Honourable Speaker
Honourable Minister, Edna Molewa, MP
Honourable Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Advocate Johnny de Lange, MP
Honourable Members of the Portfolio Committee
Distinguished Chairpersons and Chief Executives of Public Entities
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Environment is a catalyst to economic growth and development. Biodiversity is our wealth and we need to conserve it. We will do our best to enhance the indigenous knowledge of our communities about conservation of our biodiversity.
Extended Public Works Programme and job creation
We are implementing Social Responsibility Programme which does not only address conservation issues it also eradicates poverty and create jobs.
This Programme created 16 840 work opportunities and accredited training. We have enrolled 480 youth in the Environmental Youth Service.
Last year we launched project Buyisela which has an integrated approach as it includes greening, waste management, recycling water conservation and rehabilitation of degraded land. This programme is being implemented in Umtata, Nkandla, Mantsopa, Bushbuckridge, Butterworth and Thohoyandou and the remaining municipalities will be implemented this year.
Last year we contributed to the 2010 FIFA World Cup by implementing greening programmes to all host cities. We are planning to take the lessons learnt from this programme into the hosting of COP 17 in November this year.
This year, we will create 17 154 work opportunities. We will also enrol 600 young people in our Environmental Youth Service programme. We will intensify our local government support in order to ensure that all our departmental programmes are integrated into provincial and local government plans. This approach will enable integrated approach, ownership by all spheres of government, effective and efficient service delivery.
Waste management for a healthy South Africa
Legislation and Policies for waste management are in place, we will strengthen our local government support to ensure its implementation by municipalities by ensuring that waste is institutionalised in the Integrated Development Plans with dedicated budget and human resources.
We will strengthen the existing initiatives of Buyisa e Bag to create more jobs opportunities and establish entrepreneurships and that will realise our vision – “Waste is Wealth”.
Medical waste has been a challenge; we will adopt a multi pronged approach which will involve Department of Health and other sector stakeholders. We will develop a joint programme of action to address this challenge.We cannot allow industries to pocket millions of rands at the expense of our people’s health.
Our Green Scorpions from Compliance and Enforcement Unit will deal with the noncompliance accordingly. We are finalising Site Assessment Regulations as well as Norms & Standards for the Remediation of Contaminated land, thereafter the Contaminated Land provisions of the Waste Act will come into effect.
Improved forecasting and warnings
The meteorological work carried out by the South African Weather Services continues to play a critical role in issues of climate change adaptation and mitigation. This will also be of benefit to economic sectors such as maritime transport, aviation, agriculture to enable them to plan in advance.South Africa is a country that is prone to weather related disasters that are mostly related to thunderstorms and lightening mostly in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition to the existing metrological work we have started with education and awareness programme.
Oceans and coast
Oceans cover ¾ of the earth thus the importance to protect it.A year ago, the world experienced marine oil spill, example is the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill thus caused environmental degradation and marine ecosystems. As we understand the risks that are inherent, the department recently hosted its first National Coastal Storm Surge workshop that brought together all interested parties in order to share knowledge and best practice in coping with natural disasters linked to the marine environment and enhance preparedness.
We have launched the Buoy Oceans monitoring system that will provide us the state of the oceans. We are also reviewing the Recreational Water Quality Guidelines for Coastal Waters. I call on all stakeholders to intensify their awareness campaigns. The ultimate intention is to develop effective early warning systems to pre-empt catastrophic impacts of such possible hazards.
Giving access and sharing the benefits with our people
During COP 10 which was held in Nagoya last year we adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits.The department has progressed very well in ensuring community based natural resource management in order to achieve fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilisation of the indigenous biological resources. We awarded our first bio-prospecting permit to a pharmaceutical company in the Western Cape in collaboration with the San community in !Khwa Ttu. Collaborations of this nature between indigenous communities and commercial or private parties will focus on enterprise development and sharing with local communities the benefits from indigenous biological resources.
We will be exploring partnerships with other relevant institutions to work out a viable formula that allows us to process some of the species for medicinal purposes. Hence, we will develop a Plan that would regulate the degree of utilisation of species such as Pelargonium and Syringa. Pelargonium is used as a medication for treatment of chest infection and treatment of cough.
Game farming
Game farming or wildlife ranching, is an important provider of employment in the provinces of Limpopo, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga, and is a rapidly growing sector in the Eastern Cape. In this financial year 2011/12, we will develop regulations relating to the hunting industry to ensure a national system is implemented in terms of the regulation of the sector.
Expanding our protected areas
The conservation of biodiversity in our protected areas and national park system is one of the key focus areas of my department. Last year we successfully hosted the fourth People and Parks Conference was in KwaZulu-Natal. Amongst some of the deliverables of this conference was a national co-management framework that was launched to provide a harmonised uniform guideline for conservation authorities and successful restitution claimants.
Whilst in the past communities were excluded from playing a role in protecting the environment, today they are shareholders and play a critical role under co-management agreements in support of rural development objectives of government. Protected areas are already providing vital climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits.
We work closely with land owners to ensure their participation in our Stewardship Programme that allows land owners to use their land for biodiversity and conservation purposes. This is aimed at expanding our Conservation Estate.
In discharging our responsibility in the management of marine biodiversity, we are also actively and consistently engaging with our regional and international stakeholders with whom marine ecosystems and species are shared to promote and protect biodiversity.
The use of Marine Protected Areas is working well in the department through collaboration with provincial conservation agencies and local authorities. We will replicate the same model when we declare another Marine Protected Areas in the East London area in this financial year.
Clean air for a healthy South Africa
We aim to ensure that the air our people breathe is clean enough and at an acceptable level that does not pose any danger to the health and well-being of our people.We have been monitoring the ambient air in the Vaal Triangle Priority Area for a while and need to conduct the mid-term review to check if we are achieving our goals.
In an effort to expand the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network and also to support air quality monitoring activities within areas declared as Air Quality Priority Areas, the department is in the process of installing and managing three additional air quality monitoring stations in the soon to be declared Waterberg Priority Area.
Empowerment of women, youth and marginalised groups
The department will be proactive in developing and implementing programmes to empower women, young people and people with disabilities.
In tandem with our commitment last year in our Budget Vote Speech, the department hosted the 2010
Women and Environment conference under the theme “Towards a green growth path: Women at the forefront of poverty eradication.”
The conference was also used to focus on enhancing the role of South African women in leveraging economic opportunities from ecosystems services. A national women and environment forum which is composed of representatives from nine provincial forums was inaugurated at the conference. A plan of action was developed and adopted as a roadmap towards the implementation of the projects in the different provinces.
Public awareness and education
The department in collaboration with Indalo Yethu will intensify the public awareness and education programme to include climate change in order to ensure that our people understand this phenomenon of climate change and in turn solicit their views and inform them of the opportunities generated by the emerging green economy. It will also include messages about conservation of our oceans and coast, proper waste management practices and conservation of our biodiversity.
This programme will target communities, religious groups employing relevant methods of engaging these communities. It will also be extended to schools. We will ensure that all the parts of South Africa are reached by our message for unless we work together with our different communities our efforts as government may not make significant impact.We want our communities and youth to participate actively on environmental management and be environment ambassadors.
Honorable members, Allow me to introduce our young ambassadors, Hulisani and Mukovhe from Tshiluvhi Primary School in Thulamela Municipality which is one of the pilot municipalities for Buyisela project. These ambassadors are implementing waste management project in their school they have reused plastics from the waste stream and created the most beautiful art and garments from plastic. They are wearing those garments as we speak.
In conclusion, I wish to thank the Premiers, MEC’s, Mayors and all sector stakeholders for supporting the department in ensuring that we build a society that lives in harmony with its environment.
I particularly want to thank the Minister for providing leadership and the departmental management and staff and for working the sterling work and co-operation towards fulfilling our Constitutional mandate. Let’s continue with the team spirit. Working together we will deliver on our mandate!
I want to thank the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Advocate Johnny de Lange and members of the Committee for their outstanding work.
Thank you
Enquiries:
Albi Modise
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