities in the Green Economy to create employment for women and the youth, especially in the wildlife, eco-tourism and natural resource management sectors. Investing in our natural resources should not be seen as a cost to businesses, but an investment in the future. It makes economic sense.
Let us empower our sisters to lead our natural resource management sectors.
I thank you.
