Programme Director
Honourable MEC Candith Mashego
Councillors,
Officials from various departments present today
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
I am honoured here today to join you in celebrating the gift of life that our natural environment bestows on us. We are gathered here today to celebrate the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB).
22 May was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as IDB. This was the date that the Agreed Text for the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted in Nairobi in 1992. Since then, this date has been earmarked to celebrate the biodiversity that we are dependent on for our livelihoods.
We live in a country that is rich in biodiversity - ranked third after Brazil and Indonesia. South Africa is home to about 24 000 plants species and contains an entire floral kingdom within our borders.
This year the theme is “Forest Biodiversity, with the slogan Earth’s Living Treasure”. 2011 is moreover designated as the International Year of Forests. Forests are critical to human survival on this planet. It is not only home to about 80% of our biodiversity, but also captures carbon and provides us with fresh air, clean water running through it, and creates shelter for many of earth’s creatures. The forest patches in the water catchment areas are critical to the functioning of the grassland biome.
Land is a concept with many meanings. To some it is just a piece of ground on which to build a house, to others a patch of land to grow vegetables, or let cattle graze.But land gives us many more services, if we look after it. We have water catchment areas – areas that ‘catch’ the rainwater in summer, and store it to slowly fill rivers in winter.
If we overgraze these sensitive areas, or if certain alien invasive plants, such as black wattle grow here, it diminishes this service that the environment provides for us. Land, and the biodiversity on it, provides us with water, clean air to breathe, pollinators that will pollinate plants so that we have seeds and fruit, material to build houses, grass to feed our cattle, medicines to cure our diseases, predators to control the pests that eat our food, fertile soil, and many more services.
Ecosystem services are a vital part of poverty alleviation, as this provides communities with the basic resources needed for sustainable livelihoods. These services include the storage of water for dry seasons in mountain catchment areas, the purification of water through wetlands, the mitigation of weather extremes like floods and droughts through both catchments and wetlands, pollination of food crops and natural vegetation used for grazing, nutrient cycling and the improvement of soil fertility, prevention of erosion, climate stability and maintenance of biodiversity.
All of these services, or the lack thereof, have a direct impact on the poverty levels of especially rural people. The biosphere, in maintaining these services, and building the capacity of communities to manage the ecosystems on which these services are dependent, will enable communities to take charge of their own development process.
Ladies and gentlemen, biodiversity is not only essential to food security, but also for the maintenance of ecosystem services such as potable (drinkable) water and fertile soil. When the biodiversity of an ecosystem is threatened, these services to the poor are threatened. Climate change is projected to directly reduce poor people’s livelihood assets, such as access to water, food, medicines, and infrastructure such as homes, and will increase the vulnerability of the poor to droughts, floods and diseases.
We have always received services such as water and pollination ‘for free’, and we only realise the true cost and value when we loose it. As biodiversity is critical in providing ecosystem services, so these services are critical in sustaining livelihoods. In order to provide us with services, land needs to be cared for, and we need to actively manage our natural resources sustainably.
If we do this right, we can add value to the process by utilising the resources economically. South Africa, as one of the Megadiverse countries, has a particular responsibility for our unique biodiversity, and we have responded by developing unique programmes and tools to address the issues we face.
Any threat to biodiversity will eventually in the long term threaten the livelihoods of communities. The five key threats that are threatening South Africa’s biodiversity, are climate change, alien invasive species, loss and degradation of natural habitat, over-abstraction of freshwater, and over-harvesting of marine species.
Of these, the uncontrolled spreading of alien invasive is not only one of the biggest, but it is also the threat that exacerbates the others. Although the right trees in the right place are very important to our survival, the wrong trees in the wrong place can make us poorer. The work that Working for Water is therefore doing is critical to our survival.
Alien Invasive Species:
Alien Invasive Species are species that have been transplanted from one habitat to another where it did not historically occur. These species have no natural enemies to control their growth, and therefore compete much better against indigenous species for resources needed for survival.
Alien invasive species pose a huge risk for biodiversity, and this is expected to increase with climate change. While a number of invasive plants have been imported for commercial or agricultural use, a significant number were brought in as garden plants, among them the Jacaranda tree and the Queen of the Night.
Invasive alien plants impact negatively in terms of biological diversity, water loss, water quality, erosion, siltation, intensity of wild fires, loss of productive land, food security, disease and more. It is important to address the risk as quickly and effectively as possible, and the department is committed to combat alien invasives as effectively as possible.
South Africa is already one of the leaders in the field of alien invasive plant control, with the sterling work that Working for Water is doing in controlling invasive alien plants, while capacitating communities and creating jobs.
Working for Water is funded by the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), and employs a significant number of people, while giving them the skills needed to enter the economic sector. They place a specific focus on employing marginalised groups such as women, youth, the disabled, and those living with HIV and AIDS.
Other programmes that function in the sector, although with a slight difference in focus, are the Working for Wetlands, Working on Fire, and Landcare programmes. The Working for Water programme alone has contributed some 1,87 million person days of employment and training (around 8,150 full-time equivalents) for the 2008/09 financial year, and assisted in ensuring that the sector and the EPWP as a whole has exceeded the employment targets of the current cycle.
Since it started, the Working for Water programme has ensured that over R1 billion has reached the pockets of poorest of the poor in terms of direct salaries.The Working for Water programme also adds value to the removal of alien invasives, by creating programmes that utilise the wood to create marketable products.
The Oshoek Wattle Clearing Project is one of the Working for Water clearing projects that provides multiple benefits for the community. The project has 5 contractors with 60 beneficiaries recruited from surrounding rural communities, and is clearing an estimated 200ha of wattle within the communal land. This area will now be used for community subsistence crop farming supported by the provincial Department of Agriculture, and in this way will contribute to food security in this area.
Although it is every person’s responsibility to ensure that aliens do not inadvertently become invasive through thoughtless actions, government needs to lead the way, and set policies that will lay the foundation of conservation for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, We know that poverty alleviation cannot be successful without looking after our natural resources. The challenge for us will be to link these priority actions directly to poverty alleviation, in order to ensure that the communities that guard and utilise the resources, also get the direct benefit of conserving them.
2010 was the International Year of Biodiversity, and 2011 is the International Year of Forests. There is a growing recognition that we cannot develop, alleviate poverty, or even just survive without looking after our natural resources.
The United Nations has therefore decided to harness this momentum with the call to celebrate the next decade as the International Decade for Biodiversity, which was launched internationally just yesterday in Tokyo, Japan.
We are launching it today in South Africa. Every level of government will have to take responsibility to implement the targets we have to reach in this decade. It is the responsibility of National Government to strengthen national programmes that will reach these targets, such as the Working for Water Programme.
The responsibility of local communities lies in recognising and communicating the unique contribution that you play in managing our natural resources, and to help integrate the work you do on a regional level.
In conclusion, South Africa, as one of the leaders among the megabiodiverse countries, is very serious about conserving our biodiversity. This is reflected in the targets of the Outcome 10 agreements that our Minister and MEC’s have signed.
These targets are feasible and attainable if we, as the leaders of our communities, do our jobs well. This project of Working for Water that we have visited today is evidence of what can be achieved.
It is therefore with confidence that we launch the International Decade for Biodiversity here in South Africa, knowing that we can achieve the goals set by the international community, if we reach the goals that we set for ourselves.
I thank you.
For media queries contact:
Lucky Sindane
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Source: Department of Environmental Affairs
Speech delivered by the Honourable Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs, Ms Rejoice Mabudafhasi at the celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity at the Mayflower community hall, Mpumalanga
