R Mabudafhasi: Global Environment Facility Third Assembly

30 August 2006

Program Director
Excellencies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Let me use this opportunity to extend my gratitude to the GEF Assembly for
inviting me to address this gathering on behalf of my government, and I further
wish to welcome all delegations present at this meeting.

Firstly I wish to commend the GEF and all ASP partners [World Bank, African
Development Bank, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), African
Union (AU), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Chemicals, Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Health Organisation (WHO), other United
Nations (UN) agencies, donor governments, national governments in Africa,
CropLife International, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Pesticide Action Network,
etc] for embracing the concept of partnership in this initiative that seeks to
co-ordinate the management of POPs and removal of pesticide stockpiles in
Africa.

South Africa became a Party to the Stockholm Convention in 2002, and has
started the development of the National Implementation Plan (NIP) which will
prioritise action plans for the management, reduction and ultimate removal of
POPs from the environment. We also signed the Grant Agreement with the World
Bank on 4 April 2006 to the tune of US$1,7 million for the ASP project in South
Africa.

This is an important milestone for South Africa, of delivering on our
promise made in 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development: to
reduce the negative impacts of toxic chemicals to human health and the
environment by 2020.

While the goals of the NIPs and the ASP are to safely remove POPs and
pesticides as well as establishing mechanisms to prevent their accumulation,
these goals can only be achieved by developing national and regional capacity
to implement the projects, and this is the challenge facing us today.

South Africa is in the process of addressing the root cause of obsolete
pesticide stocks accumulation, namely:

* poor pesticide management practices
* reliance on pesticides as “wonder chemicals”
* continuing pressure on farmers to increase production
* pesticide product bans
* illegal trade through porous borders
* strategic purchasing to combat migratory pests
* centralised government purchase.

The removal of obsolete pesticides through the ASP follows previous attempts
undertaken by government and the private sector to remove 1 000 tons collected
from farmers, industry and the public in 1999 and 2001. While these initiatives
attempted to remove obsolete stockpiles and had a national and regional
approach, there was no strategy to prevent future accumulation, hence we still
have stockpiles.

The current approach through the ASP will also include a strategy to prevent
accumulation of stockpiles, pesticide management, and reducing reliance on
pesticides by using an Integrated Pest and Vector Management (IPM/IVM) and
indigenous knowledge.

The ASP and NIPs will give us an opportunity to strengthen our legal
framework for the control and management of these chemicals, build capacity to
manage POPs and pesticides safely, identify contaminated sites and reduce their
impacts on communities and environment, raise awareness; to participate in
research and development and identify safe alternatives to these toxic
chemicals.

South Africa will have an opportunity to deal with the legacy of pesticides
and its association with poor communities, with its negative impacts on human
health and the environment. Poor communities will invariably occupy
contaminated sites and may not be aware of the risks they are exposed to. The
risks far outweigh issues of food security and the continuing pressure on
farmers to increase food production. The issue of contaminated land has a great
impact on future land use prospects in African countries, especially for
development of human settlements.

The advent of these projects is an opportunity to clear out these toxic
chemicals as well as to ensure that the stockpiles do not accumulate again.

I need to congratulate all ASP partners and donors that were involved in
initiating the Africa Stockpile Programme and committing to its implementation.
For any partnership to succeed, each partner should accept its role and
responsibility.

We look forward to seeing each and every African country free of obsolete
pesticide stocks. Therefore for those countries in Phase 1 of the ASP
implementation (Ethiopia, Mali, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, Tanzania, and
Nigeria) we’ll be able to share experiences with the rest of the African
countries still to initiate the ASP.

I wish you a fruitful meeting and look forward to sharing the successes with
you.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
30 August 2006
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (http://www.environment.gov.za/)